Tuesday 20 February 2018

Top Ten Tuesday | Never Say Never Apart From When You Should


Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!


This week's theme is 'Books I’ve Decided I’m No Longer Interested In Reading', and it was a difficult theme for me to make a list for at first because I'm one of those people who doesn't like to say 'never'. 


My tastes are always evolving and changing, so there are books I might not want to read now that I'll suddenly have a craving for in a year's time, so today I decided to go with a list mostly made up of books I've started reading before, given up on and am sure I won't go back to.


Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: I remember this book being everywhere years ago and I was intrigued because Eleanor is overweight and it's so rare to see an overweight heroine in fiction - it's particularly rare to see an overweight heroine in fiction whose story isn't about losing weight in some way. I've since seen quite a few reviews from people of colour, however, who've said the way Rowell portrays Park made them uncomfortable which really put me off reading it and now it's been so long since it came out that I don't care. The only things of Rowell's I've read are Attachments and Midnights in My True Love Gave to Me and I didn't love either so I think she's just not for me.

Divergent by Veronica Roth: I tried reading this one years ago when YA dystopian fiction was all the rage and while I easily could have forced myself to finish it I didn't want to. I thought it was boring and the society as a whole didn't really make sense to me. The Hunger Games is creepy because it's easy to see how society might have got to that, but I couldn't understand in what world these factions were considered a good idea by any government. I don't think I'm missing out on anything and I know a lot of people who loved the trilogy hated the ending, so I'm going to keep my distance.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater: Tried it and didn't like it and I was disappointed! I've heard so many good things about Stiefvater's writing and about this series in particular that I was hoping to enjoy it, but sadly her style isn't for me. Also, as someone who's lived in Wales and worked alongside people whose mother tongue is Welsh, I couldn't get past the butchering of 'Owen Glendower'. His name's Owain Glyndŵr.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han: I wanted to try one of Han's novels after really enjoying her short story in My True Love Gave to Me, but, again, her work isn't for me. This is another one I easily could have finished if I'd forced myself to, I just didn't want to force myself to finish something when I could be reading something else.

Where She Went by Gayle Forman: I liked If I Stay a lot and I picked up a copy of Where She Went with the intention of reading it, but I never did and now I'm not that interested. I think If I Stay is fine on its own.


Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James: It's only in the past year or so I've started to get into Austen and I wanted to pick this one up so I could watch the BBC adaptation starring Anna Maxwell Martin, whom I adore. Unfortunately the book was another I couldn't get into and I ended up watching the adaptation only to be pretty underwhelmed by the story as a whole, so I have no interest in reading the book.

Rebel Heart and Raging Star by Moira Young: Blood Red Road is one of my favourite YA novels. I love the way its written and I love Saba and I love Jack and it pulled me out of a reading slump when I really needed to be pulled out of one. I had every intention of continuing with the trilogy but then I saw more and more reviews that the latter two books weren't as good and eventually I lost interest in it. Blood Red Road is enough for me - why does every YA novel have to have a sequel?

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab: Schwab is another one of those authors who I should love and just don't. A Darker Shade of Magic, in particular, should be right up my street considering it's historical fantasy but Schwab's writing style and I don't get along. Oh well!

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber: I'm always fascinated by novels that combine science and science fiction with religion, so I thought this one would be right up my street. I started reading it, got about a third of the way through it, and still nothing had happened. My patience only goes so far so I put it aside and I have no real desire to try again.

Which books made your list this week?

14 comments:

  1. Goonies lol. Nice!! I liked Divergent but it wasn't mind blowing or anything, and by book three I was done (couldn't even finish). I looked at death Comes To Pemberley once but the bit that I read bored me, so I never went on.

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  2. I've read Divergent, but I never bothered to read the other two books in that trilogy. It's cool that other people enjoyed it, but I honestly didn't see what the fuss was about. :)

    Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.

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  3. We watched the movie Divergent, and I too did not understand how that society worked! It didn't make sense! I'm glad I'm not the only one. I thought about reading the Michael Farber book for awhile, but ultimately ended up removing it from my TBR.

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  4. Hi! I read Eleanor & Park after all the hoopla died down. I enjoyed it. I didn't find any of the characters troublesome. But I don't think you'll be missing out on life by not reading it! :)
    Leslie
    My TTT

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  5. I didn't like Death Comes to Pemberley much either - the series or the book. It sounded like a fun idea but it just didn't work :/ And as much as I like Anna Maxwell Martin I kind of thought she was miscast?

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  6. I'm also one those people who keeps changing their mind about books because sometimes you get interest in a book even when you swore you would not read the book but it's okay.

    I tried reading the 'raven boys' books and I couldn't even finish the first book, I just find the boys to be a bit too much like rich boys with problems and why should I care?

    I was interested in 'to all the boys...' because of the asian character being the protagonist but then I find just reading the reviews and reading a few passage, I find nothing special about this or the sequels. I don't know how all those people loved it so much, I really don't

    have a lovely day.

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  7. I read Eleanor and Park a few years ago and didn't think it was that great, mainly because of how insecure Eleanor is and how she would twist compliments into insults. And I really enjoyed The Raven Boys but I totally understand how Glyndwr being called "Owen Glendower" can annoy people. Especially since he isn't referred to by his actual name until the final book.

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  8. I wasn't that impressed with If I Stay, so Where She Went is just kind of sitting on my bookshelf for now. I may read it at some point, but I'm in no rush :(

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  9. I liked Divergent but the series went downhill. Loved the Raven Boys-reminded me of HP marauders fan fiction so I got really into it.

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  10. I really loved Eleanor & Park (and love Rainbow Rowell in general). :( I agree that If I Stay is fine on its own, but I liked Where She Went (although I know a lot of folks hated it.) I read The Raven Boys and couldn't stand it, and didn't bother with the rest of the series. I actually really liked Death Comes to Pemberly (and liked the TV adaptation as well), but my tolerance in general for P&P spin-offs and retellings is pretty thin. Ah well! I'd rather put aside books that no longer interest me than spend time and regret it!

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  11. I haven’t read any of these except Eleanor & Park. But yes, I wanted to read Divergent series and To All the Boys series at some point. I am not sure though when that time will come :P
    I actually loved Eleanor & Park. It was my first book of Rowell and I liked her writing style :)

    My TTT: http://flippingthruthepages.com/2018/02/ten-books-want-read-beautiful-covers-featuring-black-women/

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  12. I really liked Divergent but I'm not so bothered about the whole series. I don't think you're missing much if you don't read it.

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  13. I'd still like to read Jenny Han's books (they sound like my kind of read) and someday I would like to read Where She Went after liking If I Stay (WAY more than I thought!).

    Thanks so much for visiting Finding Wonderland.

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  14. I'm planning on reading the last two Blood Red Road books - fingers crossed...

    Thanks for visiting my blog earlier.

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