Okay this is so dumb but I'm constantly amazed by how many of my mutuals here get really excited by new quests and are motivated to read books they otherwise wouldn't probably look at primarily because Badge Shiny. Badge Shiny doesn't honestly hook me at all? And I get it's core to pagebound, and I'm not judging at all, it's fun to see everyone get excited even tho I find it baffling. I'm absolutely intrigued by the whole phenomenon. So I thought I'd make a post with a simple purpose.

Up-vote this post if you are motivated to read things you might not otherwise read because Badge Shiny. Down-vote this post if you are not motivated to read things you might not otherwise read because Badge Shiny (you may still read things you would have read anyway sooner because hey, you'll also get a badge, so why not, but acquiring the badge is not your main reason for doing the thing).

Explain or talk more about your views in the comments, should the spirit move you to do so.

I saw a woman on tiktok say that if Game of Thrones was written by a woman, people now would be pushing it as romantasy, and it really opened my eyes. Brandon Sanderson has admitted that he feels that if he was a woman his stuff would be marketed as romantasy as well. I had always found the term kind of iffy; don't most books contain a romance subplot? Especially fantasy ones. I admit that it's a whole different think to write a romance book with simply a fantasy world as your backdrop, but it often isn't the case, since I keep seeing books that would simply be defined as "fantasy" a couple of years ago keep being pushed into the "romantasy" subgenre and it puzzles me. I am sorry if I am reaching here, but it kind of reeks of "stuff for girls" behavior, kind of similar to the Grammy's pushing more and more divided subcategories every time a new artist (woman/poc/queer) wins in a mainstream category

When you’re reading a book and sobbing your eyes out, who do you cuddle with? Show us a picture!!

(Yes, this is absolutely 100% me shamelessly posting a thread to see everyone’s pets. And if you cuddle a plant or a stuffed animal, show us those too! I’m not sorry for this post.)