Bookish Trends I'd Like To See More (or Less) Of

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because they are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. They love to share their lists with other bookish folks and LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week they post a new Top Ten list complete with one of their bloggers answers. Everyone is welcome to join. All they ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND sign Mister Linky at the bottom to share with all those who are participating. If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Don't worry if you can't come up with ten every time...just post what you can!

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MORE...

1.  AUDIOBOOKS - Perhaps the single most effective means I've found to significantly increase my annual reading total, not to mention the fact that an appropriately dramatic audio presentation makes for a rockin' reading (er...listening) experience.

2.  BETTER (AND/OR PRIVATE) LIBRARIES - I get so discouraged when I go into a library anticipating that it will be fab, and am assaulted with the paltry and dismal selection of books.  I'm a library girl, especially when it comes to audiobooks, and it makes me so sad when a big city or county has an (apparently) minuscule library budget, and makes a (seemingly) pathetic effort to make their libraries desirable places to be.  Then there's the disrepair of the books, and draconian fines (I know...an effort to improve the bottom line).  Maybe it would be better to have private libraries, run by those who love the business of books, designed for those who love books, marketed in attractive & inventive ways.  I'd be there so often I'd need a chair with my name on it.

3.  USED BOOK STORES - There is no better type of bookstore in the world.  I love, l-o-v-e, LOVE the look, the smell, and feel of a used bookstore, full of books that have been read and loved by others.  Not only can I buy more of the books I love, but the selection is insane.  AND there is marginalia, which I love.  How fun to read a great book, and see notes from a previous reader who loved & appreciated it like I do.  Sometimes the notes reiterate my own thoughts, and sometimes they expand my understanding in a whole new way.  You can't find that in a retail book store.  Long live McKay's, Powell's, Half Price Books, and so many other brilliant places to find my favorite "legible leftovers."

4.  AUTHORS LIKE MARK TWAIN, STIEG LARSSON, PAT CONROY, TONI MORRISON, FLANNERY O'CONNOR, KATHRYN STOCKETT...  Wouldn't the reading world be improved many times over if most of the authors were of the talent and brilliance of these authors?  I'm so hard pressed to find a bad book (or idea) by these authors, and it is gratifying to know that every time I pick up one of their books, I will be satisfied to the end of the story and sorry to leave the pages and move on.

5.  EBOOKS - I do, in fact, much prefer the look and feel of a well made trade paperback.  I love seeing margin notes or a folded down page.  I love the ease of passing it along to some other bookish type when I'm finished.  BUT...I favor anything (anything) that gets (and keeps) people reading.  If it's digital readers, daily email excerpts, digitized copies to print, it doesn't matter, because reading is good.  Really good! 

6.  BOOK CLUBS / GROUPS - More people talking about books they have read, recommending books they have read, pressing some tome they ADORE into your hands and begging you to read it, discussing the myriad ideas and themes and controversies of great literature.  Sounds like a little bit of heaven on earth to me. 

LESS (OR FEWER)... 

7.  SERIES - Well, I suppose I should qualify and say that fewer series in the vein of a formula that is used over and over and over with little variation.  This is so common in adolescent / young adult fiction, romance writing and detective / mystery series.  I don't mind a formula that works, if it is used inventively and the author strives to avoid predictability.  But for heaven's sake...lazy writing drives me nuts.

8.  TERRIBLE WRITING - I'm not just referring to bad story lines here.  Grammar mistakes and spelling mistakes are incredibly distracting, and even if the story line has a reasonable chance of working, to be a grammar & spelling nimrod is tantamount to heresy for my seasoned reading eyes.  Use a dictionary...a (good) editor...spell check...grammar check.  Study & learn!  Don't be lazy...and for God's sake, proofread!!

9.  BOOKS BASED ON MOVIES / TV SERIES - Really, have authors completely run out of ideas?  Is there so little left to write about that books must be made from movies or tv?  It's bad enough that movies and tv regurgitate ideas over and over, but now we have to waste time, money & materials to print this trash?

10. BOOK COVERS PICTURING THE MOVIE/TV CAST - I don't know about you, but I HATE buying books that have the cast of characters from the movie or tv adaptation pictured on the cover.  Part of my love of reading includes my imaginative renderings of characters, scenes, places, etc. etc. that are all part of the story.  To have those elements rendered for me (and sometimes none too well) is highly annoying, and I do, in fact, shun those books in favor of the original covers.  Here's a note to publishers...STOP IT!  It sucks!!

There's my ten...what are yours?