My sister was an incredible reader and had a fourth grade teacher who did this. My mom pestered him asking if her reading level could be tested so that she could check out books that were more challenging. He finally agreed and she tested at 12th grade level.

His argument then became, "Just because she can understand the text, doesn't mean she can understand the theme. So, she needs to stick to the fourth grade reading level."

No compromise. No flexibility. No interest.

You can guess how many books she borrowed from the library that year.

Rarely. If I don't like them it will taint my enjoyment of their work.

I read primarily on a kindle and it's awesome! You can borrow from your library system and get a Kindle Unlimited subscription which works as a $10/month library. There are tons of free book promotions. Or you can buy ebooks if you really enjoy them.

It saves me a lot of money, especially because I live too far from my local library to utilize it properly (24 miles away is not convenient or a reasonable use of gasoline and time).

I agree. I haven't read the book, but the "cool girl" monologue in the movie that everyone raved about being so deep and relatable was totally cringe and unrelateable to me. I'm a woman too and I've never had those thoughts, felt that pressure, or put on that performance.

Media promoters and reviewers really have to stop painting with such broad brush strokes and insisting certain portrayals are "the female perspective". I think that's the source of a lot of this annoyance.

What type of genres are you reading? Are you reading male and female authors with male and female main characters in the same genre? It's not fair to say Clive Cussler's books are filled with confident & adventurous characters, but Edith Wharton only wrote only miserable, whiny, rich women, therefore men write fun characters I can relate with while women write about a bunch of boring drips. Make sure you're giving fair play to the writers and characters.

Also, I'd recommend staying away from "female empowerment" books if you're feeling this way because they will only solidify your bias. Those are the one genre, I, as a woman can not relate to at all. The broad generalizations, sweeping judgements, and useless affirmations do nothing for me because women are INDIVIDUALS with different life experiences, struggles, triumphs, personalities, etc. We can't just be put into one box, told what our problems are, and then given non-specific platitudes to solve them.