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December 13, 2022

Book Wish List

top ten tuesday

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is Books on my winter to-read list but I won't be doing that since I don't make to-read lists. Instead, here's a list of things I would like for books, a book wish list in a way. Everything I listed here is a preference because reading is a preference but I may change my mind on some of these. For more Top Ten Tuesday, visit That Artsy Reader Girl here.

01 - More friendship, less romance
— I like to know why romance is necessary because I haven't read a single book without romance in it unless it's a middle grade book and even then, there seems to be hints of it. I prefer a friendship story over a romance story any day but that isn't due to me hating romance or anything, I just prefer friends fighting over who gets the last pie over men/women fighting over each other.

02 - Less opened-ended endings  — Most books now seems to have more open-ended endings as if they are being prepared for a sequel which irks me. Even in a series, there should be closure. I think what annoys me more is when they introduce a new problem to interrupt the ending when it's clear it should have ended.

03 - Less vampires (and zombies) —  This is more of a personal preference but darn it, vampires annoy me. I find every paranormal or fantasy book are full of them, like authors must have vampires in their books or they can't call their book a fantasy. Considering there are books specifically about vampires, why they need to add this creature to books that really don't need them, I don't know.
    And zombies — seriously, I don't like to read them at all. But what I hate is when an author uses it to compare things. For example, "She longed for a donut like a zombie long for youknowhat" - do I need such an image especially since it's not even a horror book?

04 - Less pop culture references —  I'm not much into knowing all the trends and happenings and who's famous and all that so whenever there is a pop culture reference, most of the time, I don't know who or what they are referring. Maybe if a book takes place in a very specific time period I can understand the need to mention pop culture references, otherwise I see no reason to use them.

05 - Less future scenes to start a book — This is like flipping to the back of the book, read a bit, go back to the front of the book and then start reading. So I only read a few books with this kind of beginning but I really just don't like them. The future scene lures me to read the book because that's what I read when reading a sample of the book but it's such a letdown to find out I have to read 300 or more pages to get back to that scene and usually, I get never there because I lose interest and mostly because it seems like it's a whole different book.

06 - More back covers for ebooks — With an ebook, there is usually no back cover. When you've reached the very last page, a page pops up and asks you to rate the book but once in a while, it also asks you to rate a book even if it's not the last page of the book. If you use the content list and go to the chapter marked 'End', it will go to the end of the story, not the last page of the book.
    Maybe you can ignore the last few pages of a book because it's usually just the author's bio (which I actually like to read), a list of books the author has written, publisher's info/credits, advertisements or a list of content (this is rather strange but some ebooks have their content list at the end of the book). To me, a book does not end until I see the back cover. (I assume all ebooks of the same book would have the same amount of pages and the same no back covers but if I'm wrong, let me know). (Note: I read ebooks on a kindle. And I had only came across two or maybe three books with back covers and that's a couple of years of reading ebooks.)

07 - More books with good guys who are generally nice  — Good guys who are generally nice is probably boring to people and it might be a bit old fashioned as well but I like them. I don't think you have to be an asshole to be a badass and this goes for males and females. I prefer good guys who are actually good, not good guys who are considered good just because he/she does the right moral thing but still teeters on the edge of darkness. I call them assholes because most of the time, they behave like one. There seems to be a lot of series where the main lead is a general asshole but people still like those books and I don't understand it but then again, people also like serial killers as main characters so what do I know?

08 - Make book series shorter — Perhaps book series should be shorter as they seem to be getting way too long. I think a series should be three books or less with some exceptions. I see series that are 40 books long and I'm not going to read 40 books, I don't care how short they are. And the longer a series is, the more the reader have to spend but it's not the money, it's more like, who has time to read a long series? Or why do we need more than three books to tell a complete story?

09 - Make the first book in a series free  — Since most books are series, it makes sense to allow the reader to get the first book free. I always know if I want to read a series by reading the first book. Frankly, I don't go by the 'it gets better in book two' reading method because if I didn't care one bits about the first book, why would I read the second one?

10 - More standalones — Unless I count reading the first book in a series and quitting, I pretty much haven't read that many genuine standalones. I'm not saying there aren't a lot of standalones but in the types of books I read, there just aren't that many. Or maybe I just haven't found them? (I read a lot of fantasy, paranormal murder mysteries, regular murder mysteries, adventures, middle grade and once in a moon blue science fiction books.)

What bookish things do you wish for?

24 comments:

  1. I agree with all of your points, especially with the wish for less romance. It’s added into far too many stories these days.

    My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-books-on-my-winter-2022-2023-to-read-list/

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    Replies
    1. Lydia: I suppose romance is part of life but I think it's too much in books.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  2. I wish for more time. There are sooooo many books here waiting for me to read them. Books from almost every genre. Fiction. Non-fiction...
    And I hate, loathe and despise cliff hangers. I thoroughly enjoyed Terry Pratchett's very long series - but each book is complete in itself. And you don't need to read them in order...

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    1. Elephant's Child: More time, sure. There are a lot of books to read and lots of things to do as well.

      I did read some of Pratchett's books but I have yet to read all the books in that series. I like they are sort of sectioned into mini series so you don't have to read them all.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  3. I'm trying to remember a book I read recently that had NO romance in it, and it was kind of nice. I agree w/ you. And yes there are SO many open ended endings now, it's getting a little much.

    Not a huge fan of zombies. I mean, creepy dead things shambling around? Thanks but no thanks.

    I like people who are just... good people too. I guess I'm over the whole tortured soul or person who's good down deep but acts like an asshole, so yeah ahree there.

    I do like thrillers sometimes because they're often one shots.

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    Replies
    1. Greg: The books I read without romance are murders but then again, they still have romance there.

      Not a fan of zombies either. Frankly, I don't see why people like them.

      Too many main characters with tragic pasts, too many tortured souls, and they use those reasons to be assholes, so yeah, we need less of those.

      I haven't read a thriller but murder mysteries are like thrillers although I can't really be certain if that's true. It's hard to categorize books these days.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely da

      Delete
    2. It is hard to categorize books these days. YA, New adult, thriller vs psychological thriller vs mystery... *throws up hands* lol

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  4. #7 for sure! I love male characters who are just kind, good-hearted, honest, moral people. They still need to have flaws, but I like them to be good overall.

    Happy TTT!

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    Replies
    1. Susan: #7 - Everyone has flaws but it's nice to know there are good people even in books.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  5. I love your take on the theme this week. I agree with all of them and yes, shorter series for sure.

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    1. Deanne Patterson: Shorter series would be easier to digest so I'm all for it.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  6. Replies
    1. Christine: I think so too.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  7. Good list, and I agree with almost all your points.
    - Kindle books, the few I've seen (Granddad's when helping him, I only read paper books myself) had had no back cover either to my wonderment.
    - And series can very well be longer than 3 books (think of Little House books and Anne of Green Gables, and a lot of children's books), but too long, and the books are too many words for too little content.
    - I suspect much of the romance / complicated guy come as spill over from Manga and Anime where the hero almost consistently is wrestling his darker sides, or having complicated love affairs, or trying to tame his super(evil)powers, or all three at once.
    - The vampire / zombie wave is ... well ... I could do without as well (no such creatures in my Susan stories) but heck, they are modern, and people tend to think that it's not a fantasy without at least one of those.

    I'd like to add that I would like endings that fit the rest of the story, no sudden discoveries of space-ships, bigger civilisations and such to save our protagonist.
    And also less super-powers, Chi, elemental energies and such.
    And more time, not mine, but the author's, proof-reader's, editor's and so on, spent reading the book one more time before hitting Publish. Modern books are marred by inconsistencies, typos, errors and so on a far larger scale than is necessary. Partly I blame computers. The text looks so fininshed, done, ready for publishing on the screen or when you print it. Not like the machine written (or hand written) manuscripts of yore.
    Sorry for a long and meandering comment. I love books!

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    1. Charlotte: With kindle books, I guess readers don't mind not having back covers.

      Some long series like Anne of Green Gables I do like but there are many that I think don't need to be long. Sometimes there are filler books, 'too many words for too little content' as you said.

      Heroes and their darker side from manga and anime? I don't know. Maybe.

      I don't find vampires/zombies as modern but maybe they are, I certainly don't think they are.

      Endings should fit the story but we don't always get that.

      I haven't read books with superpowers lately but they do sort of give characters too many or too much powers sometimes.

      With the ebooks I'm reading, I do see errors more often now. I think some publishers or authors are too fast in hitting the publish button. Perhaps they are on some schedule so when people have to rush, they make more mistakes. Who knows why books have more errors now.

      No need to apologize for long and meandering comments. I write those too. I love books too!

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  8. I totally agree with most of your wishes but I don't come across zombies much because I don't read those kind of books. LOL
    And I don't read ebooks, so I wouldn't know or care about them having covers or not.

    In any case, let's hope all your wishes will come true.

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    1. Marianne: You're lucky. I don't actually come across zombies much either though I do try to avoid them so maybe that worked.

      You don't read ebooks so no need to worry about back covers. Although I now see paper books with the back cover that are full of reviews instead of a blurb which I thought defeats having a back cover.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
    2. Oh, that is one of my pet peeves. Book covers with just the reviews from newspapers. If I don't know anything about a book and find one like that, I put it aside right away, there are so many great books around who won't hide what's in there.

      Thanks for your wishes. Have a lovely day, as well.

      Delete
  9. I agree with lots of these, especially N°1. I made it my life's mission as a reader to find books with no romance/minimal amount of it, and I have mostly succeeded, but it's hard. More friendships/siblings relationships, please.

    I have read the occasional vampire/zombie book, since I don't have a problem with horror, but I get what you're saying. Also, vampires have gotten boring...too many books with them around.

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    1. Roberta: I forgot about siblings, yes, more of that also. Although whenever I read middle grade books, there is always siblings so I don't think much about that.

      Vampires are boring, yes. I don't know. I never liked them.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  10. What a clever and fun post! I could do without vampires. And shorter series. And more friends in books, too. :D

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    1. Lark: I'm glad you agreed with me.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  11. I've noticed almost every movie has some element of romance in it, too. Why?

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    Replies
    1. Lectrice Vorace: Well, people love romances, I guess.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete

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