October 15, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Was Forced to Read


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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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. :)

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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.

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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.

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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).

13 comments:

  1. Nice choices! If I make a list (which I may or may not), To Kill a Mockingbird and The Hunger Games would be on mine as well.

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  2. Sounds like Kelly is a great book friend! You should probably listen to her when she recommends books :)

    Happy TTT!

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    1. She's my BFFE (Best Friend Forever and Ever), so I definitely listen to her. :) Thanks for dropping by!

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  3. I loved THG, Divergent and Cinder. I haven't tried the GG books but I might in the future since I've seen a lot of good things about them!

    Great list :)

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    1. You must read Gallagher Girls. Ally Carter is a phenomenal author.

      Thanks for stopping by!

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  4. I actually enjoyed the Secrets of My Hollywood Life series in high school, but I do agree that so many of the plots were repetitive. But I feel obligated to buying and reading the last book to complete the series.

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    1. Yes, I often feel obligated to finish out a series and see what happens. Thankfully, there haven't been too many that I didn't enjoyed.

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  5. I wasn't a fan of Wither upon first reading it either (read it for a book club). But the year it came out, two more of my online book clubs chose it, so I re-read it. By the time I read it the third time I was reading deeper into it and actually really liked it! This is a pretty great list! :)

    My TTT:

    http://diamondinroughcoal.blogspot.com/2013/10/top-ten-tuesday-12-top-ten-books-i-was.html

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  6. Divergent and The Hunger Games - two of my favourite series ever! I am so glad to find someone else who didn't really enjoy Wither. I've heard so many great things about Cinder and now I cannot wait to read it!

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  7. Woo! You were forced to read some very amazing books :) And amen on #9. I love Jen Calonita, but the series started to get very repetitive. Might be realistic, but not enjoyable to read. Great list!

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