Fighting Dreamer

Top Ten Favorite Book Covers Of Books I've Read

Boy21 by Matthew Quick 

Angelfall by Susan Ee

Shadows by Paula Weston

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto

How to Repair a Mechanical Heart by J.C. Lillis

Title Likes, Dislikes and Everything in between

LIKES:

Name(s) in the title - Naming a book after its main character is not very original, yet I rather like this practice. I don't have a logical reason for it, other than it feels somehow... classic. Not to mention that it makes it easier to remember the title.  Names have been serving as titles since the beginning. Just think about books like Oliver Twist, Jane Eyre or Romeo and Juliet. So authors like Shakespeare and Charles Dickens certainly knew something.  Also, I personally like even more those titles where the protagonist's name is just part of the title, not the entire title: Anna and the French Kiss, Goodbye Tsugumi, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, 

Locations  - put one of my dream cities/countries name in the title and I'm sold: Anna and the French Kiss - since I ♡ anything French

Title is a whole sentence - It's like a sneak peek into the author's mind/writing style. And I love how one sentence can tell the whole story of the book. How brilliant is that? Of course only after you have read the book that you will be able to fully understand the meaning - A Monster Calls, Last Night I Sang to the Monster, How to Repair a Mechanical Heart, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Words like monster, butterfly, kill(er), serial killer, traveller, secret(s) or music in the title - and that was a sneak peek into my mind. Well, my "bookish mind".

Memorable titles - This is a given I think. The more memorable the title, the better.

CAN GO EITHER WAY:

When the title is "different" - Different, even provocative, is good: Boy21, Suicide Watch, Teeth, The Sea of Tranquility, Slammed, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
But there are titles that are just too weird, too... outlandish - The Cat Who Sniffed Glue, Hellucination, Drink, Slay, Love. And I doubt that I can manage to say out loud I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems by Cats, Sexing the Cherry or I Was An Alien Cat Toy and keep a straight face. These titles are so bad, they are almost good. No, not really.

 Words like love, kiss, angel or vampire in the title - These words feel so...overused to me. But it depends on the story inside; a good story could make me like the cliched title.

Single word titles - Usually I prefer long(ish) titles, but as long as it's eye-catching and unique, I'll probably like it - Teeth, Slammed, Slated, It

Too short/long titles - Too short could equal unremarkable, which is never good when it comes to book titles. At the same time, titles with 10+ words can look overachieving, and not in a good way - The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. But I'd pick a book with a long title over one with a short, but dull sounding title any day.

DISLIKES:

Hate the book, hate the title - I tend to feel differently about the title before and after I read the book. Doesn't everyone? That's why when the story leaves a sour taste in my mouth that can easily make me to hate the previously loved title as well - Beautiful Disaster, The Fine Art of Truth or Dare or The Perks of Being a Wallflower (yes, I didn't love, or even like that book)

Title doesn't (seem to) match the story - it's one of my pet peeves - Beautiful Creatures (someone please explain me this title!) Forever (totally misleading, imo)

What kind of titles do you like/dislike? Are you like me? Do your feelings change towards the title once you read the book? Is there a title that you adored, up until you read the book? Or vice versa?

Top Ten Books Dealing With Tough Subjects (abuse, suicide, grief etc or something personally hard for you)

Now we are talking. Last week it took me FOREVER to come up with something, this time? Minutes.

Suicide Watch by Kelley York - it's about suicide, duh (and cancer)

Slammed by Colleen Hoover - themes of grief and loss

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - "a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger's Syndrome." - from the blurb - Brilliant novel!

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer - a moving story of a nine years old boy trying to come grips with a tremendous loss

The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama - explores the topics of illness and mourning - one of the saddest and most beautiful stories I ever read.

READ-A-THON

I'm not sure how much time I'll have to read, but it's THE Bout of Books, THE Readathon, so I have to participate. Wish me luck and good luck to all my fellow readathoners too!

GOALS:

- finish at least 3 books

- take part in a couple of challenges

- make it to at least one twitter party

BOOKS:

In the Woods by Tana French 

Being Henry David by Cal Armistead

The 5th Wave by Rick Jancey

Reclamation by Vee Hoffman

Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins

Updates:
In the Woods by Tana French - 5/14

Challenge: Create a Cover hosted by I Talk Books!
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins:

Bookish Likes, Dislikes and Everything in between

Heroine chooses another guy over her first love - when it comes to book romances I can be a hopeless romantic, giggling over the romantic scenes and awwing over the happily ever afters and all that mush, but at the same time I find that I have a hard time buying those 'first love=last love' story lines. It happens so rarely in real life and even when it does, don't judge, I find it more boring that romantic. I mean I guess it can be great in real life, but in book I want more tension, more thrill and just more.
Heroine chooses bad boy over good boy - literary bad boys are one of my weaknesses. I simply can't resist them. My knees buckle and my wallet gives in, just at the promise of meeting a new bad boy. And I almost always "Team Bad Boy".

Good girl goes bad and loves it - I'm such a good girl in real life, so I live vicariously through those bad girls ;) I especially love when good girls find their hidden bad side.
Committed long-term relationships - I don't really like those stories where the couple only gets together on the last pages. I mean it's nice to have a happy ending and all, but I also want to see them together as a couple. I want to see them doing coupley things. I want to go dates with them, I want to hear them fight and make up. I want glimpses into their relationship. If not in the main part of the book, then at least in the form of an epilogue.
Stand alones - I'm definitely one of those readers who prefer stand alones over series. Part of that is because I grew up on stand alones. So for me, one story=one book. Also, I don't appreciate the long waiting periods between installments. Not to mention the dreaded cliffhangers that seem to come hand in hand with most series.

COULD TURN OUT EITHER WAY:

Insta-love - First off, we have to distinguish between insta-love and insta-lust. I don't believe in insta-love. Insta-lust or instant attraction? Hell, yes! Insta-love? No, no, no just no. And while I can't stand the insta-love trope, I can read and enjoy insta-lust. In fact, those are my so called guilty pleasure books.
Love triangles -  another thing that I'm not exactly a fan of. Or maybe it's just that I have read so much of it that I developed this Pavlovian reaction where whenever I see the word 'love triangle' I automatically cringe. But most romance and ya have them so I can bear it, if the story and the characters are otherwise interesting. 

7. Dystopian dreams and disappointments

 Dystopian is one of my favorite genres to read (and watch). And I especially like dystopian young adult novels. It brings together my love of coming of age stories and my fascination with dystopian societies. Combine it with good writing and I won't be able to put it down.

Furthermore, the genre is packed with strong leads that I can not only root for, but admire as well. I wouldn't say that I can fully relate to these kick-ass heroes and heroines, I never had to kill anyone/anything in order to survive and I never had enemies who wanted my head, but I can still feel for them and sympathise with their struggles. Ultimately, seeing them overcome their fears and defeat their enemies is what delights me the most. 

However, while I still enjoy the offerings of the genre I end up being disappointed more than not. And that's because I rarely like how they end. Or more specifically, how they don't end - because yes, the book has ended, no more pages to read, no next book, but also no closure. And books with loose or cop-out endings leave me unsatisfied and more than a little unhappy.

 "it's the journey that matters" - nice line, but not when it comes to books. After reading hundreds of pages I want, no deserve a medal a decent ending. I want to end the book with a satisfied sigh not ready to throw it at the walls. But lately it's mostly the latter. Sigh.

 I can see what's the problem though. It's easy to create a dystopia. You just need to make up a society where everything that could go wrong did. You will need lots of poor/suffering people who live in factions/districts, a totalitarian regime complete with its evil dictator, some inhuman regulations/deadly games, a number of weird uncommon symbols and you're set. Abracadabra you have your dystopia. 

I might sounded sarcastic here, but I actually don't mind the lack of world-building in dystopians. I can forget and forgive almost everything as long as the book entertained me enough and had a well tied up ending. 

 I want to feel that I've read something worth reading. I want both(!) the protagonist(s) and the world to get their happy end. I want to see that things has changed and got better. Is that too much to ask? Probably. 

 Making a utopia or at least an operable society out of dystopia is no easy feat to achieve. One of the reasons for that lies in the protagonist. How could a teen main character change a whole society successfully and without boring the reader to death? I just can't see it happen. Therefore, while I hate the no-ending endings, I have to admit that I wouldn't be able to figure out how to do it better either. But hey, I'm the reader, not the writer. 

It doesn't mean that I have to like or accept it as a 'no can do'. As long there is another dystopian book out there to discover, there is hope. I won't be giving up on the genre because I believe that one day I'll come across the one - the perfect dystopia. Sounds like a paradox, but here's to hoping....

What do you think about dystopians? Is there hope for this doomed genre? 

Do you have a favorite that you would recommend?

How do you cope with those no-ending endings?

Previous rants: 

6. Addicted to guilty pleasure books

5. Books I Thought I'd LOVE, but didn't 

... More