Top Ten Things That Will Make Me Instantly Want To Read A Book

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I’d like to think I’m not particularly fussy when it comes to picking books to read. That I like to read widely and experimentally. And while this is broadly true, it’s also fair to say that I am a judgemental bitch who definitely makes snap decisions about books without sufficient evidence to back up said decisions. So, in the interests of calling me out on this terrible habit of mine, here are my top ten book turn-ons for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday: the things that will make me want to read a book straight away, laid bare. 

1. Cute books about geeky characters. I’m talking Life in Outer Space, Fangirl, The Geek Feminist Revolution. Because I love to be among my own people.

2. Any popular science writer who’s described as ‘this generation’s Carl Sagan’. I sincerely doubt it, sir, but I’m willing to give you a chance.

3. Basically any book about Jane Austen. Because it’s me, people.

My reaction to just about any book about Jane Austen. (Image Source)

4. Eighteenth and nineteenth-century female writers that nobody has ever heard of, and who have suddenly emerged out of the woodwork after two hundred years and become A Thing. One hundred years ago they were pulp fiction, now we study them in universities. Take that, patriarchy!

5. Slavic fairy tales. No particular reason.

6. Any book with the word ‘Museum’ in the title. I could explain why, but it would probably take too long and involve several lengthy and teary segues about my childhood. Or it could just be another weird interest of mine.

7. Diasporic fiction. Extra points if the writer is from former Yugoslavia. What’s that? Did I hear you say ‘niche interests unlikely to ever result in a permanent teaching position at a reputable university’? Well, I never.

8. Any book described (by respectable scholarly sources, of course) as ‘a seminal work of postmodernist fiction’. This is basically a guarantee that I will want to read the book, no matter how long, complicated, or wanky it actually is.

Reading postmodern fiction is a rollercoaster. (Image Source)

9. Fantasy books with snarky supporting characters. I just think the world can never have enough of them.

10. Hipster covers. Urgh, I know, I’m the worst trend-following-sheep-type-person ever. But answer me this: if hipsters were so bad, would we have given them control of our dogs?