5 New Bookish Words for the Age of Angst

Languages, as we all know, are constantly in flux, and English is no different. So with all of the recent articles and “think-pieces” and brou-ha-has on the bookternet, I realized that we needed to coin some new words to reflect this brave new angsty world of ours.

So listen up, OED, here are five new words comin’ atcha and no, no, no need to offer me a large sum of money or a boatload of books, I’m doing this because I care about language and I love words and I’m happy to share my lexicographical expertise (n.b. I have no lexicographical expertise).

Genreshaming: v. The act of ridiculing or shaming a reader because of his/her genre choices. Genreshaming is mostly done by people who have nothing better to do than belittle others and then take pride in it.

Novel-postmortemization: n. The practice of writing long, boring articles about how The Novel Is Dead and anyone who publishes one is courting ruin. So many articles engage in novel-postmortemization that they have become a genre unto themselves.

Ebookhatering: v. Haters gonna hate, as we all know, but e-book/e-reader haters are a special breed. Now, I happen to read mostly print books myself, but I’m not going to get on my soapbox and rue the day e-readers were created because I have better things to do thank you very much. And did I mention that there’s a facebook group/page dedicated solely to hating on e-books? It’s true. But then again, it’s facebook.

Deterioreviewitization: n. A thing that certain self-styled “Professional Book Reviewers” are wringing their hands over (see Peter Damien’s masterful post on this subject). How DARE anyone with a brain, a love of books, and access to the internet write and publish book reviews?!?! How DARE someone appoint themselves “Book Reviewer” and offer their opinions on the books that they enjoy reading?!?! How DARE they?

Author detwitterfication: n. Something that should be done to certain famous authors who shall remain nameless when they take to the twitters and say outrageously insulting or bizarre or downright stupid things that make people say whaaaaa? and feel bad about having liked that author’s books. Detwitterfication should be done gently by a friend or family member, someone who can tell the author to just step away from the twitter and stick to what they do well.

Because, sometimes….

Hit me up with more new words in the comments, y’all.

(first posted on Book Riot 6/18/14)