Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: Would you stop reading a book if an element of the plot strongly clashed with your personal beliefs, or would you continue reading until you finished the book?

That’s a really intriguing question, and one I don’t think I can answer with a simple yes/no!  I think it depends on how an idea is being presented.  Most stories will feature some character doing something I find morally wrong, but that’s kind of the point of villains.  If the intended hero is doing something I disagree with, does the book portray it as good or bad?  I don’t expect heroes to be perfect either, and sometimes it’s important to explore good people doing bad things.  But what does the author’s intent seem to be?  And if they’re glorifying something I find morally repugnant, than I probably would stop reading.

Sometimes I quit books because of a kind of low-level discomfort with characters’ choices or attitudes.  Say the protagonist is obnoxious, or nasty to the people around them (Catcher in the Rye, a book I should have quit, comes to mind), or cheerfully engaging in extramarital affairs, or what have you, and the book portrays this as a good way to be.  I’d quit that book, but I think I probably would frame it as disliking the characters because I just find them unpleasant to spend time with, rather than precisely a moral issue.

I quit books with abusive relationships portrayed as romantic (yes, I’m still looking at you, Abandon trilogy!)  Emotional dysfunction or controlling issues will usually make me quit, but physical or sexual abuse would have me out of a book a lot faster.

I probably would have quit The Night Bookmobile, if the major issue had come sooner–the heroine commits suicide and that sort of works out for her…?  I think that points to one reason I get very upset by certain moral issues in books more than others.  If the level of violence is a little high (to a point), I don’t generally think readers are going to take that as a model.  But modeling abusive relationships as romantic or affirming suicide–that’s a message readers could internalize, and that could cause real harm to someone, especially in books for younger target audiences.

Maybe that gets to the crux of my moral issues with books.  If a book promotes something contrary to my personal beliefs, I might ride along, or quit just because I’m not enjoying it.  If a book breaks my moral code that stories should deliver healthy, positive messages (or at least, not actively harmful ones!) then I’ll be a lot more outraged.

How do your beliefs play into whether you quit a book or not?  Have you dropped some for these reasons?

Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: When you feature a book in your posts, do you include a book cover?

The short answer that readers of my blog already know is yes.  I think it’s pretty standard to include a cover with reviews, and I always do.  I usually find the cover image on LibraryThing, which is a great resource for that.  They usually feature multiple covers that a book has had, making it interesting to see the variation.  Most of the time I put up the same cover that was on the copy I read, but sometimes I choose another one that seems to capture or display the book better.

I do judge books by their covers, contrary to the old adage!  I don’t think you can often tell if a book is good or bad by the cover, but it can tell you something about the type of book it is (and whether it’s a type I’m interested in).  The first thing that catches me with a book is the title–if it intrigues me I’ll look at the cover, mostly for a sense of genre.  If there’s a dragon, or a kid with a dog, or angry-looking teenager in a leather jacket, that tells you something about what to expect.  (Although lately I’ve read some books with basically geometric covers like this one, which tells me nothing!)  After I look at the cover, I read the inside book jacket, or plot summary portion of the review–and usually not all of it.  Books generally have about two sentences of plot summation before I decide yea or nay.  So–title, cover, plot summary opening, and I’m in or not.  Mostly that works for me!

Of course, sometimes titles and covers do lead me astray.  There’s Dating Hamlet, with its silly title, comical cover, and serious, dramatic plotline.  And sometimes covers are a little too subtle.  The Girl From Everywhere‘s cover got much cooler once I actually noticed the girl’s eyes in the wave…and that took a strangely long time!

Other reviewers, do you include covers?  And for all readers, are covers important to you?

Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: If you could meet one author, dead or alive, who would it be?

I’ve written quite a bit on this subject already (about alive authors and dead ones) and I think all regular readers already know that if I could only meet ONE author, it would be L. M. Montgomery, in a heartbeat.

However–let’s assume I could meet others.  And that set me thinking about authors I haven’t already mentioned.  It occurred to me that I’ve said a lot of about fiction writers, but not so much nonfiction…and in recent years, I’ve been reading more nonfiction and finding a lot of wisdom in the process.  Which leads me to a group of authors I’d like to meet because I feel like they already live in my head, ready for words of advice when needed.

Brene Brown (Daring Greatly) reminds me to be brave and embrace vulnerability because it’s the seat of all relationships.  But also, Susan Cain (Introvert Power) gives me permission to embrace being an introvert and get in a different line at the grocery store to avoid awkward small talk with a casual acquaintance.  Gretchen Rubin (The Happiness Project) guides me through setting monthly goals, managing what I measure, and validating a neat house because outer order contributes to inner calm.  And when the outer order isn’t enough, Thich Nhat Hanh (Peace Is Every Step) reminds me to return to my breath.  And while the little monk provides perspective on an eternal level, Sheryl Sandberg (Lean In) still pushes me to be aggressive in my career goals, and when life leads me to big decisions, Dan Gilbert (Stumbling on Happiness) offers assurance that I’ll feel happier about whatever I choose once I commit.

I’d like to meet any of these authors so that I could tell them how helpful their writing has been to me–and while I think it would be a little creepy to tell them that their voice lives in my head, I would like to say that I quote them to myself often.  I actually did meet Gretchen Rubin at a book-signing–and I managed to have enough presence of mind in the moment to tell her exactly that!

Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: Do you read a lot of diverse or own voices books? Why or why not?

Ah, now there’s a good topic!  I’m on my second year of trying to read more diverse (meaning: non-Caucasian) protagonists.  That’s my stated broad goal, but I’ve also been trying to pick up more books of all varieties of diversity.  Books are a way to step into the shoes of another person and learn what their life is like–this is true in fiction in many ways even more so than nonfiction (though some non-fiction subjects obviously address this too).

Not to get too political, but it’s a scary world right now, and trying to understand the person with a life very different from my own seems ever more important if divides are ever going to be bridged.  That’s one aspect of trying to read diversity, to consciously learn about divisions and about other viewpoints.

Which brings me to the fact that, actually, a reasonable number of those diverse protagonists don’t even live in this world because, you know, I’m a sci fi/fantasy reader very often.  And that brings me to normalizing.  If we never see minority characters as heroes or romantic leads, its harder to see them that way in life, especially on a gut level.  We can know something intellectually, while feeling something different.  Reading books with diverse protagonists impacts on a more subconscious level–the same level where unconscious bias is living.

All of that brings me to what may be the fundamental point: that I really believe what we read (and view) has an impact on our lives and on the world.  If we can accept a character different from ourselves in fiction, it’s easier to accept someone who fits that description in life.  If society at large accepts something in fiction (through a major bestseller, a top-rated TV show, etc.), that moves us towards more acceptance in life.

Since I believe we should move towards a more accepting world, that means diverse books.  I don’t always succeed in reading as much diversity as I would like, and I own the fact that I need to put more effort at times into finding diverse books–but it’s definitely a goal I’m working on.