the point of reading lists is fucking stupid when it's always just stuff your friends wrote ngl
That's a strange generalization you're making, anon: I have done this all of two months so this is hardly a matter of "always".
There is fanfiction in both month's lists from authors that I don't know or follow. I am not friends with everyone on my reading lists. Proving that would be a waste of my time so you'll simply have to take my word for it. Honestly, even if it WAS the work of the people I was friends with... So what, anon? Am I going to Tumblr Jail? The fanfiction stockades?
I'd hardly be the first or last person to be "guilty" of doing that.
And you can find "the point" of my reading lists stupid as much as you want. I can't make anyone understand the appeal of creating a bit of extra work for myself to track and organize things quite so extensively.
What I'm doing is for the writers of that fanfiction as much as it is for me.
With any hope, the fanfiction shared in this "monthly reading list" format will be spread to other people – which in turn keeps them in circulation just a little bit longer. And that is a very important thing.
More important than however long I spent in Canva making all the graphics. And certainly more important than inventing something to get upset over, too, anon.