Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Bookish Confessions

Top Ten Bookish Confessions

              I liked the irony of this one because I have to confess that I completely disregarded the prompt for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday. I get that Mother’s Day is a big deal in the rest of the world, but my family (my mother included, for the record) have never really celebrated it. Plus, I read YA books. Everybody knows that, unless they're are evil, the parents are dead. So, I picked this ‘bookish confessions’ topic at random from the archive. So, we’re going with that.

Not From the Editor: To clarify, we celebrate mother's day everyday, because we love each other. We don't need Mother's Day, or Father's Day for that matter, to remind us to love each other.

Bought a book then discovered that it was in the adult section of the library

              How could I have known it was in the adult section? I mean there’s the computers, but those things take five minutes just to load the front page and I don’t have that kind of patience.

Note From the Editor: Also, they can be really sneaky about what should be in the adult section, or kids' books that should be in the teen section. Christian romance novels y'all, they toe the line as close as they can.

I have totally skimmed

              There are two types of skimming. First, there’s the ‘I have made a terrible mistake how many more pages do I have to suffer through,’ kind of skimming. Then there’s the ‘oh my gosh I thought this was a YA book What Is HAPPENING?!’ kind of skimming. I am not overly fond of either. The second one in particular is becoming much more popular, since sex in YA books is becoming a norm rather than a risqué minority. Then again, the first one is far more frustrating. I started this blog so that I’d actually finish books! I can’t justify putting the stupid thing down anymore.

I actually like the chosen one trope

              Maybe it’s the nostalgia talking but I don’t really mind it. And, I’m talking about the trope itself, not the lackluster characters that usually follow it. Because those can be truly awful. But I still think that the recent outcry against it is a bit unwarranted. Just because it’s overdone doesn’t mean it can’t be spun into something unique and interesting.

Note from the Editor: I stand beside my most intelligent sister. The Chosen One trope holds a place in my heart. Maybe someday I'll cause a revival to bring it back, who knows? Also, the word trope comes from the Greek word tropos, which I've told to translate as character.

Unreliable narrators are the bane of my existence

              I can kind of get why people like them, but I’ve never enjoyed them. In my mind when I can’t trust the narrator, the literal eyes that I’m supposed to be seeing through, everything just kind of falls to pieces. Because anything can happen. Anything. 

Book: And then, aliens show up!

Me: Okaaay, but why?

Book: IDK, *shrugs* It's an unreliable narrator.

Me: But, what about foreshadowing? Believability? My suspension of disbelief can only be pushed so far you know . . .

Book: What? I can’t hear you over my unreliable narrator.

Maybe I just haven’t read any well done unreliable narrator books but I’ve always found them to be a quick and dirty way to take a short cut around plausibility. 

Note From the Editor: Dude, I'm not even sure if I've read one. However, the authors of these books sound lazy.

I take cheap shots at books I don’t like because I’m salty

              There are several reasons for this. The first is that I’m a terrible person with no compassion for the author’s feelings. The second is that sometimes I’m genuinely insulted by something here or there in the book. Sometimes it’s some sort of message they gave or a character trait they glorified, sometimes I’m straight up insulted that something so childish or foolish was marketed to young adults. Like I said, it varies.

Sometimes I don’t write reviews until days after I’ve read the book

              Actually, that happens far too often. I began writing reviews immediately after I finished the books, but sometimes life gets in the way and I’ve forgotten what the character’s names are and then I'm left asking "What the heck even happened?!" Who knows? Not me.

Which means that my poor editor (hello sis) is forced to work on an evil deadline

              Like now. 

Note From the Editor: Save me... I'm up past my bedtime fixing commas and making sentences make sense. I'm kidding, apology accepted. Just remember that I love you, and I am totally okay with you loading the dishwasher.

I hate Cassandra Clare’s books with a passion

              I really, really don’t like Cassandra Clare. Sure there are books that I think are worse than Clare’s, but very few of those are read to the extent that hers are. Much like Holly Black, though she is slightly redeemed by her worlds, Clare’s characters are simply terrible people. They’re mean to everyone while at the same time bemoaning how alone and abused they are. Their friends are ten times cooler than them, yet the terrible protagonist is the important one; and they complain about that too. And don’t even get me started on the love interests, I've more than enough to complain about with the protagonists. I put up with Clary for the first book in the Mortal Instruments but when the second book rolled around and she was basically pouting because she couldn’t have sex with her own brother I couldn’t take it anymore. I really can’t figure out how these books are so popular.

Note From the Editor: Eww, brothers are gross. Well, I don't have a brother, but I can use my imagination. Right?

My bookshelves aren’t organized at all

              I have some tiny bookshelf envy. Pinterest doesn’t help that envy. Some days I get the urge to go and organize my bookshelves by author, or color, or whatever aesthetic pattern that pleases me. Then I get bored immediately after I enter the room or I get distracted by some buried novel that I forgot I owned. It never ends up going the way I planned.

I have recommended extremely inappropriate books to tiny innocent children

              So, for the record, I was far too young at the time to know what was actually going on. But when I was a kid, I got very bored of the kid’s section. They just weren’t big enough I suppose. So tiny Kat moved up to the teen section at far too young an age. There’s this great author, Tamora Peirce (also Kristen Cashore, but not quite to the same extent) who wrote these awesome books. But . . . not exactly child friendly. Not that I knew that of course. I devoured these books, even if I squinted at those strange sections where the characters began kissing each other. They usually lasted so long that I’d end up skimming through them. Naturally I recommended these books to every other kid who’d sit still enough to listen to me. And then I grew up and realized my great mistake. 

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.