It’s Okay If You Don’t Read My Book

No. Really. It is.

I hereby give you – yes you, whether you’re friend, family, acquaintance, long-lost relative, stalker, enemy, punching partner, writing buddy, cashier at Publix – permission not to read my book.

Really. Truly. It’s okay. I’ll still love you.

Books are strange, wholly subjective and personal experiences. I don’t have a single friend who 100% loves every book that I do, or 100% hates every book that I loathe. In fact, it’s a good reading buddy whose tastes match up even 50% of the time. I loved Perdido Street Station and was bored to tears by Jane Austen, and yet I could name more than a dozen people who would legit fight me on both counts.

I’d win, of course. But. Well. That’s not the point.

The point is this: you don’t have to read my books. If you do read them, you are in no way obligated to pretend you liked them. If you do like them, you don’t have to feel obligated to read or like subsequent books I write. It’s okay. Really!

And it’s also absolutely okay if you do like them. But it is definitely Not Necessary.

But Kai, Figurative You says – let’s be optimistic for a second. Maybe I’ll like them! How do I know if these books are for me??

That’s a good question, Figurative Person! Maybe you will. In fact, you might enjoy the Chronicles of Ghadid trilogy if you:

– Like fun, fast fantasy
– Are bored with medievalesque settings
– Are looking for/not repulsed by non-hetero romance
– Don’t mind a bit of magic
– Accept that sand will, in fact, get everywhere
– Find pleasure in awkward flirting scenes
– Enjoy having your heart ripped from your chest
– Eschew cliffhangers
– Really want a cup of tea right now
– Love reading about characters making Terrible Decisions
– Are a history dork
– Really like assassins and necromancy and undead camels
– Want to write coffeeshop AU fanfic for a story where the characters never get a break
– Have a pulse
– Don’t have a pulse (we don’t discriminate here)
– Any combination of the above
– None of the above

But really, it’s hard to know without reading it, right? So here’s me hoping you’ll choose to read it and end up loving it, but here’s your Get Out of Reading Your Friend/Family Member/Random Acquaintance’s Book card, no questions asked.