Top Ten Tuesday: Things That Make Me Instantly NOT Want to Read a Book

Posted on by BonnieReadsAndWrites

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

This week’s topic is the opposite of last week. Last week was: Top Ten Things That Make Me Want To Read A Book. This week’s topic is: Top Ten Things That Make Me NOT Want to Read a Book.

TOP TEN THINGS THAT MAKE ME NOT WANT TO READ A BOOK

  1. The “shirtless man” book cover. Put your shirt on, dude.
  2. Politics. Keep current politics away from my reading/reviewing. I want my reading and my blog to bring people together, not drive them apart.
  3. Horror. I just can’t handle it and it affects my dreams. I do like the paranormal genre (ghosts, werewolves, etc., as long as it’s not too bloody or scary).
  4. Romance as a primary genre. There has to be something else going on. Romance can’t be the primary genre. If there’s a mystery or a historical event or some time travel, then go ahead and throw in some romance.
  5. Too many sex scenes. To me, that means the author was short on plot, so they threw in a bunch of nipples and quivering loins. As I said in a review once, “If you’ve seen one nipple, you’ve seen them all.”
  6. Present tense. I know it’s popular right now, but I like my books old school. I have read a few books in spite of that and enjoyed some of them.
  7. Second person. Ah…The horrors. I’ve read exactly one book in second person. Never again.
  8. Setting a book in a particular place and then attacking the people who live there. I went on a rip-roaring 1-star review once when a traditionally published author spent a whole book attacking the people of the mountains of Kentucky, where her cozy mystery was set.
  9. Disguising a book as something it’s not. I can think of several books that I chose because of the cover and the blurb that turned out to be political books, which I do not read.
  10. The “F” word. Now I know that the “F” word can be used as a noun, verb, adjective, and dangling participle, but come on. There are other words out there. I think that using too many “F” words shows a lack of creativity. I’ll be hiding in the corner.

What are your reasons to NOT read a book?

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Published by BonnieReadsAndWrites

I love to read and write book reviews in my free time. I review advance review copies of books on Netgalley for various publishers. I am also a reviewer for Historical Novels Review Magazine, the magazine of the Historical Novel Society. I review books from publishers of all size, large to small. I have a special place in my heart for indie authors. I will sometimes post a little writing that I might dabble in occasionally. I also am lucky enough to live in the Smoky Mountains, so I'll be sharing photos of the beauty around me from time to time.

54 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday: Things That Make Me Instantly NOT Want to Read a Book”

  1. That is a great list, Bonnie! I have to agree with all of them. I never read or heard of a book written in the second person?

    1. I read one. It was awful. It is basically like this. Instead of “Cathy walked into the room,” It is “You walk into the room.” It is the narrator addressing the reader as if they are a character in a book.

  4. I agree with these points, especially the first one! I can’t do horror either, which is too bad as some very good authors write Horror. I also can’t read stories with too much violence, especially towards children (and god forbid – animals) LIke you, I get nightmares.

  5. I agree and read a lot of stories about war. I’m a history buff and yes there is a lot of violence in our history. It is how it is portrayed. It doesn’t need to be overly graphic.

  6. Your list is the same as mine, with the exception of #6 and #7. If present tense or second person are appropriate for the story, they can be very effective. However, they can go horribly wrong.

  8. I really like your list, although I enjoy reading historical romance books (as long as they’re clean). One thing I would add is this: I will not read any book that promotes witches (or pagans in an otherwise Christian setting) as heroes/heroines.

    1. I have not seen any witches in Christian books or Christian settings. I tend to divide “witch” books into two categories: Is it really about witchcraft? I’m not interested. Is it just about people born with special powers like Harry Potter? I’m okay with it.

      1. I should have clarified that I sometimes see historical romance books where there are “witches” or “Druids” that are presented in a positive way according to the blurb. You are right that actual Christian books would never have this. I also don’t mind “special powers” like Harry Potter. It made it more of a fantasy book, in my opinion.

  10. I spy several things on your list I agree with. I’m not a fan, in general, of political fiction reads. I have read about a couple that seem like they could be fun, but I haven’t bought them because… I just don’t think I’ll like them THAT well. I also agree about too many of the f-word. Like… let’s not overuse that. I think too, any term or word, loses the impact it has if it’s overdone. Thanks so much for visiting my website today!

  14. Pretty much agreeing with all of these! I don’t mind the “F-word” too much, but if it’s overused then it just gets tiresome! I don’t care for the politics either and the shirtless man cover is getting a little old for me too.

    Thanks for visiting my TTT!

  17. I agree with most of these. Present tense is something I actually don’t mind. Horror is another, although I only read it occasionally since, like you, it can definitely give me nightmares and I value my sleep too much for that!

    Happy TTT!

    Susan
    http://www.blogginboutbooks.com

  20. I don’t like the shirtless men covers either! I’m also not a romance reader and won’t read a book where it is the primary genre, I don’t mind it as a subplot but even then I can be picky because so often I’ll pick up a book because I think it’s fantasy and then the entire plot turns out to be romance! Ideally if there is romance in a book, it needs to be a subplot and not overshadow the main plot of a book. I also agree on sex scenes, they make me feel uncomfortable. Horror isn’t my favourite genre, but I will still sometimes read it, generally if the book is more horror-lite, so spooky rather than outright scary.
    My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2023/05/30/top-ten-tuesday-422/

  21. I agree heavily with politics. I want to read and enjoy what’s going on and half the time when politics is involved it won’t make me happy…in any way.

    Here’s my TTT <3

  22. I’m not a fan of horror or the ‘shirtless man’ cover either, though I do appreciate romance as a genre. It’s a no for second person POV though!

  23. Great list! You’ve got so many good ones on here – I read one book in second person and it was such a weird experience. It took me nearly half the book to get used to it.

  24. You highlighted many of the things I dislike. I’m not sure any of these are 100% dealbreakers for me, but I’m less likely to choose a book for many of these reasons. We all have biases, and I understand that some of those views will come out in our writing, but I don’t want to be hit over the head with the author’s agenda throughout the story.

  26. Second person is a good one! That is very difficult to pull off. While I prefer my romances not to have shirtless men, I will still read them if friends recommend them. I’m all for the new trend of giving them new covers, though. 🙂

  27. Great list, Bonnie. Besides the fact that I do enjoy a romance book (not steamy though), I agree with all of these. I just finished the ARC of a book set in present tense and it took me a few chapters to settle in to it. It was a great story, but that bothered me about it.

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