Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly book meme held over at The Broke and the Bookish. This week we are listing our top ten books that we thought we would like more or less than we did. Interesting topic! Here are my picks:
Books I Was Expecting More From…
1) The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
I am a huge Stephen King fan and bought this book a few years back. I took it with me on holiday as it’s only a thin book. However it took me ages to read it and I just found it boring! The ending I found really disappointing too. It’s the only King book I’ve ever read and not liked.
2) The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling
As a huge Potter fan I was disappointed with this book. It was probably my own fault though as it was never marketed as being similar to Harry Potter. My full review is here.
3) Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch
I still don’t really understand what I didn’t like about this book. It has everything that I would like but I just couldn’t get into it!
4) The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
I remember seeing the description of this and falling in love with it. I love stories that use food this adds magical properties. I think it was the writing style that got me this time. I just didn’t like it.
5) The Somnambulist by Essie Fox
I rushed to the library to find this book. Victorian gothic? Yes please! The start of the novel was very slow going though and I ended up giving up.
Books That Exceeded Expectations…
1) The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas
It’s difficult choosing a book to take to a festival. I have to take one for late night reading in my tent before I go to sleep. It has to be not too thick, interesting enough to keep me occupied on the train but not so interesting that it makes me want to sit on my own and read it all week! This book ticked the boxes. It was a brilliant read though and my train journey (from Liverpool to the Isle of Wight!) sped by.
2) Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Green
This was an impulse buy that sat on my shelf for a while before I read it. It’s not my usual kind of story at all. I adored it though. I’ve become a huge fan of novels written from a young child’s perspective.
3) Room by Emma Donoghue
Similar to the one above really! Everyone raved about this book but I wasn’t sure. I got hold of a copy and it sat on my bookshelves for ages. When I did finally get to it, I read it within a couple of days.
4) The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern
The good thing about the library is that you can pick up books that you would probably never buy but look vaguely interesting. If you don’t like it you can take it back and you’ve not lost anything! I’ve always looked at Cecelia Ahern novels as boring chick lit. Let me tell you though that if this is chick lit then I’ve been misinformed about quality!
5) When God Was A Rabbit by Sarah Winman
Another library book! I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and used it in the recommendation part of my interview for my Christmas job at Waterstones 2 years ago!
Thats all! I probably could have come up with a lot more than ten books here. Novels are constantly surprising me. The two things I’ve learnt are:
1) If you don’t like a book then stop reading it! I used to commit myself to struggle through a book if I’d started it. I now know not to!
2) Try anything. If there’s a book that looks interesting but you don’t usually like that genre/author then try it anyway!
Are there any novels that you thought you’d like more or were disappointed in?
Writing Beckles 