Top 10 Things that make me want to read a book

Top Ten Tuesdays are a book meme held over on The Broke and The Bookish. They pick the weeks topic and everyone can do their lists and link up and see what other people have picked.

This weeks topic is: Top Ten Things That Will Make Me Instantly Want To Read A Book

And I mean that’s a pretty brilliant topic for me because I definitely have my favourite tropes and if you tell me a book with any of them in I will automatically look them up. I am there. So without further ado. Here’s the top ten things that will make me pick up a book:

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A Clever Protagonist –

I want them one step ahead (at least), and even when everything goes wrong I want them to find a different path and still end up in front. They need an ace up their sleeve. Think Kaz Breker or Locke Lamore. Give me a guy with a plan and let me watch then out manoeuvre the world (even better if the world under-estimates them). ALL of my favourite books have a clever/cunning main character.

 

A morally grey character or situation –

Things are never black and white, okay? That just doesn’t happen. Give me a character who isn’t in to saving the world and being the shining light and is kind of just doing their own thing when they get forced into the situation and I will like them a thousand times more. Or, DO give me a shining light, brilliantly, golden child and put them in a situation where they realise they were wrong and they don’t know what wrong and right is anymore and….I will love them a thousand times more? I said that already. Point is, it’s just so much more interesting to be grey.

 

Sarcasm/banter –

Hello, it’s funny and if you can make your characters pull it off and have the dialog run smoothly and naturally then you sir are an awesome writer and I love those moments where I’m just sitting here grinning like an idiot and whispering oooh, burn to myself as I read and probably reread passages.

 

A thief….

I don’t know what it says about me that all my favourite characters are thieves. If a book is a about a thief there is a 100% chance I will look it up. I would like to say that I like the fact that you don’t have to be big and strong to be the brave protagonist in a story but honestly, I just have a soft spot for thieves.

 

A crew / A found family…

By that I mean friends. Give me the best friendships you could ever imagine. Give me bonds that have nothing to do with romance that are unbreakable and the thought of them breaking physically hurts the characters. Give me brothers and sisters who mean everything to each other. Give me a lost little broken thing finding a home and I will be hugging them until…. I’ll just keep hugging them.

 

Interesting magic system –

Self explanatory? Don’t just tell me it’s magic and have that solve everything either. I want to understand the limits.

 

The promise of NO love story –

Also self explanatory. If I see in a review that there was no romance then I’m more likely to give the book a second look. I’m not actually against romance as a sub plot but we seem to be drowning in instalove and love triangles lately and I mean really, is it impossible to have a male and female character and have them NOT have feelings for each other? If it’s done well then okay but it doesn’t HAVE to happen. I kind of hate the inevitability of it all.

 

Real Mythological Gods who play favourites –

Gods that are on or off page influencing events or even better a specific person. (I never liked the Percy Jackson books and I don’t know why). They don’t have to be real world myths like ancient Greece/Egypt, they can be fictional too. Some of my favourite books include this (The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, The Legend of Eli Monpress by Rachel Aaron, A Breath of Fire by Amanda Bouchet). I need more of this in my life so definitely let me know if you have and recommendations that come to mind.

 

Shape shifting dragons?

I mean, I haven’t really read any of these apart from Seraphina, but that would seriously be a tag line that would get me to at least read the blurb of any book. I want more shape shifting dragons in my life. Please give me recs and if they happen to fit any of the other above tropes then even better.

 

And finally, I would also like to say that if there is only one main character then I am much more likely to read it if its a male character. I don’t know why. (internalized sexism? The fact that female led books always end up with romance? That I just don’t identify with the characters as much? Who knows) That’s just what I’ve always preferred reading. That’s not to say I don’t read female lead books because I definitely do, it’s just a lot easier to sell me a male led book. All my favourite books have got male leads in unless they are multiple POV.

 

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Phew, that was fun. If reading this list makes you think of ANY books that fit some of these then please do let me know in the comments.  And what about you? Any of these things you love reading about? Do you hate any of them?

Also, give me recs, all the recs!!

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