Graphic Novels - Hate Them Or Love Them

I have noticed a explosion of graphic novel readers lately on both Booktube, and Goodreads. People are reading them, and reading a lot of them. Sometimes reading nothing but graphic novels.

Do you read graphic novels, or have you ever read a graphic novel?

I can't claim to have done either. I have never read one ... and quite frankly I can't foresee myself ever reading one. They just don't appeal to me ... at all. I'm all for people reading any sort of material, as long as it gets people reading, but I also kind of feel like graphic novels have, in a sense, taken over the role of real books for a lot of younger kids and teenagers. Possibly stunting their reading, or eliminating the reading of real books altogether. Yes, real books. Nothing wrong with reading graphic novels but I do have that mindset of them not being real books. Maybe a little close-minded of me considering that I have never actually read one, but come on! Graphic novels are not real books. A horse with a cone taped to its head is not a real unicorn, it is a horse with a cone taped to its head. You can still love that horse with the cone taped to its head, but love it as a horse with a cone taped to its head rather then love it as the unicorn that it is not. Meaning, you can still read graphic novels but treat them as graphic novels and not as books. Never give up your unicorn for a horse with a cone taped to its head. Otherwise you will just have a horse with a cone taped to its head ... and I will have a unicorn.