Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Top Ten Books If You Like… (fill in the blank with your favorite TV shows, games, movies, comics, etc) This is a hard one! I’m mostly sticking to TV, since that’s my biggest vice/guilty pleasure after reading.
So, what to read? Depends on what you like to watch!
*images via Google and Pinterest*
1) If you like Downton Abbey… check out Longbourn by Jo Baker. A different time period, true, but this book offers a behind-the-scenes view of life “downstairs”, showing us just what it takes to keep a proper household in clean linens and with a nicely set table.
2) If you like The Big Bang Theory… check out The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. I could not get the voice of Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) out of my head the entire time I was reading Rosie. A genius-level scientist with no social skills, resulting in a multitude of faux pas and unintended hilarity? Yup.
3) If you like The Originals… check out Anne Rice’s vampire books, especially Interview with the Vampire or The Vampire Lestat. You just can’t beat Anne Rice for supernatural goings-on in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
4) If you like Helix… check out Parasite by Mira Grant. The new Syfy series is full of icky microbes infecting people and threatening to take over the entire world — and if you want icky threats from within the human body, you’re sure to love (and be grossed out by) Parasite.
5) If you like Once Upon A Time… check out the Fables graphic novel series by Bill Willingham. Fairy tale characters are real and are living in hiding in our world! Sure, there was a lot of angry speculation when it first aired that Once was basically a Fables rip-off — but Bill Willingham did his best to get his rabid fans to stand down. You can read his Q&A here from 2011 before you decide whether to take up a pitchfork.
6) If you like Frozen… check out any of Robin McKinley’s fairy tale retellings, especially Beauty, The Rose Daughter, or Spindle’s End. No singing princesses or talking snowmen, just excellent writing, darkly reimagined worlds of magic, and more depth than you might think possible.
7) If you like Hart of Dixie… check out Raney, Walking Across Egypt, or any other of Clyde Edgerton’s quirky and charming novels, full of the odd-ball characters with a decidedly Southern twist that make towns like TV’s Bluebell, Alabama so much fun.
8) If you like Orphan Black… check out Archetype by M. D. Waters. Something is going on — and it involves evil scientists, shady plots. and human experimentation. Yikes! Complicated and delicious.
9) If you like Game of Thrones... well, read the books, obviously! Or for something different set in a kingdom with deadly power struggles, battling families, secret powers, and even an ice wall, check out the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. Six books, done, no waiting for sequels!
10) If you like The Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, Superman, Batman — okay, superheroes in general… check out After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn. Okay, this is a bit of a cheat for me, since I haven’t actually read the book… yet. After the Golden Age has been on my TBR pile for a while now, and I’ve been saving it for a summer vacation treat. From the description, it sounds perfect!
Ha! Look at my self-restraint! I was tempted to write a list that consisted just of:
- If you like The Hunger Games movies… read the books!
- If you like the Harry Potter movies… read the books!
- If you like The (three) Hobbit movies… read the (one) book!
But that would have been totally obnoxious. Although not entirely out of character. 🙂
What’s on your list this week? Share your links, and I’ll come check out your top 10!
If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out our regular weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday. Happy reading!
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Bookshelf Fantasies 
What a brilliant post and I would have still liked it if you’d gone with plan A 🙂
Ha, thanks! This was actually a really fun one to put together.
I’d never heard of After the Golden Age! Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
Maybe you’ll read it before I do! There’s a sequel that just came out as well. I’ve heard such good things, so I’m determined to finally read it this summer. 🙂
So good! I really want to read The Rosie Project now…I love TTBT!
The Rosie Project is definitely one of my feel-good books from last year! It just made me so, so happy. 🙂
I’ve never really read many graphic novels but I’ll definitely have to look into Fables!
Fables is one of my very favorite things ever! I got hooked pretty much right away, and once I started, couldn’t stop until I’d read every volume published so far. Highly recommended! (I know, I sound like a gushing fangirl…) Thanks for stopping by!
Derrrrp, finally someone else who watches Helix! I was actually super stoked to read Archetypes but I haven’t got the chance to do so yet. People have also been telling me wondrous things about Orphan Black, ugh, so many shows…so little time.
Cheers,
joey via. thoughts and afterthoughts
I know what you mean. With all the good TV right now, it’s amazing I still find time to read. (Not really — books first!!) My sad little confession is that I still haven’t watched the last three episodes of Helix (so ssssh, don’t tell me what happened!), but I did really enjoy everything I’d seen so far. Definitely check out Orphan Black if you have a chance — totally worth the hype!
True say! But sometimes I do favour binge watching shows as opposed to reading (though I’m not sure if I should say that on a book blog…) I’m actually just glad that Helix got renewed for a second season– really interested to see where they go with it!
Yay for featuring Orphan Black! 😀 I’m hoping to star Jo Baker’s Longbourn soon, I must have picked it up a few times from my shelf but then opted to read some of the older books that had been sitting there longer, lol. Soon, soon…
Great list! 🙂 My TTT
I really, really liked Longbourn — hope you get a chance to read it soon! I need to do more focusing on my older books. It’s sad when it gets to the point that reading a book I’ve owned for a while feels like a special occasion. Hurray for Orphan Black! The new season is off to a great start!
Some awesome suggestions, will have to look them up!
Especially the Rosie Project, didn’t know it was Sheldonesque 😀
And I agree with Interview With the Vampire, great book!
Happy reading!
Thanks! If you like Big Bang Theory, you will definitely have fun with The Rosie Project!!
Brilliant list this week 🙂 I love how you’ve set it out!
Thanks! This one was especially fun to work on!
I keep hearing the comparison to Longbourn in regards to DA, I’m definitely going to have to pick that one up. I saw the first episode of helix and it TOTALLY reminded me of Parasite. Definitely going to have to check out the Codex Alera series. Great recs, thanks!
Helix is so gross sometimes… but for whatever reason, I really liked it! Codex Alera is terrific — I hope you enjoy!
Nice list! I want to read Codex alera series.
Here is My Top 10 Tuesday
Thanks! I started Codex Alera because I was a Dresden Files fan. It’s a really different series, but so great!
Great list! I love Orphan Black too so will put Archetype on my ever growing tbr list 🙂
Great! I hope you enjoy it! Isn’t this season of Orphan Black good? I’m so glad it’s back.
Great list! I added Fables and the Robin McKinley books to my TBR. Thanks!
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoy Fables and Robin McKinley!
I definitely should check out your Game of Thrones suggestion (and read the books, I’m so overdue! And P.S. I totally would have wanted to recommend all the books for Harry Potter, Hunger Games, etc. if I participated this week, lol!)
I love this post, and thanks for the great ideas!! I’ll be adding some of these to my TBR. 🙂
Thanks! Let me know what you end up reading, and if you like them!