Back in 2020, anxiety hit hard and I stopped watching tv shows and started watching mostly YouTube. At that point, I went down a make-up rabbit hole and didn't come up for a few years, but since then I've ventured into other YouTube spaces, including video essays. I enjoy them because they are usually on a specific subject and are longer, like a tv episode. Since I enjoy these types of video essays, when I found the book "Freaks, Gleeks & Dawson's Creek" at a local bookstore that promised to be like those video essays, but centered on nostalgia, I figured it would be a hit.
It was not.
According to my reading app, Fable, I started the book on July 7, 2024. I finished it January 9, 2026. More like a year and a half, but still. For a person that can read romance books in a day, two if it's a long one, and hefty history books in a week or so, that is a ridiculous amount of time. I enjoyed the topic. I enjoyed the writing. So what the heck, Sarah?
Since finishing the book, I've considered why a) I never actually moved it into Did Not Finish (or DNF) status and b) why I finally deemed it was worth finishing a year and a half later.
My main issue is the way the book is set up. My one and only 2024 New Year's Resolution was to read one non-smutty romance book a month. Not even kidding. And I kept it! But in that, I was trying out a bunch of different genres, including non-fiction. I'd never really read non-fiction before. I am not a fan of self-help books. I'm inherently a story person, but I also like to jump around and read multiple books at once. I believe I'm what they call a "mood reader." This book is set up like 7 long essays instead of chapters. For me, that makes it hard to pick up and read when I'm in the mood and then set it back down. It doesn't feel like there's a good stopping point, so I have a hard time picking it up to start knowing that. I didn't move it into DNF status because when I did read the book, I enjoyed it. I learned a lot about television in that time and enjoyed the behind the scenes look at shows I grew up watching. I also loved piecing together information like the usual crew in Judd Apatow movies (Rogen, Segel, etc) were all originally from Freaks and Geeks. I wanted to finish the book. It was just hard to find a time. I finally finished it this year because I set a new challenge for 2026 of reading two non-fiction books a month and I already had a head start on this one. Easy peasy.
While I like video essays, it turns out, I don't really like books in essay form. I like chapters. I like clear and easy places to start and stop. I will always have at least two books going on at once and not being able to easily switch between them is a no-go for me.
I've learned a lot about my reading preferences in the past two years. I still really enjoy a quick, easy romance novel. I am not a huge fantasy fan. I love the Fourth Wing series and enjoyed A Court of Thorns and Roses, but I couldn't really ever get into the Throne of Glass Series. And the romantasy books I've really enjoyed are hated by most hard-core romantasy readers because they don't have the massive world building (which is why I like them). I love a good mystery or pyschological thriller. I love to listen to memoirs and biographies. I've also learned that I enjoy audiobooks, but only when driving. It's been fun to try new genres out, find new favorite authors and find out what I don't like.
One of the genres I've been into the past year or so on YouTube is conscious consumerism. It's mostly related to beauty and fashion, but now that reading has become cool again thanks to BookTok, it also applies to buying books. A big part of why I picked up "Freeks, Gleeks & Dawson's Creek" in the first place was cause the cover was darn cute and made all of my early 2000s coral and mint dreams come true. I was in a cute, local book store, it was a cute cover and bam, it came home with me. This happens in regular book stores too because now special editions and sprayed edges can be found anywhere. Books are so fun and pretty now and you want to buy them and display them. But, the truth is, most of my reading is on the Kindle or the Kindle app on my phone. I don't need to buy all these books because they are pretty. I don't prefer to read them in that form. However, I also still subscribe to The Bookish Box which sends me special edition books once a month. So while I've learned what I do and don't like and do and don't need, I'm also still getting pretty special editions sent to me. Balance!
I'm proud of myself for finishing this book. I'm also really excited to move it off my bookshelf because I know for a fact that I will never pick it up again. Memoirs, biographies and books about ships are my jam. Essays about tv shows, not so much.
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