Spotted this at both Deborah Koren's blog and Cindy's Book Corner and thought it looked like too much fun to pass up :-)
Unlike most tags, there are no rules about thanking people or tagging people. If you want to fill it out, you can! If you don't, then don't!
Reading the Last Page First -- OUT. I can only remember doing this once, and it was for And Now Tomorrow by Rachel Field. I did it that time because the first section of the book made it sound like the book was going to end differently than the 1944 movie, and I adore the 1944 movie, so I had to find out if it ended the same way or not. Because, if it didn't, I wasn't going to bother reading the whole book. But it does, so I did read it. And loved it.
Ordinarily, though, I don't want to ruin the flow of a story by reading the ending first.
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| (Bwahaha! I snuck an Alan Ladd picture in here!) |
Enemies to Lovers -- IN. It's not my favorite trope, but I love books like Pride and Prejudice, North and South, and the Anne of Green Gables books a lot, and they all use this, so I'm fine with it.
Dream Sequences -- IN. Sometimes, I don't even mind "it was all a dream."
Love Triangles -- IN. They're a classic. I've even used them myself, like in My Rock and My Refuge.
Cracked Spines -- OUT. OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT. My mother gave me a boxed set of four Jane Austen novels for my birthday when I was in my upper teens. Then she borrowed them each in turn to read herself and absolutely destroyed their spines. Not only did they no longer fit in the slipcover, you couldn't even read the titles on the spines. They made me sad every time I looked at them, and I eventually gave them away. I still have my original Anne of Green Gables paperbacks that my mom also ruined that way, but my grandma gave me those, so I keep them anyway.
Now, a caveat to all that, though -- if I'm buying a used copy of a vintage paperback, like a Louis L'Amour or a Rex Stout or something like that, I am super fine with the book looking like it lived in someone's back pocket for weeks on end fifty years ago. In fact, I prefer those to shiny, new copies for specific genres and authors. But I WILL NOT contribute MORE crackage to their spines. And I prefer them not to be so cracked that I can't read the title anymore.
Back to My Small Town -- IN. Although "someone new comes to town, and everything changes" is my favorite trope, I also love "someone comes back home, and everything changes." Probably my favorite versions of that are the book The Count of Monte Cristo and movie The Lone Ranger (2013).
No Paragraph Breaks -- OUT. Also, ew. Also, I don't think I've ever read a book like that, but I'm against it on principle.
Multi-generational Sagas -- IN. I mean, I'm embarking on a quest to read all of the Sackett novels by Louis L'Amour this year, so I'm obviously a fan, right? Also, I love historical fiction, and that sort of thing generally involves lots of history.
Monsters Are Regular People -- OUT if you mean horrific villains are portrayed as normal and acceptable. IN if you mean stories where vampires just wanna make friends and hold down a job. Angel (1999-2004) is my second-favorite TV show of all time, after all.
Re-Reading -- IN. I reread a LOT. I've estimated that 1 out of 4 books I read is a reread, usually. This past year, it was closer to 1 in 3 -- I read 103 books, and 29 were rereads.
Artificial Intelligence -- OUT. I don't read much sci-fi, and I just am not a fan of sentient robots in general.
Drop Caps -- IN. They usually look amazing.
Happy Endings -- IN. I LOVE happy endings!!!
Plot Points That Only Converge at the End -- IN, as long as the book isn't too long. I must admit, I've never read a book by Tom Clancy because I've heard so many people talk about how he'll start like eight little plots going and you never find out how they're related until the very end, and that does sound kind of daunting to keep straight. But J. K. Rowling did the same thing over the course of the Harry Potter series, really, and I loved that. So... I'm not against it, anyway.
Detailed Magic Systems -- IN if I don't have to read all the details. Out if the book is basically a travelogue about a fictional world. This is part of why I don't read a ton of fantasy and sci-fi. Descriptions of places and how things work bore me, and if that's the bulk of your first few chapters, I'm outta here.
Classic Fantasy Races -- IN. The fantasy I do dig, such as The Lord of the Rings and Eragon and Harry Potter, all use classic things like unicorns and elves and dwarves and centaurs and dragons.
Unreliable Narrators -- OUT. I am not a fan. I want to trust the narrator to tell me what's going on. If I can't, I'm probably going to dislike the book.
Evil Protagonists -- OUT. One of the things I demand from fiction is that it restore moral balance by the end of the book. Also, if the protag is evil, I'm really not going to want to like them. And if I don't like the protag, and they either have to face dire consequences or will get away with being evil... why would I want to read that? Why???
The Chosen One -- IN. Harry Potter, Frodo Baggins, Eragon, the Pevensie kids... I'm totally a fan.
When the Protagonist Dies -- IN and OUT. Ordinarily, I hate it. I want my happy ending. Buuuuuuut... Hamlet dies. And I adore Hamlet. I can be okay with protag death if that still results in a good ending.
Really Long Chapters -- IN, I guess? I don't care, when I read. I tend to write short chapters, though.
French Flaps -- OUT just because I don't really have any books with them and they seem annoying. I had to look up what they are, though.
Deckled Edges -- IN. I am a very sensory, tactile-oriented person, and how a book feels can matter a lot to me. Like, I really can't stand cloth-bound books and avoid buying them. I love the feel of deckled edges :-)
Signed Copies by the Author -- IN! Why would anybody not want that?
Dog-Earing Pages -- IN! Books are not sacred objects. It's okay to bend the pages. When I was just starting to read chapter books, I had a toddler brother who delighted in pulling bookmarks out of every book he found, so for several years, dog-earing was a necessity. I usually use a bookmark, but if I don't have one, I don't feel guilty about dog-earing.
Chapter Titles Instead of Numbers -- IN! But be aware I will probably ignore them completely.
I was not tagged with this, so I'm not tagging anyone else, but if you think this looks fun, by all means fill it out yourself!
