July 9, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday 7/7/15

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is Top Ten Hyped Books I Haven't Read.

So, I'm not entirely sure what is meant by "hyped". I mean, I understand the concept, so I guess I'll just choose books that have gotten a lot of buzz or perhaps classics that everyone has heard of.

  1. 50 Shades of Gray by E.L. James - So maybe you've heard about the hoopla around this author this week. Someone decided a twitter thread called #askeljames would be a fun idea. Unfortunately, she is not a highly respected author and people on the internet are cruel, so it went bad really quickly. I don't condone being mean to anyone, even with internet anonymity, but I still have no desire to read this series. I actually did read a couple of pages and was just really unimpressed and kind of annoyed. And erotica is not my thing.

  2. Ulysses by James Joyce - Nope. No interest. I know it's supposed to be fantastic, but I have zero temptation to attempt it. It occurs to me that this topic could easily turn into a game of "Never Have I Ever". It's like that game in David Lodge's novel Changing Places where these snooty English professors sit around and admit to the classic novels they've never read. One guy wins the game by admitting he'd never read Hamlet, but then he loses his job. Pyrrhic victory.

  3. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - Pulitzer prize winner that even my mother has read, but I haven't gotten to it. It's probably fantastic. I fully expect it to be.

  4. The Girl On the Train by Paula Hawkins - This is a hugely hyped literary thriller that came out last year. My response is, "meh". I just don't think I will ever get to it. I like to sleep at night. It's been touted as the new Gone Girl, which brings me to...

  5. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - This came out a couple of years ago and has since been turned into a movie. Again, it's a literary thriller, this time about a guy whose wife disappears on their 5th anniversary and it begins to look like he was pretty abusive. (shrug)

  6. Night Film by Marisha Pessl - I feel pretty bad that I haven't read this one, yet. I own it. I've looked in it. It looks amazing. I'm pretty sure what's holding me up is that it took about 10 years for her to put this one out after her first one (which I loved) so I'm afraid I'll read it and there won't be another book for ten years. I prefer to have one available to read as opposed to having no new books and having to wait.

  7. I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai - This is the memoir by the young woman who was shot in the head by the Taliban for trying to get an education. She won the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts in the area of women's education. I don't have anything against this book. It just hasn't crossed my path and I haven't searched it out.

  8. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - I like Donna Tartt. I intend to read this one day. I have almost purchased it twice. I just haven't done it. And I will admit that some of that hesitance is the fact that it weighs in at almost 800 pages. That's quite a commitment. And heavy.

  9. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - This just hasn't ever tempted me. I read her book on marriage, and it was just so-so. I didn't really care for her voice. Meh.

  10. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - This story about kids who meet in a cancer support group and fall in love is supposed to be fabulous, but I just can't bring myself. Just, no.

So that's my ten.