The Whys of Books and Some Pictures.

   Good afternoon, my beautiful, wonderful men and women! 
   My topic of the day is... books! Shocking, right? All right, not so much, but there you have it.
   Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the main selling points on books these days is the shock factor as much as the storyline? If it's not controversial no one will buy it, because people aren't satisfied with reading books that have happily ever afters at the end. Or at least, if there's going to be one it has to be filled with pain and sacrifice and only after what seems like a lifetime of uncertainty and torture. Let's explore a few examples here, shall we? Books that have become astoundingly famous and sparked controversy while rising to heights basically unknown to book-kind. 
1.) The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
2.) The Golden Compass (though that was the movie more than the book.)
3.) The Game of Thrones series.
   All right, these are the main ones that I've been thinking about. Now, the big thing for all these is the shocking factor, the controversy. People read this because they want other to think that they're on the cutting edge. The shock factor is similar in two of these cases; The Girl, and The Game of Thrones. In The Game of Thrones there's a lot of killing. Like, this man is not afraid to take out his main characters. I am just starting into the second one and I'm pretty shocked, but the thing is, while it's in an unfamiliar fantasy world, he makes it all sound so believable. And how did he do that? By not being afraid to make bad things happen to good people, and describe it in full and sometimes horrible detail. 
   Same thing with the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The writer makes it sound like something that could have actually happened, here, that you would hear on the news. They do this by making their characters human, and by having bad things happen to them!
   The Golden Compass wasn't quite the same thing, though. It was controversial from a purely religious point of view. It was also not as famous as the other two.
   Of course other book have become famous in the last few years, but never, I think, to quite the extent. This is because people no longer want the happy endings, generic princes, and token dragons. They want what sounds like the brutal truth. Because it could be. Because the books are realistic.
   And there it is! That's my thought! Controversy is popular. I would be interested in hearing any feedback that you have for me, but meanwhile, that's pretty much all I have to say.
   By the way, today I have reached the 97th page view, and I hope to make it a hundred! So, thank you everyone for reading, and I love you very much! Stay safe, keep reading, and keep dreaming. But mostly reading. Also, because today was such a serious and possibly boring post, I'm going to add a little something for you below, in thanks for sticking with me. Love,
                                              -Eva Gould, Author