Top Ten Tuesday (#8)

This is a meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. They tell us what to write our top ten list for, and we do! This week…

TOP TEN BOOKS I’D LIKE TO READ WITH MY BOOK CLUB (IF I HAD ONE)

toptentuesday

I think I’d want mostly controversial books, so I could see what people think of them compared to me. So some of these I’ve read, but I’d re-read them just to discuss them. The best ones I can think of:

  1. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. I found it decidedly average, but so many people liked it! What do you all see in it?
  2. Fallen by Lauren Kate. I DESPISED this, but lots of people love it
  3. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I saw the movie and it was really confusing, so I think I need someone to help me through the book
  4. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. This one talks about such serious topics, I think I’d need to read it with other people just to say sane
  5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Another book I’d need help getting through, with the way it’s written
  6. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin. Or any of the series, but this is the one I’m up to. It’s so freaking massive, I’d like persuasion to carry on with it
  7. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Same with Pride and Prejudice, and to an extent Storm of Swords
  8. London Belongs To Me by Norman Collins. I didn’t manage to finish this, I’d like encouragement
  9. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Seriously one of the most boring books I’ve ever suffered through. But it’s meant to be all inspirational and stuff, so maybe I was just too young at the time?
  10. Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. Okay, I cheated a little with this one. I went on Goodreads listopia and found best book club books, and this was recommended. The movie was one of the best I’ve ever seen, I may as well read it with this fictional club!

And while we’re on the topic, if anyone wanted to read one of these with me, let me know! Or anything on my Goodreads to-be-read shelf.

41 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday (#8)”

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  1. ohh, I want to watch the Water For Elephants movie. I didn’t love the book, but I’m still curious about it. I just feel like I wasn’t in the right head space to read it when I did. *shrugs* I agree that 13 Reasons why would be very very interesting to discuss. 0.0
    Thanks for stopping by @ Paper Fury!

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  3. For Pride and Prejudice, I found watching the BBC series helped me to read it when I was 17. I found the language really confusing but being able to picture it really helped =) I still struggled with it the first time but I got through, it’s worth it! It might be the same for Little Women if you can find a good production… I haven’t read it yet.
    I have no idea what the fuss was about for We Were Liars either, I thought it was decidedly “meh”!
    Anne Frank, perhaps you were too young. Not much happens in the book for sure (but what could happen, since they were trapped inside), but when you know the greater danger they were in in it’s historical context and consider how horrible it would have been to live like that for so long, it has more of an impact. I would have gone crazy if I were her =)
    Water For Elephants was also a bit overrated, I didn’t mind it but I’d not read again.

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    1. I feel so guilty watching the movies/shows the first, but it probably would be helpful. Hopefully it’s not too confusing, and as good as everyone says!
      Hopefully I was just too young, because I’d love to enjoy it like everyone else seems to. I just remember being incredibly bored…
      Maybe Robert Pattinson made the movie great for me 😛

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  5. OMG. Some of these are so amazing! I absolutely loved Water for Elephants. Unfortunately, the movie version was not very good. It was just okay, not nearly as wonderful as it could have been day.

    We Were Liars would definitely be a great group read because there’s just so much going on in it.

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    1. I loved the movie, so I’m so excited that the book is better! I don’t know why I’m surprised, it always is 😛 It’d be great to read We Were Liars for the first time in a group, so we could guess the ending together

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  6. I don’t think the Diary of Anne Frank was meant to be inspirational- it was written by a girl who did not even know it was going to get published. It’s simply her story.

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    1. I know she didn’t write it to inspire us, but I feel like most people think her story is impressive anyway. But she died, so even though she was sort of brave (and she was forced into that!) I don’t see why people are so impressed by her story

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  7. Pride and Prejudice would be the perfect book club read! I didn’t even think to put classics on my list, which is kind of embarrassing because I’m a massive 19th century literature fan.

    I totally found We Were Liars average as well! I was expecting such great things and I was sorely disappointed in the end. I’m happy to know that there are others out there who weren’t too impressed.

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    1. I realised that I forgot loads of obvious books too, don’t worry! Like Harry Potter!
      I thought I was the only one, but apparently loads of people hated it, I’ve had so many comments on here agreeing with me 🙂

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  9. Great list! I read We Were Liars with my small group and we all didn’t like it, but we did have fun talking about it. I think in my case I just didn’t like the characters. I couldn’t connect with any of them and half the time I just wanted to slap them. The writing style was riveting but the plot was a little predictable.

    Little Women and Pride and Prejudice are two of my favorite books! Classics are always good book club choices, because some of the themes and the wording can be difficult for everyone to understand on their own.

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    1. Yes, the characters were horrible! I’m going to write a review soon, I just want to think of something positive to say about it…
      Hopefully I can find people on Goodreads who want to read with me, because I agree that it would be hard to understand 🙂

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  13. Wow, thank you for saying that about We Were Liars. I thought I was the only person alive who didn’t love that book. I like the idea behind your list, picking books that will create a good conversation is so important in a book club. Thanks for stopping by my post today.

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  14. I’m told the Da Vinci Code book is much better than the movie and not nearly as confusing. Yeah I think A Storm of Swords is made for Kindle just so we don’t get crushed by it. Thirteen reasons why has such a unique concept, but at the end she’s still dead so I don’t think I’d like it too sad. I know that’s kind of the point of the book, but oh well.

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  15. “I DESPISED this, but lots of people love it”
    Now, you see, this is the way I actually feel about Water for Elephants. I felt a mixture of positives and negatives about the movie. It fixed a lot of the problems the book had but it also kept a lot of the problems and I found it to be generally lackluster just because it refused to abandon the book’s outline entirely and the book was basically an outline with little plot left i to go with its interesting backdrop.

    I honestly would not recommend the book though just because I feel the movie gives you the best version of the story with all the absolutely horrible parts removed and at least crammed into a brief time-frame.

    I have actually been planning to blog a chapter-by-chapter deconstruction of the book on my blog for quite some time due to how much I disliked it and feel the need to at least explain why to people. If you do read it, I can’t say you won’t like it because I know I am in the minority, but there are 2 things I consider to be actually offensive about the book that made me uncomfortable reading it. One is that the villain suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and this is the excuse for his being evil. This was something removed from the movie for good reason, and if you do read it at least recognize real life mentally ill people do not act this way and do some research into the genuinely kind souls who suffer from this disorder.

    The second is that the book made sexually using another person’s body out to be a joke. This was in the movie when Jacob discovers his testicles shaved as a prank, and I hated how lightly this horrific abuse of someone else’s body was played there. But it is worse in the book, where Jacob is being sexually manipulated by the prostitutes when he is unable to defend himself, and is visibly uncomfortable and even speculates they may have had sex with him against his will when he was unconscious. And yet this is all treated as a joke, included in the book for next to no reason, and is given little mention.

    Male rape is a thing, it should be acknowledged, my high school health textbook went out of its way to address it, and I hope you will try to not let these harmful messages sink in.

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    1. Wow, you really did hate it! By what you’ve said I can see why. I do hate it when people talk about serious things like that without fully understanding it.
      I think I’ll still read it though. The mental illness thing will make me want to throw it across the room, but I did like the general plot. I’ll push it further down my list though, you’ve done a lot to put me off! I’ll try to remember to look out for your posts, that might put me off enough. Thanks for your comment 🙂

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      1. Well, you might have to wait a while, because I’m still doing The Book Thief and that isn’t a short book. But I do look forward to sporking Water for Elephants eventually.

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  16. I’ll give you the link, but I think you will be disappointed:
    https://kirksbooks.wordpress.com/2014/03/08/i-read-the-book-thief-prologue/
    https://kirksbooks.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/i-read-the-book-thief-part-one-chapters-one-four/
    https://kirksbooks.wordpress.com/2014/03/25/i-read-the-book-thief-part-one-chapters-five-eight/
    https://kirksbooks.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/i-read-the-book-thief-part-two-chapters-one-four/
    https://kirksbooks.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/264/
    https://kirksbooks.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/i-read-the-book-thief-part-three-chapters-one-four/
    https://kirksbooks.wordpress.com/2014/08/23/i-read-the-book-thief-part-three-chapters-five-eight/

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