Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by our friends over at The Broke and the Bookish. I’m going to keep it short and sweet this week guys, because I just got home from my brother’s New Orleans wedding (which was fabulous in spite of a comedy of hurricane-related errors), and I am TIRED.
My kids were flower girls. My husband was an usher. I wasn’t anything, and yet I think I’m more exhausted than all of them combined.
So here we go.
Top Ten Books On Your Fall TBR List
For Review
These are all books I already have in my possession and have heard great things about, so hopefully I’ll be able to get to them within the general vicinity of their release dates.
These are all books I own and am REALLY excited to read, but for one reason or another haven’t read yet, even though some of them have been sitting on my shelf for months. I know, it’s inexcusable. I need more hours in my day!
If I could knock all 10 of these books off my TBR this fall, I’d be happy. But of course, we all know how other seemingly lower-priority books always seem to wiggle their way in, so we’ll see. At least I can have the consolation that since I’m really looking forward to every book on this list, I WILL read them all eventually. If not this fall, then someday.
Today’s topic is dangerous. I’m nervous. But here you go. In no particular order.
Top Ten Bookish Confessions
1. I dog ear pages. Not in my lovely new hardbacks, but in my old, well-worn paperbacks? You betcha.
2. I’ve been known to use books as coasters. Again, not the shiny new ones. But my old books have taken their share of abuse.
3. I check books out of the library ALL THE TIME without setting aside time to actually read them, and they wind up going back either unread or half finished. Yes. I am that annoying person who has the book you want. And I’m not even reading it.
4. I prefer Jane Austen movies to Jane Austen books. Love her characters and her stories. The books don’t hold my attention the way I wish they did.
5. I read while I eat lunch. I try my best not to get food on my books. Sometimes I fail. (Basically what we’re learning in these confessions is that I am disgusting.)
6. I can’t read Shakespeare. I love to see it dramatized, but when I see it on the page, I just get bored. My brain can’t turn the words on the page into this:
7. I didn’t like The Great Gatsby. At all. I don’t even want to see the movie.
8. Although I love all things supernatural in my stories, and I love many of his other books, I’ve tried reading Stephen King’s Dark Tower series twice, and failed both times. Can’t seem to make it past Book 4.
9. I enjoy a well-done love triangle.
10. While I’m not a fan of the actual writing and do think the story is intellectually absurd, I really enjoyed Twilight. And Breaking Dawn was my favorite, even though it makes the least amount of sense and has the worst ending.
Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by our friends over at The Broke and the Bookish! And a special congratulations to one of their contributors, Jamie, who got married last weekend! Huzzah!
Today’s topic is actually pretty easy for me, since I’ve only been blogging about five months and therefore don’t have hundreds of books to pick from. For those of you who have been at this for years, you have my sympathies.
So here’s tonight’s topic:
Top Ten Favorite Books You’ve Read During The Lifespan Of Your Blog
With the exception of the first two (which will link to Amazon because I haven’t posted my reviews yet), I’ll just link the title to my review of each book. Because if I had to summarize what I loved about each of these in just a sentence or two, they’d all say the same thing (“THIS BOOK IS AWESOME”) and it would get boring.
And let me just say, I’m glad I started this blog and discovered so many other fantastic blogs, because if I hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t have read any of these, much less conversed merrily with several of these lovely authors on Twitter and even met two of them in person.
This weekend, one of the contributors over at TBatB, Jamie, is getting married! Congratulations Jamie!
In honor of Jamie’s big day, the topic this week is:
Top Ten Book Romances That You Think Would Make It In The Real World (outside the book)
This one’s fun, because so often in books (especially YA), the characters fall in “love” based on at least one (but most likely all) of the following factors:
1. They are both pretty.
2. They were forced to spend a prolonged period of time alone together.
3. They had an ADVENTURE.
And as we’ve all learned from watching Speed 2: Cruise Control, Annie was right. Those sorts of relationships don’t work.
Wait…we did all watch Speed 2: Cruise Control, right? That’s something we’ve all seen? Yes?
No? Well, that’s probably for the best.
So anyway, our task this week is to come up with 10 books that break free of the curse of insta-love and shallow love and love by proximity. The ones where the relationships would probably have a shot in the real world, where there are such things as morning breath and bad hair days and money problems and laundry and mowing the lawn. It’s tough, but I’m going to try my best.
Um, there may be some spoilers in here, since it’s kind of rare when the characters get together right at the beginning of the book, and yet I would still think they would have a chance in real life. Most of the time when that happens, it’s insta-love, and I’m pretty sure they break up next Tuesday. Sorry.
And it kind of kills me that I can’t put Buttercup and Westley on this list, but seriously, they fall in love based solely on her being pretty as she orders him snootily around her family’s farm, then he leaves, then she’s kidnapped. Twice. Hardly the foundation for a lasting relationship. So while I really want to believe that their true love is the greatest thing in the world (except for a nice MLT), I need to be realistic here.
As an aside, it’s possible I may have gotten carried away with the YouTube compilations. But I don’t care.
10. Kaleb and Lily, Timepiece. Maybe they wouldn’t have gotten married, but their relationship just felt natural to me.
[I’m sorry. The book’s too new. There’s no fan art or YouTube compilations to be had. Just pretend you see a picture of Kaleb dressed as a pirate and Lily dressed as a tiger, ‘kay?]
9. Kathy and Tommy, Never Let Me Go. These two need a shot in the real world. I mean, seriously. I spent the entire book wanting to pluck them out of their terrible, terrible circumstances and set them free in reality. If you haven’t read this book, it is immensely sad, and made all the worse by the characters’ calm acceptance of their fates. Run away, Kathy and Tommy! Run away!
[Warning: This video MAY completely destroy you. At least, that’s what it did to me.]
8. Clare and Henry, The Time Traveler’s Wife. Theirs is a bit of a chicken and the egg romance. What came first, the time travel or their love for each other? They each kind of lead to the other. However, especially in the book, it’s evident that they actually are compatible and they do go through some legitimate real married-couple problems together, so I think even without Henry’s odd condition, they’d still be able to make it work.
7. Jo and Friedrich, Little Women. Disclaimer: I wanted Jo and Laurie together so bad. It pained me when she turned him down. Like, physically, in my gut. But seriously, this relationship is more realistic. She doesn’t get together with her childhood friend, and instead grows up, finds a job, and meets a guy she actually connects with on an intellectual level. So even though I will always throw things when Jo refuses Laurie, I think this couple would make it.
6. Allie and Noah, The Notebook. While highly romanticized, the world of the book actually is the real world, and they do get married and grow old together. And it’s not like romanticized stories never happen in real life.
[Side note: The husband really enjoys this song. And who am I kidding, so do I. Judge if you must.]
5. Jane and Mr. Rochester, Jane Eyre. I think what I love most about this story is Jane never strays from who she is to be with Rochester.
4. Elinor and Edward, Sense and Sensibility. Even in the world of Jane Austen, where everyone has their perfect match, I thought these two stood out.
3. Anne and Gilbert, Anne of Green Gables. I love the way their relationship grows from childhood rivals to cautious friendship to sweet romance.
2. Ron and Hermione, Harry Potter series. Their relationship is built on the foundation of a 7-year friendship. That’s pretty solid footing.
[I may or may not have watched this three times when I discovered it. And cried. Every. Time.]
[EDIT: I just found a better one, which is what is now shown here. The original Ron and Hermione video I used is here]
1. Claire and Jamie Fraser, Outlander. Best love story I’ve ever read. There ya go.
This week, I’m mostly answering based on who the supporting characters in the story are, or what the world is like. Because if we’re switching places, I’m obviously not meeting that character. But I don’t necessarily (or at all) want to participate in their romances or conflicts. Just want to take a nice little trip to their fictional world.
Also, you’ll notice there’s a conspicuous absence of period pieces, and the reason for that is simple: I really, really don’t want to wear a corset. Also, I imagine the bathroom and hygiene situation would kinda skeeve me out.
“But, you put on your list…” SHHHH. I don’t want to hear it. My logic is not good, but it’s mine.
Now that I’ve utterly confused you, today’s topic is…
Top Ten Characters I’d Like To Switch Places With For 24 Hours
(as always, in no particular order)
Thomas, The Maze Runner, during one of his first days in the Maze. I want to meet Chuck and Minho, and I want to see the Glade. I do NOT want to go into the Maze, and you can’t make me.
Buttercup, The Princess Bride, after the events of the story are over and they’re living out their happily-ever-after. I want to meet Inigo Montoya. And Westley and Fezzik. But mostly Inigo.
Katniss, Mockingjay, sometime between the end and the epilogue. Mostly because I spent the entire trilogy thinking that Peeta needed a hug.
Bella, Twilight. In this scenario, do the other characters know we’ve traded places, or do they assume I am the character I’ve switched with? Because for this to make sense, everyone would have to think I was Bella. Because my goal here would be to break up with Edward, then get on a plane to go live with Renee in Florida.
Harry, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I want to experience Hogwarts during one of the lighter years, and hang out with Ron and Hermione. And if I go during their third year, I’d get to meet Lupin. Score.
Mr. Abshire, The Time Traveler’s Wife. On that day. You know. That day. I would tell Mark I didn’t feel very well and we were staying home, and then I’d stay in bed all day.
Nate, Timepiece. I just want to live at the Hourglass and hang out with Em and Michael and Kaleb and Lily.
sometime between the end and the epilogue. Mostly because I spent the entire trilogy thinking that Peeta needed a hug.
I want to experience Hogwarts during one of the lighter years, and hang out with Ron and Hermione. And if I go during their third year, I’d get to meet Lupin. Score.
On that day. You know. That day. I would tell Mark I didn’t feel very well and we were staying home, and then I’d stay in bed all day.
Em and Michael and Kaleb and Lily.
all the shenanigans start, obviously.
She gets to see SO MANY WORLDS. How many pools do you think I could jump in in 24 hours?