It's time for me to engage in one of my infrequent rants. And maybe it's not even really a rant so much as a disappointed reaction to something that I saw on YouTube. A vlogger that I occasionally watch did a video titled "You're reading the wrong books". This immediately got my hackles up (for reasons that I'll get to later), but I gave it a listen anyway. Upon tuning in, it seemed that the video was more about the fact that bookstores are currently pushing books that are more or less the same--in this case, according to the vlogger, romantasy novels and Korean cozy cat cafe novels. No argument from me on this, to a certain degree. But then she suddenly segues into talking not about bookstores' choices in promotion, but in readers' choices in reading. And she says the following sentence: "If you're someone who isn't pushing beyond the safe stuff, you're reading the wrong books."

No. Just... no. Hard no.

But let's start with a bit of context for the assertion that bookstores are featuring the same kinds of books over a more diverse selection.

To a degree, ...