Top Ten Tuesday #4: Bookish Wishlist

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Hey everyone! Welcome back to another Top Ten Tuesday. Isn’t this just everyone’s favorite part of the week? I know I always look forward to it.

For anyone who may not know, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by our bookish friends over at The Broke and the Bookish. Check our their blog for weekly topics!

This week is top ten things on our reading wishlist. For once, I actually had a problem narrowing it down to ten. Because there are a lot of things I want to see in more books. Luckily, a lot of these things do exist in books but… we can never have enough!

10. Peter Pan retellings, especially dark ones. I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of Peter Pan. A boy who comes in the middle of the night and kidnaps children from their beds with a promise of adventure… Interesting. Not to mention, there are some seriously dark undertones in the original work. (Like the implication that Peter kills the lost boys when they get too old.) The Child Thief is one that’s on my radar. And I feel like I really want to get into the show Once Upon a Time just for the evil Peter Pan storyline. (The first time I ever saw Robbie Kay I thought to myself that he looked like an evil Peter Pan and WHAT DO YOU KNOW. Excellent casting.)

9. On that same note, more King Arthur/Merlin/Camelot retellings. My father’s name is Arthur, and my maternal grandfather used to call him “The King.” So I think because of that, we always loved the King Arthur legend. Merlin on BBC is definitely my favorite show of all time, and I loved that they messed with the legend a little by making Merlin and Arthur contemporaries. So more Arthur retellings, please.

8. Beauty and the Geek. I will never not want to read about a hot girl falling for a geeky guy. The Girl Next Door and She’s Out of My League are films that come to mind. Ships like Ross/Rachel from Friends, Chuck/Sarah from Chuck, and Leonard/Penny from The Big Bang Theory are also faves. I will never not like this trope.

7. Circus/Carnival books. I love the circus. Always have. And I’d love to read more about it! Especially if there’s mystery. Unfortunately, The Night Circus wasn’t for me. But I’m looking forward to seeing if I enjoy Caraval.

6. Love triangle variations. I have accepted that love triangles aren’t going anywhere. People wouldn’t keep writing them if people weren’t reading them. YA love triangles typically involve two men having feelings for our female protagonist. Maybe instead of the female protagonist being the object of affection, she and another girl both like the same guy. Maybe a guy and girl both like the same bisexual guy or girl. Maybe it’s three guys. Maybe it’s three girls. Maybe Person A likes Person B but Person B likes person C and Person C likes Person A. Again, I still would prefer no love triangle. But if I have to keep finding them, a little variety would be nice.

5. A love interest who is not described as being the hottest guy on the planet. Let’s face it. Not every person in the world is stunningly attractive. Yes, I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder. No, I’m not asking to have anyone’s looks mocked. But God forbid I read a Cassandra Clare book and not have every guy described as being drop dead gorgeous. I’d love to see two characters who don’t particularly find each other attractive and they grow more attractive to each other as their feelings grow. Something other than, “Oh my God. My friends and I all stopped dead in our tracks because he was STUNNING.” (And no, the plain Jane girls who think they’re ugly but are actually gorgeous do not count.)

4. Every book being released in hardcover and paperback at the same time. I pretty much only buy hardcover books. Probably because I don’t buy a lot of books. So when I do, I don’t mind splurging. But how annoying is it when I want to buy a book and there’s only a paperback? (Mostly I’m talking about Captive Prince. I can’t even lie.) Or for my paperbacks-preferred friends, how annoying is it that new releases are almost always hardcover only? I know they do this because money… But hey, it’s a wish list, right?

3. Strong female characters who aren’t necessarily physically strong. Kestrel from The Winner’s Trilogy by Marie Rutkoski is first to come to mind. She could handle a sword, sure, but her strength came from her mind. Give me a woman who outsmarts all the men over a woman who can sword fight with them any day. Don’t get me wrong, I love my physically strong ladies and want them too. Brienne of Tarth, I’m looking at you. But let’s get rid of this idea that a woman is only strong if she’s physically strong.

2. Roman-inspired fantasies. (Especially gladiators.) I find most fantasies seem to be based on medieval England. Now I love medieval England. (Merlin is my favorite TV show and is based on medieval England.) But a little variety would be nice! I particularly enjoyed An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir and Mark of the Thief by Jennifer A. Nielsen for their Roman-inspired and straight Roman settings.

1. LGBT+ characters. For me, specifically, I just want lots of books with gay boys. Yes, I’m one of those. I don’t have any particular interest in lesbian fiction, but I definitely think we need more of it. (For the record, I do not dislike lesbian fiction. But whereas seeing m/m relationships in books makes me want to pick it up more, a lesbian relationship has no more or less appeal to me than a heterosexual one.) I’ve yet to read any books with transgender characters or characters on the ace spectrum. But I think it’s important that we’re all able to find ourselves in book characters. So representation is key, even beyond gay and lesbian.

What are some of the things on your bookish wishlist? Do you agree with any of mine? Leave me links to your TTTs below so I can check them out!