Top Ten Tuesday (1)

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created over at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they post a new Top Ten list to answer. Everyone is welcome to join. Make sure you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers. This week's theme is:

The Top Ten Trends You'd Like To See More/Less of

  (can do a combo of both or one or the other)

Things I could see less of:

1. Love Triangles. Ok, so this one is a little unrealistic. I can't imagine it going away any time soon. There is just something compelling about having two gorgeous guys fighting over you. Still, when they are bad (one obviously doesn't measure up to the other, you have no idea why the heroine likes a certain boy-toy, or both of them aren't strong characters on their own) I just want to close the book right there. 

 2. Cliche roles. I'm tired of the Dumb Jock, Bitchy Cheerleader, Quirky Average Hero mentality. Give me some kick ass vampire cheerleader heroines, or some stoner zombies who happen to be best friends with the Star Quarterback, or some Drama-kid Voodoo Queen...I crave variety people. VARIETY.

3. Dark brooding heroes. There is something to be said for the bad boy...but does the bad boy have to be all angsty and melodramatic all the time? Can't he just be cheerfully reckless and totally hot, but minus the whole "Life is meaningless" mentality. I mean sure, it's fun to find a cynical bad boy and turn him into a caring and devoted boyfriend, but really...does this ever happen??? NO. I want to lose the cynicism, the darkness, the self-loathing, and find a heroe that is who he is and doesn't give a F*** if you like him or not.

4. Endless Series. We all know of them. They are the books that started out so amazingly that you never wanted the series to end...now you are just praying that all of the characters will just die in a massive car fire. Something went sour in the books you love...either there is 20 books and counting and it seems that the author has run out of ideas or the characters aren't the same ones you knew and loved, or my least favorite...the dreaded watered down version of the story. There is one author in particular who used to write amazing books. I was so glad that they were creeping up in page count because I just couldn't put them down. Then all of the sudden, the plots started becoming easy to guess, characters grew stagnant and boring, and the book lenght got cut nearly in half. I absolutely abhor this phenomenon, because to me it represents an author trying to squeeze every last penny out of their fans. They charge 26+ per book, yet the book is unsatisfying and dull. Please, oh please, just end your series when they are still good and interesting. Having an honorable death is way better than letting it linger on forever and making me hate it by the end...

Things I could see more of:

1. Books written by non-americans. I bet there is a whole ton of amazing authors from other countries, but for some reason it is impossibly hard to find their books. Publishing companies don't seem to like translating foreing materials into English, especially when we are so flooded with our own books. But think about it...what if J.K. Rowling had been Polish? or Spanish? Or Russian? There could be another series like Harry Potter just waiting out there, kept from us by the shroud of a language barrier.

2. Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic Novels. So apparently I am really into the dark and twisty lately. I love all things creepy, depressing, and scary. Throw in a little bit of society messing with people's minds or an uber controlling, corrupt  goverment, and I'm practically in heaven.

3. More Zombie apocalypse books!! YESSSSHHHHH! Zombies that can be trained as butlers? Okay. Zombies of animals that can eat your brains faster than you can say "OHMYGODWE'REGUNNADIE" Cool. Give me more! I am LOVING the zombie horde lately. I can't get enough of my shamblers .

4. College-aged protagonists...there is a huge gap between YA books and Adult books. Usually 20 somethings tend to have two roles. Either the older "bad kid" persona in teen books, where they corrupt the younger generation with drugs and alchohol. Or as cannon fodder for the older adult novels...usually they are vampire bait, or arm candy. Or the worst case scenario, they are not mentioned at all. I'm a college student and I would love to read some books about where I am in life, because hey...University life could really be it's own sitcom sometimes. Throw in some supernaturals, or make the apocalypse happen and you have some literary gold there

5. Mystical Creatures that are outside of the box. I love my vamps, weres, and faries...but there is so much potential in all the other possible paranormal creatures! Chupacabra, Dragons, Mermaids, Mummies, Phoenixes...the list is ENDLESS...why do we have to keep getting spins on the same old, same old undead fiend? Again...I crave variety.

6. Male authors and novels written in the male POV. I love kick ass heroines, and I even am okay with ones who occasionally need to be saved...but I absolutely love to see things from the male perspective every once in a while. I Loved Garth Nix as a kid, and now I have found quite a few male authors that I just can't put down. I want to see more though. I want the action, adventure, and mystery that always seems to come hard and fast when reading a book with a male protagonist.

Well, that's my Top Ten Tuesday...what do you think???

~Andra~