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The list prompt this week is:
Top Ten Things On My Reading Wishlist
1: Egyptian Fiction
I have a fascination with Egyptian culture and I would love if more authors would write fiction about Egypt, especially historical Egypt. I'd also love to find more speculative fiction based on Egyptian culture.
2: Time Travel Stories
But specifically time travel stories that take a group of people - that preferably don't get along - instead of just an individual character that time travels.
3: Less Ten, Fifteen an Twenty Book Sci-Fi Series
And more that are a trilogy or perhaps four books in the series. I love sci-fi, but I get so tired of looking at books, and finding out that this is already book seventeen in the series. I usually don't want to get involved in that long of a series.
4: More Gray Morality
Less Black-and-White. Less clear cut goodguys/badguys. More of a chance for the characters to switch sides and allegiances - but keeping the character in character so the readers still feel justified liking them.
5: Shorter Fantasy Novels
I love fantasy books, but have a hard time convincing myself to read six hundred page books - much less the absolute doorstops at a thousand plus pages. I'd like respectable four hundred pages books, especially if they're in a series.
6: Groups in YA
And less of the single main character having to carry the entire story. I'm not asking for loads and loads of semi-main characters. Six or so would satisfy me quite well.
7: Third Person POV In General
But especially in YA. Just don't like the format of first person and have passed on books I would have otherwise bought because of that. I've also went ahead and bought some of the books with first person POV and was almost universally disappointed.
8: More Urban Fantasy With Less Erotica
I like urban fantasy as a genre, but I don't read much of it because so many of the books are better described as romance or erotica with paranormal elements. I'd love to find some clean (perhaps even romance-less) urban fantasy.
9: Less Love Triangles In YA
This seems so prevalent in YA and I'd love it if there were less of it. I'd like to see a guy - handsome and all that - being completely uninterested in dating the main female but still wanting to be her friend. And the feeling is mutual! I'd also love it if the guy the girl winds up with isn't always (okay, okay,) most of the time, a complete jerk.
10: More Heroes That Aren't Pure White
(No, this is not about ethnicity. Though it does go hand-in-hand with #4.) I always find myself very interested to the heroes that aren't so clean-cut heroically. I like my heroes - or heroines - to have a bit of a dark side. A shadow about them that lets you know that they might not always do what they should. I also wouldn't mind if more protagonists were actual villains.
So, what do you think? Agree? Disagree? Think I was too wordy? (I kinda do.)
(No, this is not about ethnicity. Though it does go hand-in-hand with #4.) I always find myself very interested to the heroes that aren't so clean-cut heroically. I like my heroes - or heroines - to have a bit of a dark side. A shadow about them that lets you know that they might not always do what they should. I also wouldn't mind if more protagonists were actual villains.
So, what do you think? Agree? Disagree? Think I was too wordy? (I kinda do.)
Great list. I have to agree with the love triangles in YA..I could do with less of them. If they have to be there I would like to see a reverse role of the guy having to chose between two girls..don't seem much of that at least in the ones I have read. Thanks for stopping by my blog. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you. Yeah, I don't often see (or hear about) a guy having to choose between two girls in books. It could be really interesting to read that - especially if each of the girls were likable.
DeleteAwesome list, especially 2,4,6,9 and 10.
ReplyDeleteAnd, no you weren't too wordy.
Thanks for stopping by. Hehe, sometimes when I get typing I don't stop and then I worry that I bore everyone else. Glad to know I didn't.
DeleteHi! I saw your link on The Broke and the Bookish and clicked over. Umm, you are brilliant! I wholeheartedly agree with your whole list. Points 4 and 10 especially got me thinking. I love reading about characters who I can't fully trust. Not unreliable narrators, but rather characters who aren't totally clean cut, who take chances and purposefully make questionable decisions. Gray morality is so interesting to read about, to me anyway. It's harder to navigate, and more representative of the world we live in.
ReplyDeleteI also have to give you a virtual high-five for #7. I thought I was the only one who preferred third person POV. Cheers!
I'm brilliant? Wow. Uh. Thank you. (I'm not exactly sure what to say now...)
DeleteThat's precisely what I mean. I always find myself really interested in the - shall we say - shady characters in stories. They're usually just so much more fun and entertaining. Ooh, virtual high five. Cool. Nope, you're certainly not the only one that prefers third person. Sadly though, there aren't many of us.
Thanks for stopping by.
Great list. Egyptian Fiction sounds great, have you read Chaos of Stars? I also totally agree with you on the time travel, but I don't want it too sci-fi-ish. I would have to disagree with you on the fantasy though. I like my fantasy nice and chunky :)
ReplyDeleteNo, I've not read Chaos of Stars. I'll look into it. For time travel, what I'd really like the focus to be on is the characters struggle to get along with each other and not give away the fact that they certainly don't belong there - maybe a good healthy does of the Butterfly Effect, too - all while trying (or not) to get back home. Eh, as they say, to each their own. As it happens, I have read some chunky fantasy that I did enjoy - it's just difficult for me to commit to them when I'm not sure how I'll like them.
DeleteThanks for the comment.
Great list! I would absolutely love for there to be less love triangles in young adult fiction, because I am absolutely sick of those. I'd love more books set in Egypt, I always loved the Mummy films and really loved the Prince of Egypt film as a kid - Egyptian history has always fascinated me. Great picks :)
ReplyDeleteMy TTT :)
Yeah, The Mummy movies are awesome. I'd love to see something like that in book form.
DeleteThanks for stopping by.