Top Ten Tuesday #47: Second Chance Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week the girls at B&B think up a fun theme, and participating bloggers post their favorite 10 books in that category. This week's theme is

Top Ten Books I Almost Put Down But Didn't

You guys know that when I post a TTT (I know it's been a little sporadic lately), I love finding ways to add waaaay more than ten books to my list. And that's why my list today is going to shock you. I'm doing something I've never done before in the year-ish that I have been participating in Top Ten Tuesday: today, I only have two books on the list. Yeah. You read that right. Two books. I just found this topic to be really difficult, and I think I might have been able to comb over my Goodreads read shelf and found ten candidates, but I just wasn't in the mood to do such in-depth research. 

Why is this toopic so hard for me? Well, I don't inherently plan on putting down books. I'm not saying other people go into reading a specific book knowing they'll put it down, but many readers do have a plan to abandon/DNF a book around a particular chapter or page if it's not what they wanted or expected. I don't do that. Even when I have a hard time with a book, I'm almost always able to finish it. Some people say, life is short, why read a book you have to force yourself to finish? The reason I always finish books and movies that I don't love is because I am innately nosy curious. I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS, but I don't want to find it out through reading spoilery reviews. I want to experience it for myself. As such, I could probably count only on one hand the number of books I've abandonded EVER, but I also rarely plan on putting a book down. 

That being said, I've taken like a three month break on both E. Lockhart's We Were Liars (I know, I know. Dissing a book on release day: harsh!) and Andrew Smith's Grasshopper Jungle (and I was SO excited about this one!) because neither was working for me, and I haven't been able to find time to pick them up again, although I've been assured it will be well worth it when I do.

So what are the two books that make this very exclusive list? They're probably going to shock you. Like, a lot. Here goes...

  

Yeah. I know. My full Harry Potter story is in my about me section, but the five second version is that my mom lent me her copy of Sorcerer's Stone in October of 1999, when I was eleven. I hated the first chapter a lot and stopped reading. Two months later, my aunt bought me a copy for Christmas. I felt obligated to read it (because present and all) so I skipped to chapter two and never looked back. I have been a hardcore Harry fan ever since. Guys, I have dates that prove I was a Potterhead before the term Potterhead even existed (and I don't really like the term so this will probably be the only time you'll ever actually hear me say that I am one). However, to this day, the first chapter of Sorcerer's Stone is one of my least favorites in the entire series (my favorite is "Career Advice" in Order of the Phoenix because Fred and George).

As for DoSaB, my elementary school best friend spoke very highly about this book so I had my mom borrow it from the library a couple years ago so that it would be waiting for me when I got home from college. I'm not a fan of weird names in books and admittedly, Karou is a REALLY weird name. Also, I was uttely baffled by the concept. Just...WHAT is going on here?! Teeth? Snake woman? Making your ex-boyfriend's butt itch? Okay, that last one is hilarious. Carry on, LT. But seriously, I just didn't understand what in the hell was going on. I knew Laini's writing was magnificent so that's why I didn't actually put it down, but the story took me a while to get into. Thankfully, the story picked up once Akiva, Liraz, and Hazael carried out their sad mission AND Madrigal's tale brought the two sides of the story together. Now, this is a favorite series of mine, and I recommend it all the time. YAY!

Are you surprised by my picks? Are you ever more surprised by the fact that I only have two books on my list? Let me know what you think and your picks in the comments. Feel free to share your links!

5 comments:

  1. Not surprising. Books affect each of us differently. There was recently a book that I almost DNF, then when I got to the end was so shocked that I had to read it again. lol It was Lucid by Adrienne Stoltz, Ron Bass.

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  2. I'm not surprised either. I remember hearing the first couple of chapters of Harry Potter being read to me in an English class in school. And it didn't make me run home and beg my mom for the book. But somehow I ended up getting my own copy then LOVING the series.
    And I understand about DoSaB too. I agree, there were moments that I was thinking, what is happening.
    I too didn't have many books, I only have 5 on my list.

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  3. I don't remember not liking anything about Harry Potter....I am a die hard Harry Potter fan also. I loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone also...it was so unique. I have had many that I put down....I do not read a book if it doesn't capture me in the first three chapters. It drives my daughter crazy, but I don't care. I don't bother if I don't love them :)

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  4. I finally read the first Harry Potter because of the hype, and I'm glad I did. I really liked it, but I've never come back to the series. DoSaB was a little out there for me, too, but I ended up loving it. (By the way, I'm not crazy about strange names in books either!) I really liked We Were Liars; it's a little different I guess, unreliable narrator isn't always my cup of tea. There are lots of books I just don't start because I can't seem to let myself abandon them no matter how bad they are (bad habit). There have been several that I only read like 5% and postponed, but the The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo is the only one that comes to mind, which by the way, I ended up loving. It just took me 3-4 tries to commit. There are others like that, and I ended up liking most of them. Also, super thick books intimidate me, so those are always iffy. :)

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  5. A lot of people I know didn't like the first HP book so no surprises there, even though it's crazy. I'm not a huge fan of DoSaB (yeah, crazy me) and I don't think I will be continuing with series.

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