May 9, 2017

Ten Things On My Reading Wishlist

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is Ten Things On My Reading Wishlist. This is explained as 10 things I want more of in books.

  1. Jane Austen - I love reading about Jane Austen. I don't always love reading recreations of her work. Some of them are good. Some are decidedly not. But I do love reading about Miss Jane herself. More of that, please.

  2. Books About Books - I feel like the people who make these topics forget there is such a thing as non-fiction, but I love it. I think last year I read pretty evenly fiction and non-fiction. But I definitely need more books about books and reading in my life. This is comfort reading for me.

  3. GOOD Historical Fiction - Why does historical fiction so often equal romance? That's not what I consider good fiction. I want more literary historical fiction, I guess is what I'm saying. Less soap opera. More character development.

  4. Cities in Decline - I realize it is morbid to want to read books about this. Luckily, I just got to do a project for school about resiliency and how communities can avoid decline. That was exciting. I like stuff like Hillbilly Elegy and Detroit and Behind the Beautiful Forevers.

  5. Soft Fantasy - I just made up this term. Basically, I like books that are pretty well grounded in the real world with fantastical elements. Not so much the ones where the author creates a whole new world I have to learn. I mean, I like those too, but sometimes my brain doesn't want to work that hard. Sometimes I just want to take a world I am familiar with and add magic to it.

  6. Fun Mysteries - I love me some Stephanie Plum and some Donna Leon. I don't particularly care for cozy mysteries. Those are usually a bit too slow for me. On the other hand, I'm not really into thriller type mysteries either. And the Lizbeth Salander series is really just too gritty and brutal. Something in the middle, preferably with some humor. The Donna Leon series has a really great setting that makes it especially vibrant.

  7. Fantastic YA - I am really leery of contemporary YA. So much of it is just about young love. And frequently, it's not even healthy young love. Bleh. I do like the YA Fantasy stuff that is coming out more frequently. I hate when authors write down to their audience. Kids know what good writing is, usually. And they definitely know when they're being patronized. I like YA books without the boring tropes (i.e. love triangles), that are written like they are for adults, but with teen characters.

  8. Books in Weird Formats - I love books that have pieces that come out, or fold out, or are printed in such a way that you have to turn the book around to read it. Illuminae is a great example of this. It's written in poetry, government documents, text messages, chat scripts, and a bunch of other interesting formats. There are maps and diagrams. The book S has a bunch of marginalia printed in the book. Letters and postcards are interspersed among the pages. It's like picking up a book that belonged to someone who interacted deeply with it. These books are fascinating to me.

  9. Memoirs - Ok, but really only some memoirs. I only like celebrity memoirs of people I actually like. I'm not about to pick up a Kardashian memoir or a celebrity chef memoir. I liked Tina Fey's and Amy Poehler's and Anna Kendrick's, because I already like those people. I also like memoirs by regular people who have something interesting to tell about their lives. Like Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala. She talks about being in Sri Lanka and losing her entire family in the Tsunami. It was heartbreaking but she got through it.

  10. Graphic Novels - I like to read graphic novels because they are quick and it makes me feel like I am accomplishing something. I don't like every graphic novel I pick up. Everyone I know loves Squirrel Girl, but I couldn't read it. Maybe I'm just old, but the words in the speech bubbles were so tiny, I couldn't make out what was being said. I gave up. Also, I tried to read one about fairy tale characters who get kicked out of fairyland and have to make it in the real world. It kind of devolved into a soap opera and we've already covered how I feel about that.

So there are ten things I would like to read more of. What about you?