Okay. It’s Wednesday. But I feel as if I need to participate in some book blog memes! I can’t do In My Mailbox, at least at the moment, as I don’t get that many books through my letterbox. Or letter flap. Do that many people in the UK have actual boxes for their mail? Anyway, I digress.
Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by The Broke and the Bookish) struck me as being perfect, because lists I can do. Lists I can definitely do. I love lists. They provide the perfect framework for rambling on about one topic without spending too long on it. Unfortunately I didn’t check the book blogs section of Google Reader yesterday, so I’m doing it today. Late. Shh. This week’s topic is:
I’m going to mostly interpret ‘everyone’ as ‘every other (YA) book blogger’ because I know plenty of people who have read none of these books, coming from an unbookish family as I do. I’m the black sheep. Or the purple sheep, to be more accurate.
1. The Hunger Games
I know, what have I been doing? I really want to read this but probably won’t get around to it this year as I still have so many books to read to complete my reading challenges.
2. Actually, anything from the recent wave of YA dystopia fiction
I want to read quite a few of these, especially Divergent, but again, reading challenge reading is the priority. On that note, are there any British YA dystopias? I need more books for the British Book Challenge.
3. New Moon
No desire to read this at all. To get myself to finish Twilight, I counted the number of chapters left and was like ‘Right. If I read three every day, then in x number of days, it’ll be over and I can read something good’.
4. The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson books
This series started just before my teens but it passed me by. After devouring several Jacqueline Wilson books and all the Ros Asquiths I could get my hands on, I went through a long phase of being convinced that I was too intellectually mature for teen comedy books.
5. The Princess Diaries
Another series which passed me by when it was new. I’ve read Nicola and the Viscount, also by Meg Cabot, which was quite fun, and Avalon High, and I watched the first film years ago. I want to give it a go, but it’s really low priority at the moment.
6. The Morganville Vampires series
I have heard increasingly good things about this series and I want to try it, but I’ve been delayed by a couple of years because my library only stocked book 6. I may have to give in and buy a copy!
7. The Southern Vampire Mysteries
I’ve known about the existence of Charlaine Harris’ mind-reading heroine Sookie Stackhouse since before Ottakar’s was taken over by Waterstone’s! Ottakar’s used to produce a science fiction and fantasy newsletter booklet with reviews and author interviews, it was called Outland and I used to pick up copies in my local branch. Anyway, one issue they reviewed Dead Until Dark and I thought, ‘I’d quite like to read that’, being a big Buffy fan. Still haven’t picked up a copy!
8. Angel by L.A. Weatherly
For some reason, I feel like this book has had a particularly large number of reviews. Perhaps it just feels like it’s had more than most books because I actually own a copy and it’s on my TBR.
9. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
I’ve heard good things, and bad things, and I watched the film, and the film was enough for me. I don’t think I could stomach the book.
10. Nineteen Eighty-Four
I know, ‘How can you have a Master’s degree and not have read Nineteen Eighty-Four?’ Dude, I didn’t read To Kill A Mockingbird until 2009! I have read Brave New World though. And Animal Farm. And most of Keep the Aspidistra Flying – I got bored fairly close to the end, decided I’d got the point, and scan read the rest of the book.
There we are! I do plan to do future Top Ten Tuesdays actually on Tuesday. Do you think I should make any of these a higher priority? No promises, but I’m always open to persuasion – New Moon excepted.
Grace
27th September 2011 at 12:57 amI read the Hunger Games books, and I actually liked them a lot.
New Moon. Ugh. I read all of those books a few years ago because my best friend LOVED Twilight so I sort of felt like I had to too. They were just awful. Bad writing, one dimensional characters with serious problems (Bella can't live without a boyfriend, Edward is a possessive stalker). No good at all.
I read a few of the Princess Diaries books, I thought they were pretty cute.
I have "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" but I'm not very far into it. I'm having trouble reading it because it's set in a different country and I don't know what they're talking about a lot of the time.
Michelle
15th November 2011 at 8:34 pmIf you're looking for fun and contemporary, then I would totally recommend the Georgia Nicholson and Princess Diaries series! I still have The Hunger Games on my TBR pile- nice to know I am not the only one 😉 I also seem to have missed the boat on 1984 (and I have graduate degrees as well!).
Julianne
27th November 2011 at 5:53 pmGrace – you read the whole of the Twilight 'Saga'? You're made of stronger stuff than I am!
Michelle – I'm glad I'm not the only one who is yet to read The Hunger Games! I do feel like I should read 1984 but there are so many other classics further up my wishlist at the moment.