What Makes Me Want to Read a Book

Awhile back, a friend and I had a discussion on what makes us want to read certain books. Of course, the first item we came up with was the Aesthetically Pleasing Cover (APC- does the book look pretty?) and then we focused on our tropes. Tropes meaning, that little thing in a book that, if it has it, you HAVE to pick it up. This might be hard to explain, but as soon as you see my list, you're going to see what I mean. I call them my achilles heels.

 
-Re-tellings of fairy tales/mythology. + points if it's an obscure one.
-Girls pretending to be boys in order to do something she wouldn't have been able to otherwise. + points if she has feelings for a boy.
-The two main characters start the story hating one another. + points if the reason is related to morals/something BIG ++ points if they fall in love.
-Characters with powers that they can not control. + points if this makes them dangerous/deadly.
-Halflings, or characters that are trapped between two worlds of any kind.
- If the story has this type of character/aspect: prostitute, thief, really mean fey, steampunk, poison, shapeshifters, someone mentally unstable/insane (+ points if it's the protagonist)
-And yes, vampires and werewolves. But this has dwindled as I only have a few favorite takes on the mythology and unfortunately the community is realllyyy over saturated.



I'm sure that I have more of these, but at the moment, I can't think of them. Now, life is full of short-cuts, and sometimes these short-cuts don't work out. Sometimes I like books that have NONE of these aspects in them and sometimes I like books that have these aspects that I can agree are horribly written. As a reader, and a writer, I think it's really important to understand what pulls us towards certain books. As a reader, it helps us to pick out of the millions of books out there what we want to read. As a writer, it will often times help bring me back to Earth. Am I writing a story a certain way because it's what I like? Is that helping or hindering my story?

Someday I would love to do research on why it is people read books on the topics that they do, because I think that the books you choose to read can tell things about yourself that even you didn't even know.

READING LIST UPDATE

Since I had a rather intense list from last time, here's a quick update on the books I chowed down on.

The Space Between by Brenna Yovanof
-LOVED this book. The writing style was really great and I loved the characters.

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
-I'm definitely looking forward to the movie version. Marion put an interesting twist on the zombie mythology that I enjoyed.

Swear by Nina Malkin (sequel to Swoon)
-I would have liked this book to have been a little more intense like the first, but as a sequel, it definitely satisfied.

Prized (Birthmarked #2) by Caragh M. O'Brien
-Where I sauntered through Birthmarked, I ripped and sped right through Prized. I almost put it down 50 pages in until we were reunited with Leon...and everything got really good. 

I couldn't really recommend Die for Me, as I put it down 30 pages in. It wasn't a story for me, but others might enjoy it. 

Books I'm Currently Reading
A Curse as Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce <- yes, still. I'm going at a snail's pace
Unbroken by Rachel Caine
Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber

Waiting in the Wings
Graveminder by Melissa Marr
Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter
Beautiful Evil by Kelly Keaton
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl