What Makes Me Pick Up A Book? | Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl to bring bookish friends together. A new topic is posted each week.

Seeing book bloggers I have similar taste as recommend it!

This one explains itself. Every time I see a good review, even if it’s a book on my TBR already, it’s bumped up a lot of places. I have to pick up “never let me go” Kazuo Ishiguro soon because of it, I think I’ve promised so many I would, haha.

“Strong” female protagonists (that know how to fight)

Know how to fight is mostly within the fantasy genre, but I guess in general as well. It’s my weakness for immediately getting new favourite characters – Inej Ghafa of “Six of Crows” immediately comes to mind.

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Mermaids! Or Sirens!

I’ve yet to read a book about mermaids/sirens/sea creatures that I immediately fell in love with. I have some recommendations left to read, but I would love more!

WLW couples

I mean – lesbians/bi characters in general. I started reading more queer books a couple years ago, but realized that the books I liked mostly included gay men, with authors like Shaun David Hutchinson and Benjamin Alire Sáenz. I’m going to sit down and compile a list of wlw books I’ve loved sometime, but Nina LaCour was really the first I read who did it so amazingly! The romances are great, the plots are exciting! Her books are everything

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Based on fairytale & folklore

I’ve kind of given up on “fairytale retellings” because if it’s obvious enough which fairytale it’s based on when I pick up the book, it’s always boring. But books like “Uprooted” by Naomi Novik, I didn’t realize before after, and I loved it.

Norse mythology

This is more of a continuation of the last point, but I’ve grown up reading norse mythology stories (I’m from Norway, so it makes more sense) and it’s fantastic seeing how well and badly done retellings and inspiration can be. I mean – there’s a difference in quality between authors having read some of the poetic and prose Edda (where the real stories mainly are) and having seen Thor from the Marvel movies. Both are usually entertaining in different ways though, haha.

Small-town witches

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Protagonists with other cultural backgrounds

That kind of includes everything else besides about american-based fantasy or young adult books as well. I read mainly in english, so I get that it’s a lot of that, but books based on other cultures are more attractive because I want to learn more about the world when I read.

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Science themes!

Any book with a scientist or quantum in the title, to the point where it’s definitely a weakness. I was burned on “Dark matter” by Blake Crouch because it’s an entertaining book, but certainly with a deceptive title!!

Disabilities?

I saw Siobhan mention disabilities right before I posted this and really felt I was missing that point. First off- I love characters having disabilities in books with other types of plot, already. Because it normalizes it so much. My problem has been that – as a person who’s grown up with physical illnesses and disabilities – I’ve run far away from the kind of books that is about disabilities. Which is bad, but I recently realized why – it’s the same reason I haven’t read many lgbt books before the last few years (not that it’s comparable, ohgodno). Every queer book I read wasn’t well-written, or comparable to my experience. NOW with #ownvoices authors I’ve really started to love queer books as someone who isn’t straight, because they’ve become so much better! I really want to read more books with disabilities as well, from authors that know how it’s like. Because with any theme that is intertwined with your own life as a reader, it’s so noticeable and, when I was a child honestly damaging, when it’s done badly. You know the whole “magically cured”, “she wasn’t sick all along”, “disability being their own fault in any way” kind of tropes. I really hope I can find authors and books that I can trust now! 🙂