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21.1.14

Top Ten Tuesday (7): Top Nine Things On My Reading Wishlist


Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly blog meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish that allows readers to share their lists and opinions on a number of subjects from their top ten book covers to their top ten villains.

This week's topic for January 21st is:

Top Nine Things On My Reading Wishlist
(If you could make authors write about these things you would.)

1. Epic Fantasy Standalones
I am a huge fan of epic fantasy, of heroes and heroines going on impossible quests to save their loved ones, but most epic fantasy books seem to be part of a series. Most of the time, the series format works since I get to be immersed in the fantasy world even longer, but I do hate waiting years for a story to be complete.

2. Messy Unrequited Love
It always bothered me how the couples in books just conveniently fall in love with each other at the same time. I kind of want to see more drama. Where are the unrequited loves? The messiness? Why not have a main protagonist on the losing end of a love triangle? I think it'd be pretty interesting to read.

3. Platonic Love
On the flip side, I'd also like to see more friendships between girls and guys that are just that. Friendships. Unlike what some people may say, boys and girls can just be friends without one falling in love with the other. I'd love to see more boys and girls just being best friends (like Harry and Hermione) and kicking ass without one of them being relegated as a minor character.


(GIF credit to n-ibble)

4. Two Female BFFs Kicking Ass
We can also just forgo the romance altogether. Can we just have two female best friends as the main characters? This might be more common in contemporary, but I rarely see it in action, fantasy, or science fiction series. :(

5. More Fairy Tale Retellings: The Snow Queen
With the success of Disney's Frozen, it's the most opportune time for a retelling of The Snow Queen to come out. While I love the twists and cuteness of Frozen, I'd also love to see a more faithful retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, especially if it includes the little robber girl.


(Original Frozen Concept Art from It's Art Mag)


6. Better Well-Written Male Romantic Interests
I don't know about you, but I'm kind of sick of the stalker boyfriends, nice guys ™, and/or bad boys. Every time I come across one of these archetypes I have to wonder where all the decent men in their world went.

7. Around the World Travelling
At first, I thought a book where a group of friends went on a road trip would be fun, but why not think of it on a bigger scale? It'd be pretty cool if the characters went on a trip all across the globe either for a mission or just fun. Imagine the disagreements, the fights along the way. Someone gets lost in a country where they're unfamiliar with the language. The descriptions of the cities in great deal. Sigh, maybe it's just me and my wanderlust.

8. Author Crossover Anthology
This will probably never happen, but what if certain authors came together to write short stories using the characters and worlds of another for an anthology? It's always super cute to see authors on twitter fangirl/boy over each other's book, so it'd be interesting to see what ideas that they come up with.

9. More Contemporaries with Less Tragic Pasts
I have a confession to make: When I read the summary of a book and it talks about the main character coming back to his/her hometown for the first time in forever after a tragic incident (usually someone's death), my interest in that book plummets. It's not that all stories with this setup is bad, but I see it so often as the premise of dark contemporaries that I wonder if it's the default.

Aaaaand I can't come up with the tenth item on my reading wishlist, so I leave you all with just nine items. If you have a book recommendation that fits any of these, please let me know in the comments!

10 comments:

  1. If you're looking for a book that goes all over the world, I'd suggest Heist Society by Ally Carter. They travel to quite a few locations, especially in the first two books of the series.


    A crossover anthology would be awesome! So many shenanigans could be had by my favourite characters afhskdf. So many of the other things you want would be awesome too. Especially kick ass best friends and a stand alone epic fantasy (I should combine those ideas and write one brilliant novel which will probably be brought down by my lack of skill...)

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  2. Abby @ abbbzandbookzJanuary 21, 2014 at 5:09 AM

    I totally agree with everything on your list. Like 101% yes to all!

    The crossover will be a bomb if it happens one day.

    And number 9 OH BOY BULLS EYE!!! I swear all contemporary has the "haunting dark past that hinders his/her to love without all the drama" So sick of it to be very honest :( I think you'll like The Distance Between Us by Kasie West, no tragic pasts, just a light contemporary read :)

    Aaaaand can't agree no more with two kickass bffs. I haven't read (?) or have I (not sure) a novel with two kickass bffs usually one is a badass, the other is a wimpy innocent one.

    Great list, Jackie! Superb x

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  3. Oooh, Heist Society definitely seems up my alley. I especially love the con artist element to it. Thanks for the rec!


    And yes, to the combination of best friends + standalone epic fantasy. If you write it, I will read it. :)

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  4. :D Someone should start asking all the authors. Not me though, I'm too shy to ask, haha.


    I've heard a lot of good things about Kasie West, but I haven't read any of her books yet. I just might have to now, though. I do need to read more contemporary. Thanks for the rec!


    And that's true about the badass/innocent combo. For once, I'd like to see something different.

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  5. I love having happy protagonists, but it would be really interesting to have messy love as well! And it would be great to have male and female friends and just regular female friends who don't drop their friends just because a guy is in the picture!
    And now I feel like I NEED author crossover anthologies!

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  6. Reviews from a BookwormJanuary 21, 2014 at 5:37 PM

    Great list. I 100% agree with having less tragic contemporaries - I love mine to be just a little more happy and uplifting. Great picks :)


    My TTT :)

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  7. It'd also be cool if the protagonist could be happy despite the messy love. Like for once, I'd like a book to say that being happy in life isn't just about getting the guy/girl at the end, y'know?
    And I'd throw in all my money for that anthology to happen. :)

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  8. Thanks~ Too many contemporaries seem to rely on the past to bring up drama, but I want to read about the here and now!

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  9. PLATONIC LOVE yes. <3 If they fall in love that's fine with me, if they don't that's still fine with me. After reading a little passage on Tumblr about platonic love, I am just all for the idea because (a) it sounds super adorable and (b) it's something different!


    Oh gosh and I definitely agree over guys. Guy characteristics are so similar to each other that I want some weird ones because weird ones are adorable because they have a certain fetish or act a certain way and that just makes them super original and all their own. No bad boy, popular boy who falls for not so popular girl and popular boy isn't a dick after all cliche. NO. Give me some good boys to drool over, please!


    I love your list! Makes me want to do Top Ten Tuesday now! ^^

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  10. Lauren @ infinite.nuJanuary 24, 2014 at 1:27 PM

    Such a well thought out list! :) As for #8, I've been reading Cassandra Clare's books recently and I know she's been releasing 10 co-written short stories about one of her characters. I honestly haven't looked into them much yet, but I'm very excited to read them because I feel that Cassandra Clare has so little imagination yet she's created such an intriguing character - I hope these short stories do him justice!

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