Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Was Forced to Read

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

I always worry when people recommend books, especially when they do a follow-up and are dying to know if I liked the book as much as them.  It took me ages to read Divergent because I was scared it wouldn't live up to the hype.  But let's get into the list of nine books I was "forced" to read.

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Required reading for school drives me crazy.  Analyzing the book often ruins it for me, or the novels are just plain boring (*cough*The Last of the Mohicans*cough*).  To Kill a Mockingbird has been the one exception.

2. Percy Jackson & the Olympians series by Rick Riordan

Kate was rather persistent in getting me to read PJO.  I definitely prefer the first five books to Heroes of Olympus, and I don't regret reading PJO.

3. Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter

Once again, I have to thank Kate. I remember her talking about GG back when book 4 or 5 came out and we were at Barnes & Noble.  I saw the title and thought, Ew, that doesn't look like something I'd like.  Oh how wrong I was.  I'm also very ashamed I thought that, because I love GG and Heist Society and Ally Carter is one of the best authors out there.

4. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Kelly recommended THG on many an occasion, but y'all know about my aversion to all things sci-fi, so I was pretty leery.  I think I read all three books in one day, and I've never looked back.

5. Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth

I can still remember Kelly recommending Divergent in my birthday card, particularly because it's set in Chicago.  I kept telling myself I'd read it, but it never happened.  As I think I've mentioned before, I checked Divergent out of the library 6 or 7 times but never read it.  Finally, this summer, I did.  It's one of the best books I've ever read.  Seriously, what would I do without Kelly?

6. Hamlet by William Shakespeare

In a way, I was forced to read this since it was assigned in Shakespeare class.  Practically the whole spring semester revolved around it.  And now I'm kind of a Shakespeare freak.  Thanks, Mrs. E. :)

7. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Once I started following book blogs, I saw several people (namely Sunny Duvall of Blue Sky Bookshelf) talking about Cinder and Scarlet.  It looked vaguely interesting, but when I read the synopses, I wrinkled my nose.  Futuristic, sci-fi fairytales?  No, thank you.  Just like with Gallagher Girls, I was very wrong.

8. Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Well, Hannah recommended this one, so I felt kind of obligated to read it. (Plus, it didn't seem too bad.)  I ended up not liking it, though.

9. There's No Place Like Home by Jen Calonita (and probably the rest of the latter half of the Secrets of My Hollywood Life series)

I felt obligated/forced to finish the series when I started it, but it honestly wasn't that great.  Very repetitive and full of the same old problems (mean girls, boyfriend drama, and so forth).