Top Ten Tuesday (15)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week there will be a new topic and a new list to make. Be sure to stop by the host blog to see all of the other blogs participating!



I haven't done one of these in a long time, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to talk about some of my favorite books that never got reviewed here!

This week's topic:
Top Ten Favorite Books I Read Before I Was a Blogger

1. Phantom by Susan Kay - This Phantom of the Opera retelling is, in my opinion, the epitome of retellings. It takes the original story and expands it in such an imaginative way. After reading this book, you could never root for Raoul again. I reread this book so many times as a teen.

2. Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind - I'm definitely cheating here, since this is eleven books. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be between Faith of the Fallen (book 6) and the Chainfire trilogy (books 9-11). Still cheating, I know. Sword of Truth is epic fantasy, but there is also philosophy woven through it. These books really helped shaped the way I thought about things and viewed the world, and still do.

3. The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer - These books really got me reading again after all but forgetting my love of books in college. I might not have the same reaction if I were to read these books today, but at the time, the emotional reaction I had when reading them and the subsequent friends I made because of these books meant that I'd always have a soft spot for this series.

4. The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward - The vampires here were definitely not like the ones in Twilight. These books are completely engrossing, and still this is the one series that everything stops for on release day.

5. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - I think this is self-explanatory. For a long time the Harry Potter books were the standard against which I measured other books I read. I still miss the midnight releases for the books and movies.

6. The Hunger Games - I'm pretty sure this is also self-explanatory. Even more than Twilight, this series sold me on reading YA.

7. The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde - I read these books on a recommendation from a friend and after reading an excerpt that was a diatribe on "had had" and "that that" from The Well of Lost Plots. These books were so much fun to read, and I loved reliving classic books through them.

8. The Help by Kathryn Stockett - I actually listened to this as an audiobook, and it was incredible. It was unlike any story I'd read at that point.

9. Dear John by Nicholas Sparks - This was another audiobook. I'm not a fan of all of his writing, but at the time when I was listening to this, it was just the right story for me. And the book is, as always, so much better than the movie.

10. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - This list wouldn't be complete without the classics. I still love these books and love rereading them.



What made your Top Ten list? Please leave a comment or link to your blog!