Tuesday, 21 August 2012

Playing Favourites: Top Ten Books I've Read Since Bibliotekit Started


Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week's topic is: Top Ten Favourite Books Read in the Lifetime of Your Blog. I haven't participated in a TTT for a while, so here goes!



I have only been blogging at Bibliotekit since February of this year. Picking ten books, then, was quite an easy task. Rather than go back through and see which ones I rated the highest, I’ve just picked out those that I remember as being the most enjoyable, for whatever reason.

Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour – Morgan Matson (review)
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. I love road trip books, and this one was a lot of fun. I particularly enjoyed the maps, pictures and lists that interspersed the narrative.

The Lost Continent – Bill Bryson (review)
Another road trip, this time in real life. Back to 1989 with Bill Bryson, revisiting the America of his childhood after a lengthy expatriation in the UK. Funny and totally absorbing.

Cat Among the Pigeons – Agatha Christie (review)
I have read a few Christie novels since starting this blog, but this one is my favourite of the last few months. Murder and intrigue and scandal (oh my!) at an English boarding school, with a late appearance by Poirot to sort the whole thing out.

The Marriage Plot – Jeffrey Eugenides (review)
A long-awaited new novel from Eugenides, and one that combined one of my favourite authors with one of my favourite settings: college. Disillusioned graduates and doomed love affairs ahoy.

The Boyfriend List – E. Lockhart (review)
Not just another YA novel. I picked this up expecting a fluffy high school romance and got the wonderful and slightly neurotic Ruby Oliver, whose boy traumas are myriad and often hilarious. I am waiting (impatiently) for my library to stock the last two in the series, but TBL and the second book, The Boy Book, are both excellent.

How To Be A Woman – Caitlin Moran (review)
I haven’t laughed this hard at a book in a long time. From being a teenager in Wolverhampton battling with fashion, doleful dogs and having a crush on Aslan the lion, to being an adult dealing with bras and sexism and whether or not to get married, this was incredibly funny and very, very true. And that’s even before the chapter on what to call “down there” in front of the kids.

Touching the Void – Joe Simpson (review)
More real life, this time Joe Simpson’s account of his climb in the Peruvian Andes that saw him break his leg and his climbing partner Simon Yates cut the rope that joined the two of them, believing Joe was dead. Stark and moving.

A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold – George R. R. Martin (review)
After the first book, perhaps my favourite of the series so far. The previous instalment (and the first half of ASOS) concentrated on the war; B&G concentrated on what came after the war, when everyone realised things hadn’t gone quite to plan.

Follow The Blue – Brigid Lowry (review)
A great coming of age YA novel focusing on Bec, who is left alone for the summer with her brother, sister and an unwanted housekeeper. It becomes a summer of juggling friends, boys, and finding herself (not to mention a lost guinea pig).

Twin Spirit – Matthew Thompson (review)
Children’s fantasy book that sees Rose transported to a galaxy of strange people and vibrant ‘sectors’, all at the behest of her dead twin sister Lily, who is eager to gain a body of her own.

Leave me your links and I'll check out your lists!

8 comments:

  1. I've heard great things about The Boyfriend List! I might just have to add it to my next TBD list... :D

    Thanks for checking out my list as well! New follower!

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  2. Amy & Roger is such a fabulous read! I adored it.

    My Top Ten

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  3. Love the whole Song of Fire and Ice series. The rest sound interesting, especially TBL and A&RED
    Katja @ YA's the Word

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  4. I haven't read any of these - I really need to check these out :)

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  5. I started my blog at the end of June, so my list was fairly easy, as well. :D Well, except I realized that man, I read a lot of books!

    I think this is turning out to be one of my favorite TTT, because the lists so far are all so different!

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  6. I loved A Storm of Swords. I just finished reading it and I'm so mad that my husband took the next book in the series with him on a week-long trip. I'm trying not to take drastic measures and go out and buy another copy!

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  7. Matson and Lockhart were on my list too -- love it!

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  8. I loved The Lost Continent too. I love the eclectic mix of genres in your list :)

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