Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Things That Will Make Me Instantly Want to Read a Book

Top Ten Things That Will Make Me Instantly Want to Read a Book

Admittedly I pick out most of my books on a whim but even I have to say that there’s tropes or concepts or even settings that I’m a total sucker. Course those preferences do tend to bite me in the butt on occasion but for some reason, I just keep coming back to them. As a side note I will try to link the Goodreads description of whatever book I ramble about for you to judge at your leisure. 

Magical Dystopians

This is a very small percentage of Dystopians so I’m not going to bother putting it that high. But they do exist! I promise I’m not making them up. I suppose Brandon Sanderson’s Steelheart can count though that’s really more like superpowered dystopian, But Tomorrow’s Magic by Pamela F. Service was what really sold me on the idea. It’s about King Arthur returning from Avalon after nuclear devastation. Merlin’s there too and he’s a gangly teenager who can’t grow a beard for the life of him. Doesn’t sound familiar at all.

Certain authors

Brandon Sanderson, Patricia C. Wrede Heck! Even Rick Riordan even though he’s gone a bit wobbly lately with all the repeats. Some authors could probably write a children’s picture book and I’d still give it a shot. Hey, if Sanderson can convince me to move up to the adult fiction with books thicker than I am there’s no telling what they can do.

Writer protagonist

I got myself in a bit of trouble with this one when I read Dial Em for Murder by Marni Bates, it’s not up yet just in case Y’all try to look for it. The protagonist Em was a writer so I snatched it up without a second thought. Writer protagonist are seriously underused and I’m a little shocked that they aren’t implemented more often. It makes for some awesome relatability and a good bit of self-deprecating humor aimed at other writers.

Victorian things

I don’t even know why this is a thing because most books set in this time period seem to be romances which we all know I dislike. But what are you going to do? I like the ‘technology’, the cities, the language and sometimes I even like the fashion. What? Not everything has to be trousers and combat boots. I do have to admit that I prefer this time period paired with something else like steampunk or The Alloy of Law's weird magical-Victorian-wild-west thing. Seriously what do you even call that combination?  

Super powers

Real comic books are ridiculously hard to find okay. At least they are where I live but whatever. Superpowers aren’t all that common in books so I’m always ridiculously excited when I find them, and they actually turn out to be good but that’s a different complaint.  

Interesting magic systems

Sometimes the magic just doesn’t make sense (I’m looking at you College of Magic). But interesting or unique ways of conjuring a gigantic hurricane to smite your enemies is always welcome. Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of books who advertise their rune drawing or element bending so it’s kind of hard to track down any book with something more than ‘arbitrarily wave your arms around’.

Pretty covers

 PSA to whoever the heck picks cover for books. Seven times out of ten I’ll snag a book off the shelf because the cover caught my eye. Which is why I think ugly covers should be banned. Specifically the ones with photo realistic people with their uncomfortably blankly starring faces. Basically stop this.

Modern day magic

Another seriously underused idea! Though it is growing in popularity which is awesome! Because in the beginning Holly Black was kind of the only person who was doing modern day magic with any sort of skill, at least when it came to the setting. The characters, not so much. Okay back to the topic at hand. Elves and witches and Familiars with laptops and coffee shops! How can that not spark your attention! 

Dragons

Dragons guys! Dragons. I’m game to try anything with dragons in it. I mean how do you get gigantic scaly fire breathing beasts wrong. *cough* The Sun Dragon *cough*. Okay so there’s a few duds. In fact, probably more than I’m willing to admit. But that doesn’t diminish my love for over grown lizards of destruction.

Fairytales

Doesn’t matter if it’s a retelling, reimagining or a completely original tale of knights and princess’s and witches I’ll probably love it. There’s no particular reason why, in fact I didn’t realize until recently how much I truly loved these kinds of books. I think it was the repeated five-star rating on goodreads that brought my attention to my bias. But it doesn’t matter because they’re amazing. 

Thanks for putting up with my confused ramblings. And thanks again to the ladies at the Broke and the Bookish for starting Top Ten Tuesdays you can check them out here if you're interested.