Hello Bookworms! It’s Tuesday again, and thus time for another Top Ten list! Thanks to the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish, I shall never again have writer’s block on a Tuesday! Without further ado:
The Top Ten Books I Wouldn’t Mind Getting From Santa
1. Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher. I know it seems like I’m always saying “Sounds good, I’ll add it to my list!” Sometimes I actually listen to people! Lauren over at Filing Jointly…Finally has recommended this book to me… twice. Sure, she once dug a shallow grave for a bird using a sterling silver spoon… I still trust her judgement on books.
2. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I love historical fiction, and I’m particularly enthralled by the Tudors. It’s pretty rare that historical fiction gets such great reviews, so I’m pretty stoked to check this out.
3. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. It’s a continuation of the Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn saga. I want to go to there.
4. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. I’m currently on super secret nerd probation until I read these books. New Year’s resolution, methinks.
5. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. This is a classic and I haven’t read it. For this I am ashamed.
6. Matched by Allie Conde. Truth be told, YA isn’t typically my cup of tea. I read it from time to time, but my adoration is nothing compared to the YA book blogging community. However, Karen at Sassymonkey Reads recommended it to me after seeing my commentary on THE PILLS in The Giver series. Look at me, taking advice again!
7. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. This is one of those books I’ve been meaning to read for like 7 years. I always give it careful consideration and then pick a different book. 2013 will be the year! (Maybe.)
8. Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue. My readers are awesome, have I mentioned that? Turns out one of them went to school with Emma Donoghue- how crazy is that?! She’s a blogger too! She lives on the internet HERE and she thinks Slammerkin rocks. It’s like 6 degrees from Kevin Bacon. Only with Emma Donoghue. And bacon. Let’s throw that in there because it’s tasty.
9. River God by Wilbur Smith. My very dearest friend from childhood has promised me, and I quote, “literary orgasm.” From this book. Why do I trust her? I don’t know, really. She once screwed up my home highlights so badly that we had to go back to the drugstore at 2 am to get a second box of hair dye… She introduced me to Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett way too young, but dagnabit, she’s got good taste in books. River God is historical fiction, so odds are good that I’ll like it.
10. Santa, baby, what I really want… Are gift cards. Amazon, if you please. My kindle and I keep charging things to my credit card. It would be nice if that stopped, at least for a little while.
Shana London
I will definitely be picking up “Bring Up the Bodies” because I am obsessed with Henry and Anne Boleyn. Like, crazy into that whole tale of woe and love and crazy be-headings. I just picked up “Valley Of The Dolls”, which I am ashamed to admit I have not read yet. I have developed a nasty habit lately of starting, like, four books at once and trying to finish them all simultaneously, so I promised myself that in 2013 I will return to book monogamy. I will start with the Henry/Anne tome. 🙂
Words for Worms
Oh I’m a book monogamist. Every once in a great while I’ll try to tackle two books at once, but it never ends well for book 1. Even if I’m slogging through something I don’t love, I remind myself that my reward for finishing it is a better book!
Shana London
And that’s the way it should be! I was like that for years, and then something happened this year that threw me into a cheating tailspin. The shame! Lol
Tilly Bud - The Laughing Housewife
I read Coming Home. It was okay.
Rebecca – the second Mrs de Winter needs a good slap in the face, in my opinion. She is so wet. I much preferred Frenchman’s Creek.
TCIOTDITN – I enjoyed it but I’ll never read it again.
Have you read Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card? That’s my desert island book. I read it at least once a year.
Words for Worms
So much food for thought! Yes, I read Ender’s Game. I had a hard time with it in places because picturing the training zero gravity wars was difficult for me. I have a hard time judging distances and stuff so my mind was all a-jumble with what it would look like. All in all, I liked the book, but not enough to explore the sequels.
Tilly Bud - The Laughing Housewife
The sequels are dreadful in the Ender series. Better to read the Bean series, a spin off from Ender’s Game but from Bean’s perspective, so Ender doesn’t feature much, and nor does battle school.
Words for Worms
Hmmm… I did like Bean. I’ll take that under advisement. Thanks! 🙂
ashley
Matched series is worth reading. I’m all about the YA series. Lol. I got through Lord of the Rings in 8th grade! Quite proud of that accomplishment! I actually wanted to read those again. Maybe in my old age I’d understand more! As always thanks for the recommendations!
Words for Worms
LOL I’m not sure any of these are really recommendations as I haven’t read them, but I’ll take credit if you read something and like it. I’m super un-humble that way.
ashley
Well if you plan on reading them I consider a recomendation! I trust your taste!
Alexa Loves Books (@alexalovesbooks)
I really hope you get a chance to read Lord of the Rings! It’s wonderful, especially the third book, and totally worth your time to read.
Words for Worms
Thanks Alexa! I’m actually a little over halfway through The Hobbit right now and I’m enjoying it. I know it’s taboo to say that I’m glad I saw the movie first, but I really enjoy hearing the Gollum movie voice in my head for the Gollum scenes. I don’t think I’d have enjoyed it so much without the weird CGI guy and his PRECIOUSSSSSSSSS.
Quirky Chrissy
You are on Double Secret Probation until Tolkien is complete. I still can’t believe you haven’t read that shit. It’s easier than R.R. Martin!
Words for Worms
I know. Shame shame shame,
Liesel Hill
Go for it with LOTR. The writing style is a bit hard to get used to, but it’s totally worth it! You’ll end up LOVING the characters, even more than from the films. 😀 My TTTs are at LKHill and Musings on Fantasia. Happy Tuesday! 😀
Words for Worms
I promise, I will!
Heather
Slammerkin was great! I actually (and people hate me for this) liked it better than Room. I know, I know – that’s a bit much.
Also – The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night Time is great – I’m actually getting a couple more of Mark Haddon’s books for Christmas because of how much I like that one.
I love that you want to read older books too – Les Mis is on the top of my too read list for 2013, since I have clearly failed at getting it read in time for the movie this year. I really need to work on that.
Thanks for choosing the Wolf Hall series – I love historical fiction so if you’re reading it, I’ll probably give it a try 🙂 Maybe we can suggest that for the monthly book club over on Filing Jointly??? 🙂
Words for Worms
Oh, I’ve heard that Slammerkin is a stronger novel than Room, too. Hence the list! I like to try and fill in the gaps in my education every once in a while, so I try to pick up classics from time to time. Speaking of which, Les Miserables is AWESOME. I really loved it- I didn’t even find it a slog. It’s especially enjoyable if you know the musical really well because the songs will play in your head. Maybe we can do Wolf Hall for January?! I don’t think I’m in danger of reading it before then, I have a list of things I’m chewing through right now. Thanks for the suggestion!
Lyssapants
Start with The Hobbit!
Words for Worms
I’m in the middle of it right now!
Lyssapants
Oh good.
Quinn
Rebecca is an amazing book! It’s very haunting and romantic, and just totally awesome. I hope you end up reading it.
I actually named one of my dogs Daphne after the author.
Happy Holidays. 🙂
Words for Worms
The fact that you named your dog Daphne is reason enough for me to read Rebecca! That’s some seriously high praise! 🙂
H. Stern
I’m going to have to follow your blog so that, one day, I’ll be able to go through your lists and restart my commuter-reading (nothing like a long metro ride to make your way through LOTR)!
Words for Worms
Oh yay! PS- I just stopped by your blog and almost snarfled coffee through my nose. Awesome. I live in the middle of nowhere so we have no public transit, but I would TOTALLY read on trains if I had to commute that way. People leave you alone when they see a book. Usually.
H. Stern
Unless you’re on a plane… and then suddenly you need a book, headphones, a DVD player, a burqua, a giant gerbil ball, and possibly a taser just to get some reading time. But thanks for stopping by! WOOT (and such)!!!!
CorrieP
I too am on nerd probation for not reading LOTR. My sister swears by them but I have a hard time reading things that I cannot pronounce (also why I haven’t read the whole Outlander series, please don’t hate). Happy Holiday reading!!
Words for Worms
I’m not a hater. Sometimes the bits of Outlander where they randomly start speaking Gaelic throws me for a loop. I’ve seen the LOTR movies so I’m thinking the pronunciation of the names at least won’t be too big a block for me. Care to join me?
kay
I read a lot of YA, and I didn’t fall in love with Matched, BUT ; it is a highly addictive story to read! I’ve read the first two and the third is on my shelf. It’s entertaining and the writing is interesting, as well as the world the author imagined. If Santa brings it to you, I hope you enjoy it! 🙂
Words for Worms
Santa knows better than to bring me books, because Santa can’t keep track of what I have and haven’t read… Unless Santa is reading my blog. That would be weird. I’ll let you know how I do with Matched! Thanks for the head’s up :).
Meg
To keep my nerd street cred, I shall now proceed to yell, “OMG I can’t believe you haven’t read the Lord of the Rings! How terrible! How awful! It’s fantastic!”
Now, I shall secretly whisper, “It’s actually pretty boring. Just watch the movies and you can fake it.”
Words for Worms
LOL! Meg, you rock. The Hobbit so far is decent, but I’m kind of like… Sooo… It took you that long to wander aimlessly through a dark forest? And now you’re in barrels? Well that’s interesting! Oh you’re still in barrels? Still? Wow, STILL? My goodness.
Darlene
Two years ago I made it my New Year’s Resolution to read only the first installment of Lord of the Rings. I was always intimidated by it and frankly didn’t think I would be interested in the story. (I had not seen the movies at that point). I completed my goal that spring and went on to read all of them. Only a few books have ever made me weep and Return of the King was one of them.
I never read books more than once, typically, because there are always so many before me that I want to read, but that series, I believe I will read again and maybe again.. It was MAGNIFICENT!!