This Top Ten Tuesday the topic was to talk about our reading wishlist. Not specific titles or anything like that. No, this is more concerned with things that we’d like to see more of in the books that we read. This was an interesting one to think about because lately when we’ve been reading, it has been case of wanting ‘more’ of something. Now we have a chance to directly address it without ragging on any one book in particular.
Top Ten Tuesday is brought to you courtesy of Broke and Bookish.
The Wistful Readers Wishlist
I want more mental health diversity in my science fiction and horror books. There have been a handful I read where a character’s mental makeup had a significant impact on the series, and I loved it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for all sorts of diversity in what I read, but I really want to see more authors tackling the effects of mental disabilities and illnesses on a plot line without them being the cliche.
I want more science fiction for young readers! Trying to find more than a handful of books for my eight year old to read in the science fiction genre (which she loves) is a colossal pain in the butt. It seems like its comic books, House of Robots, or nothin’. And for kids younger than that? Hah! You get the token robot book every now and then.
I want more graphic novels like the Saga series. They’re not super-heroes, they’re not even regular heroes, and they’re flawed without being tragic. They’re all smart-asses, the lot of them, and the quips have me snorting in inappropriate places. Also they’re written for adults. These aren’t books that have an ageless appeal. These are books that will have you slamming the cover shut if your kid tries to peek over your shoulder. And that’s fun.
I want more books where the bad guy wins. I don’t get this obsession people have with ‘happy endings’. Sometimes its more fun if the protagonist doesn’t survive. If good doesn’t triumph over evil. Sometimes you want to watch someone try desperately to save the world, and the world burn anyways!
I want more science fiction and horror by non-English writers. My recent foray into Mexican science fiction made it clear that it’s not easy to find work from other countries. Not only do I want a chance to read it personally, but I want to start highlighting work from these writers on the site. I just have to find them first!
I want more post-apocalyptic books where humans aren’t the real monsters. C’mon, y’all, can we please bring the scary back? I read to escape the fact that humanity is a bucket of bodily waste fermenting in the sun. Give me scary actual monsters, please!
I would like to see less ambiguous horror. Sometimes I just like a straight up good vs. evil battle to the end. Whatever the end may be. It doesn’t necessarily have to be good always wins in the end but sometimes it’s nice for the battleground to be clear.
I would also like to read a thriller now and then that has decent detectives. I mean ones who aren’t drunks (yet still somehow manage to be brilliant), are incompetent and unhinged but somehow miraculously able to pull the case together because they’re just that good.
I’d like to see anthologies that are based on source material that stays a little closer to the source material. Sometimes it feels like some authors take the opportunity to just dump some random crap into it without any thought or referencing it in any meaningful way.
Please, please more anthologies or books using the King in Yellow. I love the original stories. The books and stories are usually better than the original source so I would like to see more, please.
This is more of a book/YouTube/Audible thing but I’d like better readings of older material. I love classic horror and with so many new/old ones being re-printed all the time I’d love to see more professionals tackle them. LivreVox has some good ones but they stick mostly to the more well-known ones and the quality varies from reader to reader.
Thus concludes our Wistful Reader Wishlist.
What about you? What is on your list?
You asked for more stories of people with a range of mental health issues? A friend of mine is having a book published in August that might be of interest to you.
http://prospectivepress.com/mouse.html
That does look good !! Thanks Brian!
I agree with you all, Horror isn’t quite as Horrible anymore and I miss that. I have shifted a little to more mysteries than my true love of Horror. Right now reading Billy Adler Jr.’s (A great author btw) No Time To Stay Goodbye. It’s brilliant. But I would love a great horror read, Scary may be it!
I just finished a gory horror fic, though I can’t say it was scary. It was a monster based bit of fun called Draculas. A collaboration between 4 well_known authors. I will look up the book you mentioned!
I could go for more works like Saga, too. 🙂
Have you read most of the volumes? I just finished 4.
I agree with many points, also about scary and things ending up badly. I also share your point of view about thrillers. Recently I’ve reviewed some that you might be interested in. I particularly enjoyed this one… http://www.authortranslatorolga.com/2017/04/10/bookreview-1105-murders-the-inspector-sheehan-mysteries-book-2-brianohare26/
I put scary on my list too. There is a sad lack of scary monsters and genuine frightening books. I thought it was just me getting crotchety but I don’t think that’s the case.
Oh and that anthology thing? Ugh, I so 1 million percent agree.
Valancourt is doing some fabulous things with older works on audio.
It’s definitely not you. Horror has become watered down in general.