Top Ten Books I Think Everyone Has Read But Me

Good day, all! I know I'm very infrequent at the moment but I'm under a lot of school stress and I'm trying to establish a timetable. I hope to finish and post a review at some point this week of The Fellowship Of The Ring so I expect you to be on the edge of your already very worn seat.

I'm going with the idea that these are ten books I haven't read, but want to read. Everyone has read Paranormalcy, Vampire Academy and The Twilight Saga but I've never wanted to so I won't include them. (Do you see a trend in what I don't like?)

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern This is practically only released but the rest of the fricking world has either read or is reading this. How this fair, I ask? The answer: it isn't.

2. Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien I know I've started and nearly finished the first book, but I've spent two years of most other people having read it. It feels like I've come to a great wall that has always been looming on the horizon of my reading.

3. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak This is one this a bit older now, but I constantly see reference creeping up or spying it somebody's house. I've also heard that it's better than one might expect. Another one that I'd like to get my hands on.

4. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë This is like one of those classics, that everyone has read at some point in their lives. This is on my to-buy list and has worked its way up recently, but I may cave and buy it so I can see the film. 


5. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess Like the above, everyone seems to have read this as well. Sadly, it's one I forget about a lot and it annoys me because I am sure to find it interesting.


6. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson I know it's only out today, I'm not an idiot. But when you want something so bad, you just see it everywhere, don't you? And I can't help but feel like loads of (but not all) people have read it.


7. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain I'm breaking my rule a bit, because I'm not sure if I want to read it, but I think I do. Twain is someone I want to experience because I'm not sure (yet) what he'd like and I'm curious. Oh-so-curious.

8. Hourglass by Myra McIntyre I actually heard about this before it got released and even before the hype so it is highly annoying that I haven't read it. I mean, I knew about so why didn't I read it? I think it was because Veronica Roth's Divergent came out and I chose that over Hourglass. See! I do try to be good and not buy too many books!

9. Stephen King I've never read anything by this man or many of those other writers who churn out like 6 books a year. I always think the quality must be less because they can write so much, but then I realise: "Hey, I haven't read any so how can I say that?"

10. Every damn piece of Epic Poetry Antigone, the Iliad, the Odyssey, Metamorphoses, Gilgamesh, Beowulf, The Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost are the ones I think read the most, but they just go on and on and I want them all to at least make a try at. And I know I cheated here but everyone else has read too much that I wish  had too. Blame them, not me.

I have to say I really liked the hop this week because it is gratifying to read what other people put and think that'd you've read it. As though you've just found out you are actually in the majority for having read that book. I also think I've read most well-known books so it was quite humbling in some respects.


By the way, it's my birthday on Thursday so if you want to buy any of these for me, drop me a line. I mean it, I want them all in my dirty little hands under my all-consuming beady little reader-y eyes.

Woefully Behind - Friday Hop

I'm just going to say, here, at the start, that I will try and post something proper soon. At the moment, I'm reading Emma by Jane Austen and, as it is with classics, it isn't a particularly quick read. I'm about halfway through and I hope to catch up and all but finish it before the end of the weekend.


Anyway, Friday blog hop...one day late.

“Many of us primarily read one genre of books, with others sprinkled in. If authors stopped writing that genre, what genre would you start reading? Or would you give up reading completely if you couldn’t read that genre any more?”

I don't think I do read one particular genre of book. Maybe I'm just boring or whatever, but I like books in general and I've probably read at least one book in every genre. I'd never give up reading completely- that would be unthinkable! But, say, every type of book I would like is wiped out, I would still read because no book is all bad and I think that if I really read unforgivably dreadful books, I'd try (badly) to write my own in that genre.

I also get the same thrill from gaming as reading. Role-Playing Games, to me, play out much as a good book would. So whenever all those frightful books get me down, I can turn to games. I claim to be eclectic for a reason, y'know!


Find at: http://crazy-for-books.com/2011/09/book-blogger-hop-99-912.html

Books to Television: Which books would you love 

to see made in to a TV series? Or movie?

It's hard for me to say because I've had traumatic experiences with books becoming movies (Eragon, for example) so I'm wary. I also don't like the idea of them being TV series because every episode needs to be interesting and sometimes books need to have a break from such things for the readers to get a breather. Also, the disjointedness might ruin the pace. The other issue is that things that are acceptable and amazing in books are cheesy and cringe-worthy on screen. That aside, I can think of a couple.


The Belgariad and the Mallorean by David Eddings would be the first one to come to mind since I've read them so many times and visualised scenes in so many ways that I've convinced myself it would be good to see. However, my better part says that if that this were to made into a film (or a series of films) then I would be disappointed because they would miss things out or cast the wrong people. Even though I try, I don't think any set of actors could play the characters well and have the same chemistry. And the magic/Gods? That would just be cheesy.


The other books I'd like to see would be Divergent by Veronica Roth since that was another books I read and watcher in my head. I had clear images throughout about how everything was done and, to be honest, it worked just as well. Sometimes when we imagine how it would look, we suspend belief for a while, but I didn't have to do that; not once.

Have you ever wanted a villain to win at the end of a story? If so, which one?

I can't remember a time I've thought that, but I have on occasion wanted the 'villain' to be cut bit more slack. Such as (sorry to mention it again) in the Belgariad when the 'evil' wizard (I forget his name) faces off with Belgarath. In the nicest way, it wasn't really his fault and what happens to him moves me to compassion. A book where the bad guy actually wins though? Nope, I can't think of one, though I'm sure it's out there. In my more depressing books, you could argue they do win occasionally so I get a fix of disappointment regularly anyhow.

Declaring Spinsterhood by Jamie Lynn Braziel

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Declaring Spinsterhood by Jamie Lynn Braziel is a chick-lit book- which is not a genre I frequent: rather one I sometimes stumble upon. I got this book in a giveaway, and it was also the ARC copy, though I noticed no prominent mistakes. On the whole, it was enjoyable to read, but predictable.

Our main character, Emma Bailey, has a relatively entertaining way of reciting the story, though she repeated herself more than I liked. Her family life is quite terrible, and I literally couldn’t understand why she put up with it or- moreover- why her family were such an unfeeling load of renal mass without a shred of empathy. I liked the Dad, and her brother, but no-one else really. I mean, you’d think they’d just lay off with the jokes about her being single: especially since they’ve been doing it for years. Braziel tried rectify this by giving her a gun license, making her ‘bad-ass’ but I don’t get it. She doesn’t seem to do anything different to her usual self. I sort of felt that the gun merely acted as a plot device.

The mother was the worst because she was completely deaf to everything her daughter said to her, inviting Emma’s ex-boyfriends to Sunday lunch, and arranging a myriad of blind dates, despite them epically failing in the past. I actually didn’t really understand why Emma’s father married her since he is so much nicer and more cheerful, while she just some kind of cold, reputation-obsessed matchmaker. I’d have liked to see a point when she wasn’t so unapproachable.

Her friends were much more interesting: Kathy’s amiability was really evident to me, and I liked her almost straight away (though I don’t understand her covering for Emma so much). Brian was nice, but I knew where the story was going: that he’d get a girl, Emma would have an epiphany and one way or another things would work out. Even with this in mind, I wish it wasn’t so smooth. We knew something was wrong with all of Emma’s romantic interests because she didn’t trust Steve to be faithful…or that other guy at all. I don’t even remember his name, and he was passively important.

The novel’s name comes from Emma’s declaration that she is going to give up on men and live alone for the rest of her life, but I never really felt this was the case. She was pining after someone else at the time, and she never made any big change towards this aim. I sort of didn’t understand the declaration anyway it seemed either (A) a spontaneous, unconsidered choice or (B) a bad reaction to a bad date. The guys she dated were jerks, granted, but I don’t think we got enough history to back this up. Perhaps I’m being harsh though, since it was obvious that Steve really messed her up and, romantically, things weren’t looking too bright.

I think I’ve torn into this book a little, but I don’t think it’s that bad. I don’t read books in this genre, and I’m a bit particular about romance in books, so I could conclude that this just wasn’t my kind of reading material. It’s short though, so I’d never say I wasted time.