Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Top Ten Tuesday: Good Trends/Bad Trends


I had a great time figuring out my answers to this week's topic over at The Broke and the Bookish, which is to list our favorite, or not so favorite, bookish trends. I came up with five each.

Bookish Trends I Want to Keep

1. Popularity of YA: I can remember when there wasn't such a thing, and it's been fun to see this genre explode thanks to Harry and Edward and Katniss (or should we say Jo, Stephenie and Suzanne?) I hope it keeps up and I hope that the competition in this genre is such that the books just keep getting better and better. And that even if Harry is "over", there will always be something else to follow. It kinda makes me sad that I wasn't a YA during this fun YA explosion, but oh well. I can pretend to be one.

2. Books to Movies: I really enjoy seeing my favorite books on the screen, and this sure seems to be the thing to do with favorite books these days. Granted, sometimes it's a bit of a disappointment, but that does not ruin the book for me by any means. And sometimes the movie cast takes over the cast in my head, which does make me a little sad, but that's also something I easily get over.

3. Accessible Authors: It used to be that authors were the unknown entity that some how came up with this cool book, and there was really no way to let them know what you thought, unless of course you wrote a LETTER or something. Now, with the social media age, we can follow their every move, their routine, their thoughts, their successes and failures, and when the next book is coming out. It's awesome, and a blast for those of us who enjoy author stalking! :) I hope authors continue to use the technology to let us know what's coming up  and how things are going.

4. Online Bookishness: From Goodreads, to Amazon, to book bloggers, it's fun to be part of this online love of books, and to be able to find a place to indulge the hobby and spread the love. I can't imagine the world without it now, and it wasn't too long ago there was nothing and nowhere to go.


5. A Plethora of Utah Authors: The author crowd continues to grow and grow and grow here. I guess it's a trendy sort of thing, and one I hope keeps up! It's very fun to have been following this phenomena these past few years and to see many of them go from "aspiring" to published.... or published small to published big. Or not well known to New York Times Bestselling! I love it.  


Bookish Trends I Want to Trash

1. Supernatural Overload: While I enjoy reading books about supernatural characters, it just seems to be a little over the top these days, and I find myself enjoying even more the books about real people. So I hope this trend mellows out sometime soon and we find a good balance between the two.

2. Too Many Trilogies: What's up with the trilogies people?? It's all a marketing ploy, is it not? Or have authors suddenly realized, as a group, that they can only tell their story in books of three? Gah, it makes me crazy.

3. Same Old Love Triangles: Again, love triangles can be fun, but they are getting old, and predictable. Someone needs to come up with something new that gives their characters love conflicts!

4. Book Stores Closing: Let's just stop right now and have no more of that! And let's really REALLY hope this trend doesn't spill over to libraries.

5. Perverting the Classics: Okay, so I've not read one of these yet, because the whole idea curdles my blood. But I just don't think I could stand to read beloved Jane Austen's stuff turned into the above mentioned supernatural! Someone should have outlawed this! Is there not a rule against this sort of thing? Make. It. Stop.

Very fun list to make this go around! I look forward to everyone else's lists to see if we have things in common, or to see what trends I totally forgot about.


11 comments:

  1. I feel that trilogies and series are getting a bit over whelming. What happened to a good stand alone novel?

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  2. I agree....I think with all of them! Oh my gosh! Can it be we agree? ;)

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  3. I'm sick of trilogies and love triangles too. I'd love for more stand-alone books. And, I love for other conflict besides love triangles.

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  4. Love these lists! I feel the same way about them too. I completely agree with the love triangles too - isn't there enough tension in relationships without another love interest?

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  5. Hey, I left a comment earlier but it doesn't seem to be showing up. I was just shocked that we agreed on every point! ;)

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  6. Lisa: Yes, what happened to them?

    Jenni: What would be a good new love conflict? Let's ponder...

    Laura: Thanks!

    Jenny: Weird, I saw it on my phone earlier, but it's not here. But yes, we agree! We do sometimes, right?

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  7. I love your lists! Perfect!

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  8. Oh, I agree with lots of these! I'm so pleased that YA has exploded over the last few years and also that authors have become so much more accessible through social media. It's so much fun to receive tweets from an author!

    And what *is* up with those trilogies? Why always 3 books? And what's wrong with a standalone? *sighs*

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  9. I also wish they would stop perverting the classics. Thanks for stopping by.

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  10. I am so with you on that classics one!

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