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Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday #24

toptentuesdayTop Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish in June 2010.

May 9, 2017: Ten Things On Our Reading Wishlist (topic originally done January 2014) — things you want to see more of in books — tropes, a time period, a specific type of character, an issue tackled, a certain plot, etc. All those things that make you think I WANT MORE OF THIS IN BOOKS!

This week I’m flipping the topic. I read all sorts of books, and have a TBR that is already impossibly long. What do I want more of, I don’t know. But I can tell you what I want less of, and what I’m really tired of seeing publishers do to make a buck. So if anyone in the publishing industry is listening here’s what I’d do away with in books.

Top 10 7 Things I Want LESS Of in Books

  1. Shirtless men – Seriously stop with this, there are way too many book covers that have guys with airbrushed abs on them. We always talk about objectifying women in ads, magazines and etc, but what about objectifying men in books? I won’t even bother with the book description if it has a shirtless man on the cover.

    Might be a good book, but I’ll never know.
  2. Graphic Sex scenes – Goes along with the one above, but it’s just so unnecessary and often detracts from the story. I just read a book like this with great a great setting, a building mystery, good characters and then the sex… ugh the Golden Spider why did you have to go and do that to me? (And I was so looking forward to reading the Silver Skull, which I had already read an preview for.) Plus in this case it just didn’t fit with the Victorian setting, you can’t pretend that everyone is all prudish and then have your main characters drop their inhibitions (and clothing) at a whim.

    A good story ruined.
  3. Instalove/Triangles – Seriously, time after time other bloggers have pointed out that as readers they are so disgusted by this but yet it’s in pretty much every other book. Even in my most recent read, The Waterfall Traveler, the author had to include a kinda-sorta of love triangle, even though it was played down. But really the story didn’t need it, the characters would have been fine without it, it’s not like there is some law saying you have to include it. Just stop with the love triangles and instalove.

    Really this book didn’t need a love triangle.
  4. Confessions – Just tell your story, stop with all these first person confession fiction pieces. I understand that they are probably easy to write, after all a confession can be just as disjointed as the thoughts of the person confessing. It feels like the Readers Digest ideas of “13 secrets your plumber won’t tell you”, has gotten made into a novel and they expect it to work.

    I really don’t need this in my life.
  5. Straight to Kindle – Nothing bugs me more than getting a book that feels like it’s gone straight to Kindle and skipped the editors desk. When I first got my Kindle I stumbled into this a lot more often. Now I am more selective in the free books I add to my reading list. Really just have your book edited by a professional, at least have someone catch all the times you call characters by the wrong name.

    Sorry, good idea but bad execution. I can’t even find this book on Amazon anymore.
  6. Every Series Needs More BooksNot all sequels are equals. Publishers think that if they keep squeezing more out of the same ideas that those ideas will make good stories. Frankly, I could write a whole blog about this. Too many times what should have been a stand-alone novel or a duelogy gets turned into 3 or 5 or 8 novels, and by the end the books are dry repeat plots. Please publishers just stop doing this.

    The first one was written in 1964, the next in 1985 now there are 17 books (most written after the authors death.)
  7. Pastors Must Write A Book – It seems that in order to be seen as a successful pastor of a large church you have to publish a book. Often these book are HEAVILY padded. One book I read had lots and lots, a ridiculous amount of lists. Others have just gone over the same point time and time again. There may be enough material for a great sermon series, but that doesn’t mean it will be a great book. Sadly, this is why I don’t request Christian non-fiction ARCs any more.

    I hope you like lists, and one word sentences. Lots.

So that’s it, I could only come up with seven this week. What is one thing you’d like to see less of in books? If you could wave your magic wand and make publishers change something what would it be? Let me know in the comments below.

12 replies on “Top Ten Tuesday #24”

Thanks. I seem to be much more picky about what I won’t read than what I will. So it seemed like a good idea to flip the topic.

Well based on the emails I get from Instafreebies, Genrecrave, BookBub, Bookperk and more you have plenty of novels to choose from that have shirtless men on the cover. 😉

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

You’re welcome. I’ve just been burned several times by agreeing to read an ARC and then realizing it’s trash because there wasn’t really enough material to turn what I’m assuming was a sermon series into a book. While some Pastors are good writers, it doesn’t mean they all will be.

I skip the shirtless men too lol. Instalove and triangles- not a fan of those either. 🙂

And yeah editing errors- I can see an occasional error, but the ones riddled with mistakes and characters w/ the WRONG names- so true. And frustrating. Surely someone could have edited it- a little?

Great list. 🙂

I saw “more editing” on several people’s list this week. So it’s definitely something that readers want. Thanks for taking time to comment on my blog!

I’m sorry so many books were ruined for you. I always prefer a pretty cover and ones with people on them sometimes take away from my imagination of them so I get it. As for the sex in the stories, I guess for me it just depends on how it fit the story. Instalove/triangles I totally get though they can be very annoying how are they still a thing.

It graphic sex I have a problem with, esp if it doesn’t fit the story or just seems to be put in there as filler. As in it doesn’t do any for the characters or plot. I just want more authors to “keep it classy.” 🙂

I didn’t even think of ‘graphic sex scenes’ but I agree with that so much. I nearly always skip over them, they don’t really advance the plot or the characters in any particular way (with the rare exception) and I see them as completely wasted. The same thing would be achieved if it had had a fade to black.

Love triangles I always knew I hated. Great post, really liked the flip on the theme!

Hate the shirtless men on books and overdosing of sex and romance seeping into my UF! I’m totally sick of tropes like instaluv and love triangles and won’t pick up any book where the blurb even hints at that! The lack of editing is something I see too much of especially when I read so many Indie books. I just find it lazy to make no effort to put out a decent piece of writing with minimum errors!

Thanks for visiting my TTT at The Book Cave!

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