Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly topic hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week she provide a topic and you are free to use that topic and/or variations of that topic to make your top ten list. A full list of the weekly themes can be found here.
- Stickers on summary – why place a sticker over the summary, when you can place it on the reviews from a random person from some random news company? I care what the book is about, not necessarily the review(s).
- No identification on series – Books that don’t let readers know if it’s part of a series or not drive me up the wall, especially when I accidentally read a spoiler from book one in the summary of book two without knowing it’s book two in a series. A number on the spine or “book one of the Mortal Instruments” on the cover will suffice.
- Fantasy books without maps – If you have a fantasy novel, and you don’t have a map (especially if the characters travel throughout the story) I’m just not as interested as usual. Mostly because I can’t follow the story as well.
- Maps that don’t fold out – I saw a while ago a book that had a map that folded out, so you could keep it open while reading, and I now demand this for all my fantasy/sci-fi books.
- When people interrupt me while reading – No, I’m not free. Reading is doing something. No, I don’t want to talk. The book I’m reading? Harry Potter and the Death of the Person not letting me read.
- Book series that are different sizes – Why do you do this to me? It bother me to no end, and I cannot look at it!!
- Token Queer and BIPOC characters – one, the way white authors add in BIPOC characters in just to show they are diverse makes for bad characters (at least, the books I’ve read, the authors don’t do this well) and two, they usually end up killing the BIPOC characters to further a white person’s (male usually) storyline. STAHHPPP!! For Queer characters, it cracks me up when authors have ONLY ONE LGBTQIA+ character in a group full of straight people. It proves to me that they usually know no queer characters because we travel in packs. My group of friends have token straight people, not token queer people!
- When people who borrow your books don’t return them – I have pretty much stopped letting people borrow ANY of my books (unless I know them super well or we see each other enough that I can bother them about it until they return the book).
- When research isn’t done – okay, I’m not wanting to be mean, but just research something before putting it in a book. A quick google search can tell you that there are not mountains in West Texas and that it’ll take you hours to ride a Greyhound in the state.
- Men writing women – I don’t think I need to explain this one. Just no!
Happy Reading Darlings!
1. So, Rainbow Rowell has a running joke with her books that they ALWAYS seem to put the sticker over one of her character’s faces. It’s absurd. She is constantly sent photos of Simon’s face covered by stickers from Target and B&N.
2. I read the Sookie Stackhouse series, and she wrote some “between the series” stories, but then didn’t tell people?! Or something. And then REFERENCED THE STORIES?!?! So I started reading like, book 9, but I was so confused because she was talking about stuff I had no idea about, and it was like “oh, yeah, that happened in the short story you were supposed to just magically know to read between books 8 and 9. I HATE that. Rude.
3&4. I just read a super cute story called Marabel and the Book of Fate for my 6 year old and THERE WAS NO MAP. I couldn’t figure out where they were or what was happening. I needed a map. More rudeness. Kids for sure need maps. Especially ones that fold out. But kids would likely tear them out. So…the folding ones should maybe stay in the adult books.
5. Go. Away. I’m busy.
6. I have some books I bought in a series that are paperbacks, and then as I continued to buy the series, I bought them as they were released. So they’re first editions. And…it takes a lot of willpower to not repurchase them as hardbacks. Like…a lot a lot. Really, multiple series look like that on my shelves. It would make you twitchy. lol They remain that way for financial reasons.
7. We’ve talked about how I’m working on this one personally. My cousin…geesh. She for sure does the token person. And I gently called her on it in her latest book. She just ignored my comments and was like “nope, doing it anyway.” Yikes, man.
8. There is one person who borrowed Beach Read back in June who has still not returned it. I’m about to start nagging her….nicely of course. But…she didn’t even read it. I think that’s worse, when they don’t even read the books. If they read it, then held on to it for a while, it’s less offensive. But to start it and then tell you “I didn’t really like it so I didn’t finish it” and then not return it? Rude.
9. Man. Research is just. not. that. hard. Google makes our lives these days so much easier. My cousin, again. *sigh*. Greyhound from Corsicana to just outside New Orleans does not go as fast as a car. I discovered that in five minutes of googling. She….didn’t bother. She set a book in Texas and didn’t bother to ask any Texans anything. Then had a Texan in a future book and had her complain about the unrelenting heat IN MARCH. Girl, bye. (I go off when I talk about her. She’s bananas.) I do limited research, but at least try to get certain things correct. Talked to someone who worked in a library at some point about a scene set in a library. And a knitter about a knitting scene. Stuff like that. Didn’t pull it out of my rear.
10. NO EXPLANATION NEEDED. WE ARE NOT SO AWARE OF OUR BODIES AS MEN THINK, UNLESS SOMETHING IS TERRIBLY WRONG.
As always, lovely to read. Hope this wasn’t too much commentary. lol
I was giggling throughout this whole post!
People who interrupt you whilst reading are the worst.
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/10/05/top-ten-tuesday-336/
They really are!!
🙂
I don’t read a lot of fantasy, but now that you mention it, a fold-out map makes SO much sense! I’m sure it’s a pain and a half to print something extra like that, but what a great touch if they do.
—RS
I love your response to the question of what are you reading! I have had people get mad at me when I hold the book up so they can read the title. Supposedly, I’m being rude; they are just asking a question and trying to have a conversation. Um, no, you’re rude; I am in the middle of doing something I enjoy!
And the part about the LGBTQIA+ traveling in packs made me laugh, especially when I realized it’s true in my experience as well.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/going-to-the-dogs-12-books-with-dogs-on-the-cover/
Ugh! It’s not rude, people are weird if they think it’s rude.
OHMYGOSH, yes! I don’t like different size books period. I know that’s super nitpicky of me, but Indie books tend to be quite a bit larger than the average paperback size, and for some reason, it bugs me! But still I buy and read them. 😀 Thanks so much for visiting my TTT on this week!