Top Ten Topics That Make Me NOT Want To Pick Up A Book

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is the reverse to my Top Ten Topics That Instantly Make Me Pick Up A Book.

Top Ten Words/Topics That Will Make Me NOT Pick Up A Book

Embarrassing Covers

I will freely admit it: I judge books by their covers. If I dislike a cover, it's going to take some convincing to get me to pick up the book. The worst are the covers that I deem embarrassing and would not want to be seen reading in public. True story: the sole reason that I have been putting off reading Vampire Academy is that I find the covers to the series to be quite horrid. But I vow that this will change this summer - I WILL read Vampire Academy soon!

Insta-love

There might be certain very, very rare circumstances where insta-love works in a story, but the vast majority of the time, I hate it for how unrealistic it seems. While the idea of love at first sight is certainly a lovely one, I don't really buy into it realistically. I would much rather read about a relationship in which the romance is slow building and tension-ridden. It's so much more exciting that way! Insta-love just seems so bland and lazy in comparison.

Paranormal Fiction

I've been a bit wary of paranormal fiction of late. To be honest, I find the bulk of it to be so cliched, it bores me. I've lost count how many times I've reread the same Twilight-style storyline, but with angels, faeries, mermaids, you name it. It takes a very original concept to break the mould of all the similar-sounding paranormal stories. Daughter of Smoke and Bone certainly managed that with its truly fresh take on Angel vs. Demon lore and it utterly won me over for that reason.

Love Triangles

While there have been a few instances in the past in which I have appreciated the complexity of a love triangle (Clockwork Princess - I'm looking at you), more often than not, I find love triangles to be unnecessary and unrealistic. I dislike it when they are included in a story purely as a means of introducing drama in the romance. And I ESPECIALLY dislike it when love triangles make one or more parties into arseholes (which they almost certainly do; Requiem - I'm looking at you). What I appreciated so much about the love triangle in Clockwork Princess is that every party involved respected every other party equally.

Nonfiction

Okay, this might sound bad, but I can't for the life of me even humour the idea of reading nonfiction. I can't imagine a nonfiction book ever being able to hold my attention the way fictional stories do. I totally equate nonfiction with

being tedious and something that you would read for school, not for pleasure. But I realize these biases are probably causing me to miss out on some great nonfiction reads! Or so I've been told by a few bloggers (I'm still a bit sceptical). So how about it? Any nonfiction reads that you might recommend to a nonfiction-noob like me?

Romance-Heavy

I do like a good romance, don't get me wrong, but when the only thing going on in the story is a romance between two characters, that's when the story loses me. I NEED something more in the plot to keep me interested and the romance CANNOT be the major focus. Of course, I speak only of speculative fiction here; I have enjoyed in the past contemporary romances like Anna and the French Kiss. But the point of speculative fiction for me is that you have something, ANYTHING of more interest than just the romance.

Novels in Verse

Like nonfiction, the main reason why I am not compelled to read a novel written in verse is that I have convinced myself that I would not like it. It is just SO far outside my comfort zone. And I worry that I would make the attempt and then I just wouldn't get it and I would feel dumb. However, I have heard very good things about Ellen Hopkins' novels in verse from Sara of Just Another Story and Ambur of Burning Impossibly Bright. They assure me that her books aren't painful to read at all and I trust their opinion. So I think I'll have to go outside my comfort zone just once to try it out.

Smut

Eeeee, I admit to not being able to handle a lot of smut in my reading because it embarrasses me so! Fifty Shades of Grey last year on a sort of dare and it was a pretty painful experience indeed (though for many a reason beyond just the presence of smut). I am young at heart and that is why I stray more towards MG/YA.
Yes, I am a grown adult of almost 25 years. And yes, I still get embarrassed and red-faced upon reading scandalous sex scenes. I read

Animal Cruelty

I just can't deal with cruelty to animals. I am extremely sensitive when it comes to that sort of thing and will actively avoid books in which I know animals are hurt or die in the story. The reason why I never seeked out I Am Legend or Marley and Me (both the books and their movie counterparts) was purely because I was made aware that the dogs die in the end. And I Just. Can't. Deal.

New Adult

I just don't get it. I don't get what all the hype is about the New Adult genre. At first I was on board; I wanted to read more stories with college-aged protagonists dealing with things a person of that age might face so that I might relate to them. But at some point I started to notice that all these new NA releases basically seemed like the same thing - some variation of good girl falls for bad boy and he opens her up to new sexual experiences. I realize that not all NA is just "YA with sex", but a lot of it seems to be and I am not interested. I did however very much enjoy The Sea of Tranquility and When You Were Here, so it's not a complete loss cause. Does anyone have any other NA reads to recommend that you think I might like?