Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature/meme brought to you by the folks over at The Broke and the Bookish (the button also belongs to them). This week’s theme is the Top Ten Words/Topics That Make Me NOT Pick Up A Book.
I heard a lot that this was a hard list for people. I laughed because I have a long list of things that make me avoid a book. I am not very open-minded when it comes to books, so this is a good topic for me, hahaha.
1. The Holocaust– Public schools made me read A LOT of Holocaust books growing up to the point where I avoid books that I know will be good because they have to do with the Holocaust (see: The Book Thief).
2. Mermaids– I’m ok with fantasy creatures in my books, but mermaids just sound SO lame. I don’t know how you make them cool. Or scary. Or even really relevant to human beings since, you know, they live in the ocean and humans don’t/can’t.
3. Rape– I don’t really like issue books, but I’d have to say that rape books are high on my list of books to avoid because it is just too easy for an author to mess up this issue and tumble into the world of victim-blaming.
4. Incest– I tried reading Middlesex but once I got to the part where the brother and sister were sexually attracted to one another, I had to quit. It was just gross.
5. Drugs– Again, I don’t like issue books. I don’t really know how you can write a book about drug use that isn’t moralizing. Or glorifying. If there are books that handle the drug problem like The Wire did, then maybe you could change my mind on this one, but all I can think of when I think drug books is Go Ask Alice.
6. Fairy Tale Retellings– I have heard that Cinder is really cool and that I would like it and I probably would, but I can’t get over how lame the premise of a robot Cinderella on the moon sounds. I don’t even really like fairy tales to begin with, I don’t think.
7. Suicide/Attempted Suicide– This topic hits a little too close to home for me to want to read about. I just think it needs to be treated really delicately and that all too often it is not. (Like… I won’t read Thirteen Reasons Why because I think the premise of someone blaming other people for her suicide is irresponsible.)
8. Zombies– The zombie books I have read have just been boring. I mean, zombies are slow-witted, right? There is just nothing interesting about an enemy that can be beaten that easily. And nothing that fascinating about a monster that is so gross there is no romantic potential either.
9. Self-Discovery through Travel– You know those books about middle age women (or alternately, college students) who go off to India or Italy or what-have-you and find out that the world is bigger than them? And maybe they fall in love with some exotic stranger? It’s like the book equivalent of the study-abroad-changed-my-life kid from your college classes. Just annoying and navel-gazing.
10. Horses– Ok, I can’t really think of any adult books that are horse-obsessed, but as a kid I wouldn’t read any of the series about horses. I just don’t like horses that much.
What topics make you back away from a book? Are you a little better about stepping outside your comfort zone than I am?
Don't Take My Books Away 