Hi! I like reading but I'm extraordinarily picky, so I mostly read fanfiction because its so easy to look for hyper specific tropes on ao3. So I will list few books i like and then some tropes I gravitate to and some absolute nos. I don't read a lot of books these days because i mostly stick to fanfiction so I'm gonna reach pretty far back for books I like.
Books I've liked:
Marikit and the ocean of stars
Wings a fairytale
The Jackaby Series!!!! <3<3<3
Eragon (only read book 1) — very old read —
Clockwork angel (only read book 1)
Peter Nimble and his fantastic eyes (had no idea this was a series lol) — very old read —
El Reino Perdido – by G. Stilton (only read book 1 need to find the rest of this italian book translated into spanish that I got on a trip to spain)
Tropes I gravitate to:
Found family (specifically when sad child and sad adult become happy parent and kid)
transmigration (also known as isekai) basically normal person in magical world or sometimes vice versa- I just like when there's an audience surrogate that's new to the environment, the specifics about why are less important
if romance- slow burn (not so slow that I die and my bones get spiderwebs before they even hold hands)
if romance- B plot romance not A plot (generally, not a hard rule)
Reasons I've DNFed a book:
rape or sexual assault (hard no on scenes, soft no if its only mentioned)
my favorite character dies (I'm sad in real life books are for being happy)
author spent too long describing background stuff I didn't care about (room descriptions etc) ('too long' in this case being multi page descriptions)
characters made obscenely stupid decisions just to heighten the drama
I found out there would not be a happy ending
in-universe fantasy racism was frustrating to read about (can't remember if it was poorly written or if I just did not enjoy the racism but it was in every scene and the mc was obsessed so maybe there was just too much of it)
Book is written from the perspective of a character that I can not stand/that has an overly pessimistic view (pessimistic pov characters actually really trigger my MDD)
I DNFed a book because there was a(n implied) pedo and he didn't die fast enough
too many random new names (I never remember names so important characters need to be actual people so i can be like -oh that's sock man! That's Golden gate bridge! That's square face! <- all real nicknames I have for Twin peaks characters) If characters are just a name and a role i will get lost immediately
Mysterious lack of women (not like plot relevant missing characters, just like wdym every capable person is a guy? not a single woman in the world has useful insight or skills? bffr)
main character has no friends, makes no friends and never opens up or asks for help from anyone (mostly a problem with male power fantasies)
Sexism- not like in the book but in the writing. actually any phobias or isms in the writing give me the ick
lore dump at the start. like woah woah gimme some reason to care first I don't mind not knowing everything (I don't usually DNF this I just skip a few chapters)
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I just realized how many book series I like and don't finish, except clockwork angel, I tried book 2. Anyway, I'm gonna reread peter nimble. OK I think that's everything! lastly, is there any site that has a good search like ao3 where I could look for a book I'd like on my own?
by CategoryPrize9611