Now that I think about it, reading a hundred books won't be too bad, seeing as how my favorite genres are trashy children's books and trashier romance. I read a lot of fantasy and a lot of YA, though my to-read list coughs up a classic or literary fiction once in a while. If there are lesbians in a book, I'll read it. If there are dragons in a book, I'll read it. And if there are lesbian dragons, I might actually, like, pay money for it.
That being said, I don't like every lesbian dragon romance that comes along. Here's a short explanation of my tastes, organized with a classic book report template under the readmore.
That being said, I don't like every lesbian dragon romance that comes along. Here's a short explanation of my tastes, organized with a classic book report template under the readmore.
PLOT
I have a predilection for the fast-paced. I can't stand the fantasy novel cold open where the writer borrows heavily from their eighth-grade geography textbook:
The city-state of H'qcow lay on the delta of the Moodockian continent, bordered by slow-moving rivers named after each of the ancient gods. Temples to Bovine and Ca'ttel sat on each river, and bargemen often docked their boats for a moment of prayer. The primary industry of H'qcow relied on those bargemen and the parcels (mostly cows) they carried, and the GDP of the city-state was, although difficult to calculate, due to the fact that the H'qcowine used bars of frozen milk as currency, higher than those of its neighbors.
Yeah, no. Boring as hell.
If a writer has multiple plot threads but only one less tedious than the rest, I reserve the right to skip to the interesting bits and read all of those first. I like the books where you can't skip better, though, whether it's because there's only one tight narrative or because different plot threads affect each other too much for me to just read one in isolation. Examples are, respectively, Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and Hiromu Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist (which is a manga and technically a book, anyway).
If a writer has multiple plot threads but only one less tedious than the rest, I reserve the right to skip to the interesting bits and read all of those first. I like the books where you can't skip better, though, whether it's because there's only one tight narrative or because different plot threads affect each other too much for me to just read one in isolation. Examples are, respectively, Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and Hiromu Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist (which is a manga and technically a book, anyway).
SETTING
I like weird cities, like The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland's city of bread and The Scar's city of ships. Non-European fantasy settings are dope as hell, and I'll always have a soft spot for American dreams. I like getting to see what the ordinary people are doing between all the coronations and mafia wars, and books that extend their sense of place to the janitors and insurance salesmen of the world have a special place in my heart. And I like seeing the untold parts of history, like the 1930s German jazz scene in Half-Blood Blues. Colleges are good. Libraries are even better.
CHARACTER
Would it surprise anyone if I said I liked girls? Because I do: girls who are sharp and sour, girls who are ambitious and hide it poorly, girls who like baking and giving their hearts away. Of course I like boys, too, but the female character has a special place in my heart.
Generally, I'm fond of unlikable women: selfish and impulsive and mercenary. I like Mosca Mye, grubby urchin who speaks lies to power and loves words, and literally fearless lesbian Mexican werewolf Loup Garron, and Frankie-Landau Banks, who wants to get into the old boys' club and make it her own. I like women who want to change the world, and women who want to change themselves.
Generally, I'm fond of unlikable women: selfish and impulsive and mercenary. I like Mosca Mye, grubby urchin who speaks lies to power and loves words, and literally fearless lesbian Mexican werewolf Loup Garron, and Frankie-Landau Banks, who wants to get into the old boys' club and make it her own. I like women who want to change the world, and women who want to change themselves.
CONCLUSION, OR: WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GOING TO READ?
I've been letting my Goodreads to-read list and library availability dictate my reading for ages, now, but I'll deviate from it for some good YA or decent romance. Right now I'm coming up against a spate of children's novels, but the list'll go from semi-autobiographical literary novels to trashy urban fantasy real quick. I don't know if I'm going to like what I read next, or even what it'll be. I guess it's time to find out.