Bloggin' 'bout Books: 04/25/17

2026 Literary Escapes Challenge

- Alabama

- ~~Alaska~~ (1)

- Arizona

- Arkansas

- ~~California~~ (7)

- ~~Colorado~~ (1)

- ~~Connecticut~~ (1)

- Delaware

- Florida

- ~~Georgia~~ (1)

- ~~Hawaii~~ (1)

- Idaho

- ~~Illinois~~ (2)

- ~~Indiana~~ (1)

- ~~Iowa~~ (1)

- Kansas

- ~~Kentucky~~ (1)

- ~~Louisiana~~ (2)

- ~~Maine~~ (3)

- ~~Maryland~~ (1)

- ~~Massachusetts~~ (1)

- ~~Michigan~~ (2)

- ~~Minnesota~~ (2)

- ~~Mississippi~~ (1)

- Missouri

- Montana

- Nebraska

- Nevada

- New Hampshire

- ~~New Jersey~~ (1)

- New Mexico

- ~~New York~~ (4)

- North Carolina

- North Dakota

- ~~Ohio~~ (3)

- Oklahoma

- ~~Oregon~~ (2)

- ~~Pennsylvania~~ (1)

- ~~Rhode Island~~ (1)

- South Carolina

- ~~South Dakota~~ (1)

- Tennessee

- ~~Texas~~ (2)

- ~~Utah~~ (1)

- ~~Vermont~~ (1)

- ~~Virginia~~ (1)

- ~~Washington~~ (1)

- West Virginia

- ~~Wisconsin~~ (1)

- Wyoming

- Washington, D.C.*

International:

- Australia (6)

- Austria (1)

- Canada (2)

- England (19)

- Fiji (1)

- France (1)

- Ireland (1)

- Italy (1)

- Mexico (1)

- New Zealand (1)

- Norway (1)

- Scotland (1)

- The Bahamas (1)

- Vatican City (1)

Top Ten Tuesday: Automatic Book Turn-offs

9:41 AM

It's Tuesday, which means it's time again for my favorite weekly bookish meme, Top Ten Tuesday. Participating is fun and easy. If you've never done it before, hop on over to The Broke and the Bookish, read over the rules, make your own list, and voilá, you're in!

Last week, we talked about the things that entice us to pick up books. This week, we're chatting about the opposite. Which things make you avoid a book like the plague? What are your reading turn-offs?

Here are my Top Ten Things That Will Instantly Make Me Not Want to Read a Book:

1. Books that are excessively long. I read a fair amount of chunksters, mind you, but I definitely think twice before picking them up. Also, if a book is endless for no apparent reason, I will most likely not continue reading.

2. Erotica. No. Just ... no.

3. Half-naked people on the cover. These books get an automatic bypass from me. Scantily-clad folks on the cover = a sure sign a book is too "spicy" for my tastes.

4. Naughty words in the title. Do you have little kids? Then you know why you don't want to read books with swear words on the cover. "Mommy, that book has bad words! Why are you reading a book with bad words? What does **&&^^!! mean?" Yeah.

5. Self-published books. I know, I know, but I've read too many terribly-written, poorly-edited self-published novels to want to read more. In general, I don't read books that haven't been looked over by a traditional publisher. Not that I haven't read terribly-written, poorly-edited traditionally-published books, but still ...

6. Books with poorly written/edited queries. This one goes hand-in-hand with #5. I get dozens of queries every day from authors/publishers/publicists asking me to review the book(s) they have on offer. A clever, well-written/edited query goes a long way toward making me want to read a book. The opposite is also true. If a query contains sloppy prose, typos/grammatical errors, and flat writing, it's a pretty good indication that the book in question is going to be the same way. No thanks.

7. Poetry. Unless a poem rhymes and is written by Dr. Seuss, I probably won't understand it. Poetry makes me feel dumb, so I avoid it.

8. Short Stories. In spite of what I said in #1, I'm definitely the kind of reader who likes to sink into a rich, detailed novel where I can really get to know the characters and the world in which they live. Short stories don't allow this kind of depth, so I rarely read them.

9. Certain authors. Just like I have auto-read authors, I have auto not-read authors. If I've read enough of an author's books to know they're just not my cup of tea, I don't pick up their work.

10. Deep, dense tomes. My husband is a big fan of deep doctrinal books on religion, philosophy, science, etc. Not me. If I have to read a sentence (let alone a paragraph) five times in order to understand it, then it's not for me. I much prefer clarity to complexity. No one has ever accused me of being a deep thinker :)

So, what about you? What will automatically make you reject a book? Leave me a comment and I'll gladly return the favor.

Happy Top Ten Tuesday!

Books Read in 2026 (asterisks denote favorites)

1. Such a Clever Girl by Darby Kane (Jan)
2. When No One Else Will by Amanda Skenandore (Jan)
3. Atomic Habits by James Clear* [re-read] (Jan)
4. Murder on the Farm by Kate Wells (Jan)
5. Murder at Ochre Court by Alyssa Maxwell (Jan)
6. Not Dead Yet: The Memoir by Phil Collins* [audio] (Feb))
7. The Women in White by Sarah Pekkanen (Feb)
8. The Missing Half by Ashley Flowers (Feb)
9. One Big Happy Family by Jamie Day (Feb)
10. A Tour to Die For by Michelle Chouinard (Feb)
11. Bluebird by Sharon Cameron* [re-read] (Feb)
12. The Lake Escape by Jamie Day (Feb)
13. Treacherous is the Night by Anna Lee Huber [audio] (Feb)
14. The Last Resort by Erin Entrada Kelly (Feb)
15. The Missing by Kristen Landon (Feb)
16. Dark and Bright by Catherine Lyon (Feb)
17. The Wild Robot by Peter Brown* [audio] (Feb)
18. Boiled Over by Barbara Ross (Feb)
19. Some of Us Are Looking by Carlene O'Connor (Feb)
20. Coach by Jason Reynolds* [audio] (Feb)
21. The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey (Feb)
22. The Claiming by Jasmine Warga (Feb)
23. Dark and Deep by Catherine Lyon (Feb)
24. Ours is a Tale of Murder by Nora Murphy (Feb)
25. Zoom With a View by Jess Cannon (Feb)
26. The Nowhere Child by Christian White (Feb)
27. An Ordinary Kind of Evil by Kelley Armstrong* (Feb)
28. Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater (Feb)
29. Murder at 30,000 Feet by Susan Walter (Feb)
30. Dive Bar at the End of the Road by Kelley Armstrong (Feb)
31. You Were Always Mine by Nicole Baart [audio] (Feb)
32. In Case I Go Missing by R.N. Swann (Mar)
33. A Lie for a Lie by Ren DeStefano (Mar)
34. Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton [audio] (Mar)
35. Murder is a Piece of Cake by Valerie Burns [audio] (Mar)
36. Murder at the Dolphin Hotel by Helena Dixon (Mar)
37. Death at the Dinner Party by Ellie Alexander [audio] (Mar)
38. The Secret Lives of Murderers' Wives by Elizabeth Arnott (Mar)
39. A Holiday Homicide by Elile Alexander [audio] (Mar)
40. Summer's Never Over by Darby Bozeman (Mar)
41. The Body in the Woods by April Henry [audio] (Mar)
42. Every Borrowed Beat by Erin Stewart (Mar)
43. First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston (Mar)
44. Please Enjoy Your Stay by Tara Goedjen (Mar)
45. This Weekend Doesn't End Well for Anyone by Catherine Mack (Mar)
46. A Victim at Valentine's by Ellie Alexander [audio] (Mar)
47. Rock-Solid Relationships: Strengthening Personal Relationships With Wisdom from the Scriptures by Wendy Watson (Apr)
48. A Body at the Book Fair by Ellie Alexander [audio] (Apr)
49. Our Marriage is Murder by Carol Goodman (Apr)
50. A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee (Apr)
51. Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce [re-read] [audio] (Apr)
52. Live and Let Chai by Bree Baker (Apr)
53. Talking to Strangers by Fiona Barton (Apr)
54. The Rush by Beth Lewis* (Apr)
55. Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter [audio] (Apr)
56. Angels & Demons by Dan Brown [re-read] (Apr)
57. The Cry by Helen Fitzgerald (Apr)
58. Heiress of Nowhere by Stacey Lee (Apr)
59. The Murder at World's End by Ross Montgomery (Apr)
60. Weightless: A Doctor's Guide to GLP-1 Medications, Sustainable Weight Loss, and the Health You Deserve by Rocio Salas-Whalen (Apr)
61. Dust by Alison Stine (Apr)
62. What I Mean When I Say I'm Autistic by Annie Kotowicz (Apr)
63. The Cartographer's Secret by Tea Cooper [audio] (Apr)
64. A Cute Little Murder by Molly Harper (Apr)
65. Pretty Dead Things by Kelsey Cox (May)
66. Stabbed in the Baklava by Tina Kashian (May)
67. The Chambermaid's Key by Genevieve Graham* (May)
68. The River Knows Your Name by Kelly Mustian (May)
69. This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum (May)
70. Dissection of a Murder by Jo Murray (May)
71. The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth* [re-read] (May)
72. Meet Your Baker by Ellie Alexander [re-read] (May)
73. Last One Out by Jane Harper (May)
74. Missing Molly by Natalie Barelli (May)
75. Family of Spies by Christine Kuehn (Jun)
76. A Map to Murder by Michelle Chouinard (Jun)
77. How to Kill a Crime Writer by Sarah Lotz* (Jun)
78. What We Did to Survive by Megan Lally (Jun)
79. Devils at the Door by Tessa Wegert (Jun)
80. The Chow Maniac by Vivien Chien (Jun)
81. My Husband's Wife by Alice Feeney (Jun)
82. The Secret Thread by Eve Chase (Jun)
83. Suddenly a Murder by Lauren Munoz [audio] (Jun)
84. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown [re-read] (Jun)
85. The Hike by Lucy Clarke (Jun)
86. The Foundling by Ann Leary (Jun)
87. Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen* (Jun)
88. Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth* [re-read] (Jun)
89. 100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist's Guide to a Happy Life by Dick Van Dyke (Jun)
90. You Let Me In by Lucy Clarke (Jun)
91. Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston (Jun)

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Top Ten Tuesday: Automatic Book Turn-offs

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2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge

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Books Read in 2026 (asterisks denote favorites)