Top Ten Tuesday | Genie in a Bottle

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is '10 Wishes I'd Ask the Book Genie to Grant Me', and I managed to think of ten a lot quicker than I thought I would!

1. I wish I had more shelf space: I'm seriously running out of room, but because I have no self control I still buy books. Now that I have my kindle I have quite a few books on there (and by quite a few I mean over 50) but I still like to buy physical books, especially pretty books like these two. You'd think it'd be easy enough to put some new shelves up, but in all honesty I just need a bigger room. In fact maybe this wish should really be 'I wish I had my own personal library'...
2. I wish my bookshelves were neater than they are: I'm so envious of people who organise their shelves by colour, or genre, or author. One day I'd like to be able to do that myself, but I have so many books that just the thought of rearranging them all tires me out.
3. I wish I could stick to book-buying bans: I'm weak. WEAK.
4. I wish publishers didn't do cover changes right in the middle of a series: Mismatching books didn't used to bother me as much as they do now, but now that I'm more of a shopper who will seek out a particular cover of a particular book I hate it when my series don't match. It's so satisfying to see a complete, matching series on my shelf. I have no problem with cover changes, I just wish publishers would at least finish off the series in the original covers.
5. I wish authors travelled more: As someone who doesn't live in London, it's so frustrating when an author I love only does events in London or another big city like Birmingham, which is also nowhere near me. Neil Gaiman came to the UK earlier this year to help promote his new short story collection, and I think he only did a couple of evenings in London and then he was back in the States. I understand he's very busy and he lives in the States now, but it's a shame that he doesn't travel around more of the UK.
6. I wish it was the law that every copy of Fifty Shades of Grey must be used as kindling: Do I really need to explain this one? If you like Fifty Shades of Grey that's your call, everyone's tastes are different, but it really does romanticise an abusive relationship. I don't mean the BDSM aspect, because BDSM is all about consent, but Christian Grey wouldn't know what consent was if it punched him in the nose. Kill it. Kill it with fire!
7. I wish there was more diverse historical fiction: I'm a big lover of historical fiction, as I'm sure any of you who have been following my blog for a while will know, and there is diverse historical fiction out there. My main problem is the amount of historical fiction novels set outside Europe and North America that still have white, western protagonists. I'm not interested in the colonisers' stories, we already have those: they're called history.
8. I wish I was better at buddy reads and reading books I receive to review: I love receiving review copies of books and I love buddy reads, and yet whenever I sign up for one or the other I so often fail miserably. It's like as soon as I say I'm going to read a book for review or for a buddy read it becomes the book I'm least in the mood to pick up. I don't whether it's because I feel pressured to love it, because I'm reviewing or reading it with someone else, or whether I'm just a bit hopeless. Probably a mix of the two.
9. I wish more bloggers stepped outside of the YA bubble: I'm hoping I don't offend anyone with this, because it's honestly not my intention to do so, but one of the comments I so often receive on my TTT posts is 'Your list is so original, I haven't even heard of most of these!' It's a lovely comment, but my list only seems original because I don't tend to stay in the YA bubble that means I'm reading similar books to what people who mainly read YA are reading. I have nothing against YA - I really enjoy YA, and one of the best books I've read this year is a YA book - but I do think it's possible to get caught up in a bubble that means you don't step out of your comfort zone and try something new. It happens the other way around, too; I knew several people at uni who refused to read YA because they thought it was beneath them, but you miss out on some fantastic books that way. Plus, on a more selfish note, I'd love to be able to talk about more non-YA books I've loved with other bloggers who've read them!
10. I wish Hogwarts was real: I'm still waiting for my letter.

What did you wish for?