Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday.
It’s held over at That Artsy Reader Girl, where every week bloggers list their top 10 bookish lists to the theme for the week. This week’s topic is kind of a freebie, but revolves around the top ten reasons I love… whatever. However, I’m going to be a bit more random.
Why do I love:
crime and mysteries: I didn’t want to admit this to myself, but more than anything, I think it’s because the bad guy gets caught. I will grant you that it doesn’t always happen in books, and those books can be amazing, but for me, reality gets crazy, and the bad guys don’t get caught so somewhere, I want to see it happen. More often than not, the MCs are put through the wringer getting to the ending, so I’m happy with my reason.
YA: this genre genuinely impresses me with the scope of the topics it takes on, topics I wish I could have had help with growing up.
contemporary everything: Because as society evolves, our art needs to evolve too. We’re a much more complicated society than when the Shakespeare wrote his plays, Gatsby did his thing and [insert a classic title here about characters and their historical issues].
historical genre: The right kind of book can always make a person rethink their reading tastes.
science fiction: growing up, this was a genre I couldn’t stop reading because it took me away from reality, but I don’t read as much as I used to. However, try and keep away from watching a scifi movie! I know I am weird.
urban fantasy: this mix? The imagination in this mix never fails to grab me.
chick lit: I took way too damn long to come around to just how much fun and complex this genre should be.
domestic noir: husbands and wives and their secrets have become a huge drawcard for me.
humour: I treasure any read that is effortlessly funny and can make me laugh out loud without resorting to snark. It’s one of those ‘lightning in a bottle’ things for me.
That’s it for now. Do any of these genres and reasons strike a chord with you?
So true about contemporaries, and I like how you said that. So true! I’m not sure I’ve ever thought about it quite like that- how society has evolved/ is evolving and contemps help us understand/ deal with it- that’s such a great point! And crime/ mysteries too- again, you’re right, it’s nice to get that closure when a mystery is solved or bad guys are caught.
Thank you Greg. It bugs me more now that I have two young nephews who are Asian, and a cousin who is married to a man who is Muslim, and their kids may one day decide that is the faith they want to follow. When these kids grow up, I don’t want them to learn about Shakespeare’s plays: I want them to know the Asian, Muslim Australian authors that shaped their generation and what they’re facing, you know. And yeah, I mean I know you’re supposed to want more complex stories that don’t have happy endings… but I kind of do want them. I like being put through the wringer to get there but yeah, I like knowing somehow the bad guys don’t win.
Love what you did – I can’t resist urban fantasy genre either.
What a good idea to list all the different genres you like. Some of them, I love, too, others not so much. But that’s what this is all about, right?
My TTT is about Nobel Prize winners.
Happy Reading.
Exactly, you are so right about what memes like this are all about!
Lately I’ve been loving urban fantasies because there’s such a mix!
Chick lit is so much fun to read!
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
I love that kind of humour, too.
My TTT .
I love historical fiction, but then I’m a history lover and studied it as part of my degree at University, so it’s not really a surprise!
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/05/19/top-ten-tuesday-264/
Great points on each genre! I especially like humor mixed in with more serious topics. When an author can add that bit of comic relief or clever repartee, I appreciate it.
I think I read mysteries for the same reason as you, when these days it feels rare that wrong doers pay for their behaviour, in crime fiction they almost always do which I find satisfying.
I love mysteries, and your reasoning makes so much sense. It’s fantastic that the bad guy almost always gets caught. I love the reveal!! I’m also a big fan of books that can make me laugh.
-Lauren
I loved your comment about chick lit. I think if we could get rid of the “chick” everyone would feel the way you do about it!
I love contemporary novels for the exact same reason! A lot of books are a time capsule of the time they were written in so it’s always going to be relevant 🙂
This is a great way to address this topic this week. I really am trying to read more science fiction. I have liked what I have picked up as long as it’s not so science heavy. Makes a lot of sense huh? I don’t read a lot of chick lit but used to devour it. I find it fun from time and time and I am really drawn to their really cute covers.
Books that make me laugh are the best! And, that’s such a good point about contemporary fiction. I like the idea, that we can look back on these books, which reflect where we were as a society at that point in time.
Ha, I love chick lit! One of the first genres I really started getting into after college.
Why did no one tell me how fantastic the genre is?!!? It gets such a bad rep!
I wish YA had been more of a thing when I was growing up. There were YA books, but they didn’t tackle the big topics like today’s books do.
YES! Exactly! YA is doing such amazing stories right now.
While I do think Shakespeare should still be taught – we still need to keep in touch with our literary roots, just like we need to know our own histories and the reason why those plays still fill theatres around the world is because the human condition hasn’t changed all that much. But where I absolutely agree with you is that we need to stop teaching books from the last century written by male, pale authors (Of Mice and Men and The Old Man and the Sea, for instance) and for sure introduce books that are written for a modern audience with modern messages. The fact we don’t is a real shame.
I value what Shakespeare can teach, but my parents learned Shakespeare in school and I learned it 18+ years later, and then my sisters and they’re now in their mid-30s and having kids. For me, if my 4 year old Asian-Indian nephews learn Shakespeare at the exclusion of Asian and/or Indian or Indigenous playwrights that are relevant to their experience, I will cry for the state of literature. I do wholeheartedly agree about the state of pale, male authors though.