(Of course this is not about needless hating, rude posts, racism, any kind of bigotry.)

But especially in forums of nonfiction books I have often seen that some people‘s thoughts get downvoted into the negative space because they disagree with the author or question them, or maybe just need some clarification.

I feel like this leads to an echochamber-like space. Art is supposed to be discussed, not blindly praised. Art is rarely born from pure positivity, it is often motivated by pain or anger, and I don‘t think expecting every person to agree with every viewpoint is a productive frame for discussing books.

The example which prompted this post was the forum of a nonfiction book, where a disabled reader gave some insight into how their perspective as a disabled person differs from that of the able-bodied author and why. The post was not written accusatorily or angrily, and still the reader‘s comments were downvoted. Something about that doesn‘t feel right to me.

I feel like in a space in which we discuss books, we should engage in discourse and of course disagree at times, but do so without disregarding valid opinions that may just not align with what the majority thinks.

At the same time, I guess downvoting mainly shows disagreement, it‘s not like being downvoted means a post is deleted eventually, which would be an entirely different thing. I just considered downvoting to be something you do when someone posts “irrelevant“ (like just geeking out or little personal notes that don’t contribute anything for others) or hateful posts, but maybe I‘m in the minority there.

I don‘t know, I haven‘t thought about this too much in detail yet and was interested in what some other people think!

The thoughts and ideas on this book is beautiful. But I feel dumb reading it most of the time with all the theories and words that goes over my head and it makes me space out.

Does anybody have any good recommendations for trigger warning databases for books?

I’ve tried book trigger warnings and Does the Dog Die but a lot of books are missing from both 😕

I love horror but I hate reading about bugs 😖 so I like to know a head of time if there’s any graphic descriptions

It doesnt even have to be your favorite character, just one you find their names cool and unique. Mine might be Finnick Odair?

For me, character development plays a big role in the story's progress, always. I’ll follow emotionally complex characters even through a slower plot. But having a bit of both is so important overall for the book, otherwise the whole book will be so plain and bland. SO I GUESS BIT OF BOTH