Top Ten Books That Lived Up To The Hype

 

 Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Artsy reader Girl. Each week a new Top Ten list will be posted. Everyone is welcome to join. Link back so everyone can check out other bloggers' lists. It's a fun way to get to know fellow bloggers.

This week is top ten books that lived up to the hype.     

My favorite book of A Song of Ice and Fire.  

This one definitely lived up to all the hype, although Catching Fire is my favorite of the series. And I finally read these recently thanks to Shannon at It Starts At Midnight!



I heard a lot of hype about this book and when I finally read it I was blown away- definitely lived up! 



Same here- see above  



Ditto. 



This is the only Rainbow Rowell book I've read, oddly, but it totally lived up to the hype. 



My favorite of the series hands down. 



If anything this more than lived up to the hype- I was expecting a fairly pedestrian YA mystery and got very compelling characters. 



I'd heard some great things about this one but it surprised me how great it was! 



I saw a little pre- release buzz for this one, not a lot, but I was blown away by it and how it juggled several different balls without dropping them. 



While not every story in this anthology worked for me, I still look back fondly on several of the stories- and would love to see more like this!

Tuesday Tagline #102

I couldn't resist.  

The All About Reading Tag

I was tagged by Anna over at Adventures of a Booknerd (thanks Anna!!!) for this one- love the questions! So without any further ado, let's take a look. :)

1) What do you look for the most when you pick up a book? A) a beautiful writing style, B) a character driven story, or C) a plot driven story

They're all important in different ways, but I love a character driven story.

2) What are your pet peeves in books? 

Love triangles, love triangles, love triangles. And instalove. And cliffhangers...

3) If you could print one quote on your wall, which one would it be? 

"Not all those who wander are lost" by Tolkien

4) Which genre would you like to explore more? 

Maybe mysteries? I mean, I read a lot of psychological thrillers, but I really like the twistiness and real world setting of a good mystery. Which is funny, since I've always loved fantasy for it's otherworldliness. Oh, and I know! Urban fantasy. I feel like I need to read more of that.

5) Was there ever a movie adaptation you liked more than the book? 

Possibly Insurgent. Unlike a lot of people I actually thought that was a pretty good movie.

6) If one of your favorite books would be adapted or get a new adaptation, which book would it be and what role would you like to play? 

Wow tough one. I'd love to see a proper adaptation of A Dance with Dragons, the fifth ASoIaF book, which the show (to a large extent) doesn't have time to delve into. Who I would play though- no idea. The Blue is another book I wouldn't mind seeing a good version of.

7) A hyped book you wouldn't recommend at all? 

I wasn't into River of Teeth at all.

8) A book that highly influenced your life and way of thinking?

Probably A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs or Planet of Exile by Ursula K. LeGuin. Both had a lot to do with kickstarting my love of fantasy/ SF.

9) Are you a fan of rereading books? Do you do it often? 

I do like to re- read! I don't nearly as much now that I blog, but there's nothing quite like revisiting an old bookish friend.

10) Which book title could easily be the title of your life? 

11) Which book should be required reading for everyone? 

Oh this is impossible to say? I'll just show off a few favorites (these will be no surprise to long time readers).

 

12) Who do you tag? 

I'm tagging JJ at This Dark Material, Suzanne at The Bookish Libra, and Litha at Victorian Soul Critiques.

Sunday Post #256

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is hosted by Book Date 

I've been really enjoying July. It hasn't been quite as hot and I've had windows open at night, letting the night breeze in. I love the night sounds, and it's been raining a lot too over the last week. I love sleeping to the rain! One thing I've been thinking about is stargazing. I used to go outside at night and stare up at the sky- why do I make less time to do that as an adult? Do we lose some of our sense of wonder as we get older? I often wonder that. Is that part of why nostalgia is so powerful? For me stargazing is like watching a storm roll in, or seeing the moon peek from behind scudding clouds- it fires my imagination, makes me think of places I wish existed.

It's part of the reason that I love autumn so much. Bare trees scratching the sky, the swirling of leaves, a harvest moon... there's so much atmosphere in the fall. And as much as I'm enjoying midsummer, I find myself looking forward to that, as I mentioned last time. Bonfires and the smell of burning leaves...

Speaking of imagination, I posted the first flash fiction I've done in quite a while. It's called The Escape and can be found here. It's based on this image. And I posted my Hardy Boys/ Nancy Drew tag. Movies That Suck was Day of the Triffids and this week will be The Chernobyl Diaries- and thanks to Sarah at All The Book Blog Names Are Taken for that suggestion. And coming up this week will be another tag- the All About Reading tag. Thanks to Anna at Adventures of a Booknerd!  

This weekend is a Venetian festival in one of the coastal towns over here- Saugatuck. Fireworks and a lighted boat parade. The last fireworks hurrah of the summer... 
         

Song of the week  

PULP COVER OF THE WEEK: 

NEW ARRIVAL/ UPCOMING REVIEWS: