Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme run by The Broke and Bookish. Today’s topic is the top ten words and themes that would make me turn a book down.
I like romance novels, but books that are pitched with these words make me hesitate or run altogether.
Today’s post is the opposite from Tuesday, April 30’s post.
For today’s TTT post, I looked at the books I’ve read for the past year and half. Reading over their blurbs and looking at their covers and genres, I did see a recurring theme: I like epic stories.
I buy books like some people buy drugs. It is an addiction, and no, I can’t stop whenever I want.
Case in point: I sometimes buy books and never read them. They just sit there, taking up space and gathering dust, and I pass over them every time I need a new book to read. Why do I do this? Because I have a problem, people.
I have no excuse, so here, have a zombie shrug.
Here are some random books that I have purchased and never read:
I have read a lot of Lewis, but sometimes I feel snobby and pretentious with my little collection. I think that’s why I still have The Problem of Pain on my shelf. And every time I think about reading it, the title deters me.
I dislike Dickens, unless I’m reading/watching A Christmas Carol. But this past summer I saw The Dark Knight Rises, which director Christopher Nolan admitted was influenced by A Tale of Two Cities. Then this past Christmas I saw Les Miserables. I knew I’d never find the time to read Les Mis again, but for some reason buying Cities appeased me.
But it’s Dickens. Dickens!
I’ve read parts of it.
Sentimental, silly purchase I made while on a road trip across America after college. With my grandparents.
The movie was good.
I bought this, started reading it, and I’m 50% certain that I’ve read it before. Either that, or I’ve read another book that’s exactly like it about some other mythological character.
I also have three books that I read for school and liked so much I decided that I had to own them, and then promptly never read them again:
I need help, guys.
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
(Of course, there are more than ten annoying characters in the realm of literature, but I’m trying to restrain myself.)
Okay, this isn’t Fire, obviously, but Meridda best fits Cashore’s description for her hair alone.
She complains all day about being so beautiful and how everyone wants her and she’s so sick of it. I’m sick of her.
I have no idea why anyone would ever like this girl. She’s repulsive.
Oh, just grow a pair and shut up, Ashley.
The whole time I read A Voice in the Wind, I could only picture Rome’s Octavia.
Every time Julia has the chance to do the right thing, it’s like a switch goes off and she does the worst thing possible and then seems surprised that her life sucks.
She’s vapid, one-dimensional, and an object to be possessed. Fantine had more depth in her short life, and Eponine has become the postmodern reader’s heroine. Cosette is just boring.
By noxavis on deviantart
She would be a far better character if she had more confidence in herself. She used far too much hyperbole and yet wanted to be a person of more depth.
Actually, I would have liked her more if I hadn’t seen so much of myself in her. The fact that my best friend read this book and told me that Lily reminded her of me only confirmed my fears.
I have only ever read one book by GLH, but it was enough for me to consider her an early Stephenie Meyer.
The premise of Brentwood is promising: a young and wealthy woman’s adoptive mother dies leaving her with a massive fortune and the knowledge that she was kept from knowing her biological family. It would have been a rather interesting story if Margret wasn’t such a goody goody. Seriously, characters have to change! They have to! Margret never does, and it’s appalling.
One scene quite literally left me with my jaw dropping in shock: Margret has a discussion about salvation with the young, handsome minister she is so obviously going to marry at the end of the novel. It’s an excellent, common Christian fiction moment for a character to make a change in the story. When the minister explains what it means to be a true Christian – something that has been weighing heavily on Margret’s mind – she’s relieved to know that she’s been a true Christian all her life and that she should just keep on living as the incredibly good person that she is.
Um… forget how badly written that is, I don’t even agree with that theologically.
Like Anna Karenina, I’m not sure why Philothei gets so much credit. I felt like the actual novel hardly dealt with her at all compared to the other characters who took center stage. She was silly, selfish, and then she died and caused her boyfriend Ibrahim to go mad with grief.
Plus her name is impossible for me to pronounce. I hate her just for that.
The original Mean Girl
She is every girl you ever hated in high school.
And finally, the most annoying character in literature,
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
I hate you, Wickham. I hate you so, so much.
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
I, of course, had to make today’s TTT prompt difficult for myself. Are those 10 settings that I personally want to read more about? Or 10 settings that I think should be featured in more books? And why can I only think of settings that I am bored with? And for goodness sakes, why did that prompt have to end in a preposition? Now I keep doing it, too.
Thus, I have compiled a list of 10 settings (give or take) that I either would like to see featured in more books, or settings that I think are tired out and boring, and writers need to stop using them.
Because the adventures of Marauders needs to be told.
I miss those mountains.
Specifically Kazakhstan. It’s such a wild and beautiful country that no one knows about. With the level of diversity in the population, as well as the history, there are thousands of stories to be told.
Just not by Sacha Baron Cohen.
The Tsars are fascinating. As are the Soviet Party leaders. I’m more interested in the ordinary people – the serfs, the peasants, the commune workers – the people who can survive such radical changes in history with the same determination and durability as they face winter every year.
We’re done. All right? Done. New York is a wonderful city, and I love it, but I think our continual worship of it in stories polarizes the view the world has of America.
Good ol’ Virginie
Because I’m a Romantic, and because no matter where I go, or how long I stay away, I’m convinced Virginia is the most beautiful state in the USA.
Like Canaan.
And Moab.
And Babylon.
And I don’t mean I want to read just Christian Fiction. I would love to read a story from the perspective of the Canaanites or the Babylonians. The Red Tent was interesting because it took a story from Genesis and well-known religious figures and revealed them through a perspective that was not heavily Jewish or Christian. I didn’t always like it, but I still found myself captivated by it.
And more of the Gulf War, which is hazy memory of my parents watching the news and crying, and how I asked my mother if I should pray for Saddam Hussein because he didn’t seem to be a very happy man and maybe someone just needed to tell him that Jesus loves him.
I was 5. Life and Truth are simple when you’re 5.
WanderLust 