Top Ten Tuesdays (created by The Broke and The Bookish) can be found at That Artsy Reader Girl (since January 16th) feature lists related to all things bookish–characters, authors, titles, and favorites. They’re an excellent way to find new interesting books on a variety of topics, and to find bloggers that love the books you do.
Check out their blog for their top ten and lists by other bloggers!
January 30: Books I Can’t Believe I Read.
These are books I wish I hadn’t spent the time on. In alphabetical order, as always.
- Crime & Punishment; Fydor Dostoyevsky. By the time I tackled this, I already knew I didn’t like much classic literature, but I read it anyway.
2. The Roanoke Girls; Amy Engel. Another deeply creepy book, that if warned, I wouldn’t have read.
3. Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies; Seth Grahame-Smith. If this had been a real variation, instead of a butchered version of the original, it could have been cool. Alas, it is not.
4. Tess of the D’Urbervilles; Thomas Hardy. I had to read this for a class, but I’m amazed I finished it.
5. The Library of Fates; Aditi Khorana. The reviews warned me this wasn’t a great book, but I was just so enticed by the summary. The reviews were right.
6. Breaking Dawn; Stephanie Meyer. A friend loaned me all of the Twilight books when they first became popular. I read the first one, and out of a misguided need to finish, then finished the series. I have since gotten a little better at letting go.
7. Gravity’s Rainbow; Thomas Pynchon. I should have realized that the comparisons to Ulysses, which I DNF’d, were a bad sign.
8. Unwind; Neal Shusterman. If someone had warned me how deeply creepy this series would turn out to be, I’d have run screaming.
caitlinsternwrites 
Breaking Dawn was definitely the weakest link in that series. I hated the second half.
I thought the idea were cool, but the relationship was really problematic.
Aw, I love Tess of the D’Urbervilles, but I can definitely see why someone might not. It’s pretty depressing, to say the least! I’m not usually a huge fan of Russian literature (some shows up on my list too) but I liked Crime and Punishment more than most of the other Russian novels I’ve read. The Twilight Saga makes an appearance on my list too:
https://franlaniado.wordpress.com/2018/01/30/top-ten-tuesday-books-i-cant-believe-i-read/
I read it as part of a women’s lit class–and all but one of the female protagonists (of 12 or so) ended up dead at the end of the book… ;(
Yeah, that’s why I can see why someone might not like it. But I think a lot depends on how its framed. I might not have liked it as part of a women’s lit class, but I read it as part of a 19th century lit class, which dealt with different aspects of the book than a women’s lit class might have.
Ugh Thomas Hardy! What a weighty writer! I read The Mayor of Casterbridge for a class but, although I enjoyed it, I’m not sure if it’s because of the actual content or because I was just proud of myself for getting through. Great list!
There’s an audience for every book. I just wasn’t the one for that book!
Thanks! 🙂