Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. They’d love to share their lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

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This weeks Top Ten topic is …

Top Ten Words/Topics That Will Make You NOT pick up a book

I’m afraid this week will just be a list from me as I’m not good at searching for quirky/funny pictures. Sorry.

1. For fans of X. Or some variation thereof. Invariably the book with the sticker that contains this wonderful statement is NOTHING LIKE the book they are comparing it to. NOTHING. Or, the ‘X’ is a book I don’t like so I’m left wondering if the sticker is accurate or not. Either way, that book is probably NOT going home with me.
2. Period drama. This isn’t always true, but period genre is generally something that is more miss than hit for me. I’m okay with alternate histories where more modern attitudes are shown by the characters, as these seem to be pulled off better.
3. Science Fiction/Fantasy. This may seem a little strange seeing as I LOVE THE HITCHHICKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY and quite a few of Isaac Asimov’s books but – and this is a big but – modern books in this genre seem to be pretty much miss for me. I think because they quite often blur the line between fiction and fantasy with their science, and that just kills my interest.
4. Horror/gore. It’s just not my thing. I did quite enjoy the HANNIBAL LECTER SERIES, but that was more psychological than anything. I don’t like the out-and-out horror, with lots of violence, torture, and gore.
5. Retelling of book X. If I liked the original, why would I want to read a re-telling when I could read the original? If I didn’t like the original, why would this sell the book to me? Just saying.
6. Second person narration. I know that this is technically cheating, as second person narration is not a word or topic BUT it is the thing most certain on this list to guarentee I will not read a book. Ever.
7. Religion. I’m happy to read books with angels/demons/gods just as long as the author is not too heavy with their religious ideology. I don’t like feeling like the Bible/any other religious text is being rammed down my throat or the author is trying to convert me. To be on the safe side, generally I try to avoid.
8. Time travel. I’ve never seen this done well.
9. Travel in general. I’m including not just round the world trips, but also road trips. For me (generally) books that are very travel based seem a bit…well, forced. Sometimes it seems to be the only way that character A will meet character B, and they’ll fall in love whilst having adventure on the way… Although, to be fair, I do love some books which involve travel like the REVENANTS TRILOGY by Amy Plum, INK by Amanda Sun, and ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS by Stephanie Perkins.
10. Classics/Modern Classics. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule but I can quite honestly say that I have read all the books in this category that I’m interested in – and some I soooo wasn’t. My dislike of classics is probably due to the fact that you cannot study English Literature without being forced to read some god-awful books, most of which are usually classics of some sort.

What are the top ten words/topics that make you NOT pick up a book? Let me know in the comments below, or link back to your Top Ten post so I can see what makes your list.