Getting me to finish reading a book these days is incredibly difficult.  There is always something better to do than make it to the end of whatever it is I’m reading.  Twitter, online chatting, writing, playing with Paint Shop Pro, reading fanfiction…the list of reasons why I can hardly finish a book anymore is almost as long as my neverending To Be Finished list.  And then I go out and buy more books.  I don’t have enough shelves for all of my books…Heck, I don’t know where some of my books are (if you can tell me where my coverless, falling-apart-when-I-got-it K.I.S.S. Guide to Astrology and that pirate book by Michael Crichton are hiding, please let me know).

Today, I picked up Chris Baty’s No Plot? No Problem! again.  It’s come up in conversation a few times recently, and since it was just lying around, I figured I’d pick it up and read a few more pages of it before putting it away somewhere to get ignored again.

I got up to the section on Magna Cartas–the lists of Things You Like to Read and Things You Don’t Like to Read.  These lists have been talked about before on the writing forum I frequent, and I have attempted to make them before, but none of them “stuck.”  Since I was trying to avoid the computer for a little while because of eyestrain (playing around with 100×100 pixel images for hours is not good for your eyes, believe it or not), I decided “Why not?” and made my Magna Cartas.

Again.

The theory with the Magna Cartas is that you should go into your writing venture armed with the knowledge of what you do and do not like to read about.  Otherwise, those sneaky things you hate might creep up on you like kudzu in the night to strangle your writing to death with their leafy, plant-y evil.  Magna Carta I is the good twin.  It is the list of all of the bright and shiny things one likes.  Magna Carta II is the evil twin, the one you can’t help but hate.  Everyone’s Magna Cartas are different, of course–what may be the biggest baddie on one person’s Magna Carta II might be the most beloved item on another’s Magna Carta I.

And, because I don’t have much else to say, I’m gonna share my Magna Cartas with you.

YMMV.

As you can probably guess, I like characters, creepiness, funny stuff, new ideas, and new twists on old favorites.  As you can also probably guess, I don’t like boring stuff, bad writing, Deep Themes™, Harlequin-style romance, cookie-cutter characters and worlds, and Twilight.

Anyways, feel free to comment on my Magna Cartas or post your own in the comments if you’d like.  Or not–it’s up to you.  You could throw around a bunch of cat Adam Lambert macros, if you’d prefer to do that.

Mostly I’m just looking for an excuse to spam the world with GlamBlondbert.  Never let it be said that I take myself, my blogging, or my shameless Glamberting too seriously.

There has been too much srs bsns in my life recently anyway.