Festivus 2020: For the Rest of Us

Shunning the commercialization of Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Santaween/Chrismukkah, we’re again celebrating Festivus (for the rest of us) here at The Irresponsible Reader.

Let’s begin our observance!

Here I am with my Festivus pole. My wife very kindly upgraded me to a full-size version this year. I really appreciate the very high strength to weight ratio, it’s a mighty fine pole.

Note the lack of distracting tinsel. It’s very important.

And now, let the Airing of Grievances begin.

Yes, some of these are only slightly revised from last year. Which is to be expected, it’s not like the entire universe fixed itself after I posted one lil’ post. It’s going to take at least three, right?
I have a grievance with the book publishing/selling/marketing industry. It’s 2020, why are we still placing stickers on books? If we have to do that, why hasn’t Science come up with a sticker that doesn’t leave a gummy residue behind? C’mon, Science, if you can’t give us a cure for cancer, a pill so people with Celiac disease can eat bread, or an Oreo that will help me lose weight—at least you can give us stickers that don’t leave gunk on our books! Especially, especially when it covers the ISBN number for those of us trying to scan them.

What’s worse than stickers are those things that look like stickers, but aren’t. Just stupid, garish circles that have been printed on the cover and really only serve to obscure the image.

I have a grievance with Movie/TV covers on books. C’mon people, this is stupid. Sure, it maybe helps sell more copies of the books—but has any book been improved by one of these covers? No! Knock it off! And especially, stop it with sticking pictures of actors on books in a series that haven’t been adapted, just because some have (yeah, I’m looking at you, Longmire).

It’s another year without the next installment from Rothfuss/Martin. No, my grievance isn’t with them, it’s with the entitled “fan” of the work, whinging at every conceivable moment about how long it’s taking them. Because there’s nothing else around to read? Let ’em get it right and use that energy to support someone whose books could use it.

(still—Martin, Rothfuss…c’mon…Butcher published two books this year. While I’m at it, Scott Lynch—The Gentlemen Bastards need to get back in action, too)

Whether it’s from a mainstream publisher, indie press, or a self-pubbed book, we have the technology and (theoretically??) the education so there’s no reason for there to be missing/extra punctuation or misspelled words in books.

Obviously, this doesn’t apply to book blog posts. No one paid for these.

I have a grievance with the Book Blogging Community. There are way too many good book bloggers out there to keep up with. Some of you need to write less often! Also, you make the rest of us look bad.

I’ve got a grievance with running out of places to put books and bookshelves that aren’t like a bag of holding or TARDIS and can’t take an increasing number of books. So…physics, I guess. Yeah, that’s right, Laws of the Physics, I’m calling you out. Get your act together!

I’ve got a grievance with how hard it can be to pick the next book to read despite having piles of books (see above grievance) waiting to be read/multiple files on an e-reader. I know it’s not just me who endures this, so there’s gotta be a conspiracy afoot here. At the same time…could publishing take a break for just two or three months? Hard to catch up on a TBR/backlist when you keep putting out new things that are tantalizing.

And what’s more…I lost my train of thought.


So last year, for my Feat of Strength, I held my TBR above my head, and thought about repeating that feat this year—as the list has grown, it would’ve been more impressive. But, I decided to go for something even harder:

Yes, that’s me signing out of Netgalley without requesting a single book. It can be done, despite what you might think (similar to walking out of Costco without spending over $100)—but it’s tough. If that’s not a Feat of Strength, I don’t know what is.

Let’s see how the rest of you do with your feats.