Happy Friday! I hope you’ve all had a great week. I’ve been all over the place this week, a few trips, lots of house projects and planting stuff in the garden!

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly bookish discussion meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and Dini @DiniPandaReads. Each Friday, bloggers will write posts about a particular topic and share on their blog.

This week, we’re chatting ‘guilty pleasures’.

Do you agree with the term since it has a somewhat “negative” connotation?

I’ll be honest, ‘guilty pleasure’ isn’t a term I’ve ever used, purely because I’ve never been one to hide what I love. I also don’t actually see it used so much anymore, though I think that maybe it’s because I don’t tend to read the kinds of books people class as guilty pleasures. For what it’s worth though, I don’t think that people need to feel ashamed of what they are reading. Embrace it and enjoy it! Things are so much better when you just don’t care what others think. Easier said than done, I am aware, but trust me. Just read what you want – you don’t have to hide it!

Should you feel ashamed or “guilty” for enjoying a certain genre or non-traditional type of book (i.e. graphic novels, manga)?

Nobody should feel guilty for enjoying anything at all, books included. Personally, I think the people doing the shaming should be the ones feeling bad. Shaming people for reading and enjoying certain genres or book types is ludicrous to me. We should be celebrating people reading! In today’s climate, people just don’t read. Young children don’t get encouraged to pick up books anymore, adults feel they are too busy. There are so many barriers (self-made and not) to reading that anyone reading anything is a cause for joy. Who cares if it’s a smutty romance or a comic book?!

What books do you love or are on your TBR do you think would be considered “guilty pleasures” by others?

As I already said, I don’t tend to read books that I think people would classify as guilty pleasures. I’ve been branching out into romance books over the last year, and I know that people used to class romance (even the non-smutty kind!) as guilty pleasures but I think I have found a good bunch of folks online because everyone I talk to celebrates these kinds of books!

I also maybe struggle to answer this question as I have no shame in what I choose to read or do. I don’t care what others think of me, so I don’t hide my book choices. I am curious now – has anything I have shared been something you might class as a guilty pleasure read? Let me know!