Read, skim, or skip?

Posted in Blogging, Bookish Thoughts by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

About two weeks ago, I wrote a post about how following other blogs is key to building community in the blogging world, and yet it can potentially take up so much time that it’s impossible to stay on top of it all and still have any time to work on our own writing projects (not to mention little things like eating, sleeping, and saying hello to our friends and families). You can check it out here if you’d like.

Since I wrote that post (which, by the way, led to some really interesting input and discussion), I’ve been thinking more about the whole issue. I have quite a few blogs that I follow. Some are by people I feel I’ve developed a real connection with; others are blogs that I might visit occasionally or blogs that caught my eye with an especially interesting post or two. Still, the overall traffic can be overwhelming, between my WordPress feed, my Bloglovin’ feed, the daily email digests, and the Twitters links. There simply isn’t a way to read EVERY SINGLE THING, EVERY SINGLE DAY.

I’ve read comments over the past couple of years about people’s blog-reading habits. Some folks say that while they spend the most time writing book reviews, they tend to not read reviews on other people’s blogs. Some prefer discussion posts, some prefer funny pieces, some are all about the memes.

Clearly, not everything is going to be read, or read thoroughly. I’m sure we all have our own approaches to keeping up. I’ve realized that I can divide up my actions into three simple categories:

So how does it all shake out? More or less, these are my habits:

Book reviews:

Is it by a blogger whose work I always enjoy? Read.
Is it for a book that I read recently, especially one that I liked enough to want to discuss? Read.
Is it for a book that I plan to read soon? Skim. (I don’t want to know too much, but I’d still like the general idea of whether you liked it or not.)
For a book that’s completely out of my interest zone? Skip.

Memes:

A meme I’m participating in? Read… usually.
Top Ten Tuesday posts? 90% of the time, if the topic grabs me — Read. The other 10%? No interest in the topic, so I skip.
Weekly reading wrap-ups (like It’s Monday. What Are You Reading or WWW Wednesdays, for example): Read.
Book hauls, shelf stacking, in the mailboxes: Skip. I’m just not that interested in these unless they’re folded into some other sort of post, like a reading update or a weekly recap.
Teasers, random book excerpts, quotes: Read. I like these little snippets, and I’ve found a few good books through these kind of posts that I maybe might have missed otherwise. Plus (shameless plug here), I host a quote meme (Thursday Quotables! Come check it out!), so clearly I like this sort of thing.

Other book stuff:

Cover reveals: Skip.
Author Q&As: If it’s someone I’m interested in — Read. Someone I’m not familiar with but who seems interesting or quirky: Skim.
Chit-chat or discussion posts related to reading, reading habits, etc.: Read. Usually.
Month in review posts: Skip. If I’ve been following a blog, then I’ve already seen all the posts for the month, so I don’t need another post summing up what I’ve already seen.
Giveaways: Read. Don’t we all love free books?

Bloggy stuff:

Technical tips and tricks, like making blog graphics or cool resources for bloggers: Read.
Blogging tips, like increasing traffic or considering self-hosting: Skim, to see if there are some good nuggets in there. Skip, if it’s not something I’m considering.
Discussion posts about being a blogger: Read, usually, unless it’s a topic I feel I’ve seen time and time again. Still, it’s always interesting to get a fresh take!

Non-bookish stuff:

Personal updates: Read. If you’re a book blogger and you take the time to put yourself out there and share your personal moments or challenges, I want to honor that.
Other non-bookish miscellany: Read or skim. I entered the blogging world specifically to chat books, and I’m not terribly interested in branching out too far. Still, if someone I talk books with also writes about other topics, chances are I’ll at least check it out to see what’s going on.

Automatic skips:

Anything with GIFs. Sorry. I just can’t. I know, I know, people love these. But they make my brain and eyes hurt, and I just can’t enjoy reading anything with GIFs flashing around on the page.
Cover reveals.
Posts with hard-to-read fonts, colors, or too many typos.
Challenges: I don’t do challenges, and reading other people’s challenge update doesn’t seem all that interesting to me.
Blog award posts: I seem to have 5 – 10 of these in my feeds each day, and as much as I may love the individuals, I just can’t read these any longer.
Rants about Goodreads, author behavior, and blogging/reviewing politics. There’s only so much time in a day, and I’d rather focus on the positive.
Wow, I sound like a total grouch, don’t I? I’m not putting down any of the above, really. I know people like different things, and what’s boring or a turn-off to some may be totally hilarious or thought-provoking to others.

Really, the read/skim/ skip division is the only way for me to keep my sanity and not get swamped with all the keeping up I need to do. So don’t hate me if I don’t read your meme posts or LOL over your clever graphics! I’m happy to be an enthusiastic audience for the posts that grab me… and I hope you’ll read the stuff of mine that catches your eye or strikes your fancy — and skip the stuff that bores you!

What type of posts do you always read? What do you skim? What do you skip?

Share your thoughts, please!

11Feb2015

Thursday Quotables: Treasure Island

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome back to Thursday Quotables! This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week. Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotables is where my favorite lines of the week will be, and you’re invited to join in!

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
(originally published 1883)

I’m feeling very piratey this week. Watch out! I make burst out in a sea shanty before I’m done…

I brooded by the hour together over the map, all the details of which I well remembered. Sitting by the fire in the housekeeper’s room, I approached that island in my fancy, from every possible direction; I explored every acre of its surface; I climbed a thousand times to that tall hill they call the Spyglass, and from the top enjoyed the most wonderful and changing prospects. Sometimes the isle was thick with savages, with whom we fought; sometimes full of dangerous animals that hunted us; but in all my fancies nothing occurred to me so strange and tragic as our actual adventures.

And there’s this little gem, which I’ll have to remember next time I need an indignant comeback:

“Sir,” said Captain Smollett, “with no intention to take offence, I deny your right to put words into my mouth.”

What lines made you laugh, cry, or gasp this week? Do tell!

If you’d like to participate in Thursday Quotables, it’s really simple:

Write a Thursday Quotables post on your blog. Try to pick something from whatever you’re reading now. And please be sure to include a link back to Bookshelf Fantasies in your post (http://www.bookshelffantasies.com), if you’d be so kind!
Leave your link in the comments — or, if you have a quote to share but not a blog post, you can leave your quote in the comments too!
Visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!

10Feb2015

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: Depth

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

There’s nothing like a Wednesday for thinking about the books we want to read! My Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday post is linking up with two fabulous book memes, Wishlist Wednesday (hosted by Pen to Paper) and Waiting on Wednesday (hosted by Breaking the Spine).

This week’s pick:

Depth by Lev A. C. Rosen
(to be released April 28, 2015 )

Synopsis (Goodreads):

In a post-apocalyptic flooded New York City, a private investigator’s routine surveillance case leads to a treasure everyone wants to find – and someone is willing to kill for.

Depth combines hardboiled mystery and dystopian science fiction in a future where the rising ocean levels have left New York twenty-one stories under water and cut off from the rest of the United States. But the city survives, and Simone Pierce is one of its best private investigators. Her latest case, running surveillance on a potentially unfaithful husband, was supposed to be easy. Then her target is murdered, and the search for his killer points Simone towards a secret from the past that can’t possibly be real; but that won’t stop the city’s most powerful men and women from trying to acquire it for themselves, with Simone caught in the middle.

Lev A. C. Rosen’s debut novel, All Men of Genius, consistently makes it onto my list of favorites — and while this sounds completely different in setting and tone, I have complete faith that this upcoming new novel will be impossible to put down!

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. You can find out more here — come play!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Do you host a book blog meme? Do you participate in a meme that you really, really love? I’m building a Book Blog Meme Directory, and need your help! If you know of a great meme to include — or if you host one yourself — please drop me a note on my Contact page and I’ll be sure to add your info!

9Feb2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten things I like or dislike when it comes to romances in books

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

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 all about the LOOOOOVE. What works in a book romance? What sets our teeth on edge? I’m finding it a bit easier to come up with dislikes at the moment, but I’ll give it all a go:

Starting with dislikes:

1) Love triangles: Been there, done that. I think we’ve seen enough.

2) Insta-love: I just can’t buy these mad, passionate, yours-for-eternity love stories where the characters have seen each other once and maybe exchanged five words. Love needs to build. I won’t believe it’s there just because the author said so. Show, don’t tell!

3) Good girl saves the bad boy with her awesome superpower of LOVE. Redemption stories are so yesterday.

4) Rudeness as a sign that he’s really, really into you. If he’s name isn’t Darcy or Rhett, then I’m not buying it. Guys who are worthy treat their love interests with respect.

5) Perfection: Why do male romantic leads always have to have the perfect abs and faces and eyes and everything else? Can’t a love interest be less than gorgeous?

6) Money: Does Mr. Perfect always have to come with heaps of money? It would seem so, based on quite a bit of fiction.

Okay, turning to the positive…

Likes:

1) A relationship between equals. Sass, snark, and witty banter are great, so long as it’s two-sided. I love reading about two strong and intelligent people who find a connection.

2) Slow burn. Maybe the attraction is there from the start, but the most convincing love stories in fiction are the ones where feelings build over time, until they just can’t be denied any more.

3) Standing together against a common enemy: If the whole book is just about the gooey-eyed faces they make at each other, it gets boring pretty quickly. I like a romance where the love gets a chance to sizzle, and then there’s some sort of harrowing adventure or danger that unites the couple and lets them fight side by side. (There’s a chance that I read too much urban fantasy. Sorry.)

4) Interesting lives: For me to sustain interest in a fictional romance, the people involved also have to have something in their lives besides their relationship. I like reading about strong, smart people who do cool things and ALSO find love. Is that asking too much?

5) Love that lasts. Weddings aren’t the end of the love story; in the best of cases, it’s just the beginning. Oh look, I haven’t mentioned Outlander once in this post. So here goes: One of the things I love about the Outlander series is that Jamie and Claire remain in love, passionately and physically, throughout their lives together. Their love story isn’t only about getting together; what makes it beautiful is everything they go through to stay together and nurture their commitment and passion throughout their lives. *swoon*

Yes, I know that 6 + 5 = 11. I’d finished writing my top 10 list before I remembered #6 in the dislikes, and I couldn’t leave it out!

So what are your pet peeves about romances in fiction? And what do you really love about love stories?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

9Feb2015

The Monday Check-In ~ 2/9/2015

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.

What did I read last week?

Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder: My blog tour/review post is here.

War of the Wives by Tamar Cohen: My review is here.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: Finished! What an incredible book. Watch for a Fields & Fantasies post later this week!

Off-line:

Happy anniversary to us! My sweetie and I celebrated 17 years of wedded bliss this past weekend. ♥♥♥♥♥

Elsewhere on the blog:

Biz-speak clichés and jargon drove me crazy last week. My post about it is here — I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Fresh Catch:

A few new (used) books this week:

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

It’s about time that I finally read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. And I won’t even bother trying to hide the fact that I’m at least partially inspired by watching Black Sails on TV. (Not to mention my son’s habit of singing “What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor”, courtesy of Assassin’s Creed on his PlayStation).

I also plan to start The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian, the February Book of the Month for Outlander Book Club.

Now playing via audiobook:

I’m almost done with my re-read of the 1st Mercy Thompson book via audiobook (Moon Called by Patricia Briggs). I really do love this series! I might do a bit of series hopping — when I’m done with this Mercy book, I’m going to switch over to Furies of Calderon, the 1st Codex Alera book by Jim Butcher. I definitely do better with audiobooks when I’ve read them before!

Reading with my kiddo:

The Expeditioners and the Secret of King Triton’s Lair by S. S. Taylor: We’re moving slowly, but still enjoying this one.

Book club reading:

Classic read: The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. (One chapter per week)

A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon: Reading and discussing two chapters per week, from now through the end of 2015!

OBC Book of the Month for February: The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian. The discussion opens February 18th.

Want to join any of the group reads? Let me know and I’ll provide the links!

So many book, so little time…

5Feb2015

Let’s leverage our core competencies!

Posted in Fun and Whimsy by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Whatever happened to speaking concisely and saying what you mean?

Oh, wait, I know: Business-speak happened.

I’ve been in one too many meetings lately where a speaker gets so bogged down in biz-speak jargon that it’s practically impossible to understand the point.

Granted, this isn’t a book-related post — but as a reader, I’m pretty sensitive to the use and abuse of language, and I’ve just about reached my limit when it comes to listening to people mangle the English language.

Here are a few gems that a certain coworker has been using again and again and AGAIN. (These are practically verbal tics. It’s like he uses a phrase, and enjoys it so much that he uses it twelve more times. Sometimes during the same conversation.)

Moving the needle — as in, “we’re trying to move the needle on customer engagement”. How about just saying “improve”?
Clearing the decks — um, do you mean finish what we’re working on?
Thought partners — no idea on this one.
Thinking outside the envelope — mixed metaphors much?
Many questions that I want to seed — okay, that sounds a bit gross.
We have a playbook of options — ugh, sports metaphors in the workplace.
Low hanging fruit — used four times in a one-hour meeting!
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire — used twice in the same meeting.
Pinch points — I can’t even.

There are also buzzwords — nothing wrong with them in and of themselves — but used constantly, they’ve become practically meaningless. Like…

collegial
collaborative
world view

And then there are the words that are perfectly fine, except when they’re misused or overused, such as:

Mitigate — Apparently, every problem ever faced needs to be mitigated.
Craft — Nothing is ever written or created. “Can you craft a memo?” “I’m crafting a message about the project.” How very crafty it all sounds.
Disperse — as in “we serve a very disperse clientele”. Um, I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

On the plus side, at least we’ve finally gotten certain folks to stop saying the oh-so-redundant “new innovations”!

I could go on… but I think you get the point.

Do you run across jargon abusers in your daily life? Have you heard anything lately that really drives you insane?

Please share… let’s commiserate!

Or better yet… let’s engage in a collaborative process to craft a thoughtweb! Argh.

5Feb2015

Thursday Quotables: Girl Runner

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome back to Thursday Quotables! This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week. Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotables is where my favorite lines of the week will be, and you’re invited to join in!

Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder
(published February 3, 2015)

A 105-year-old woman looks back on her life…

I’ve known my body well enough to recognize its limits, and this chair is only the most recent diminishment in a long descending line. You never run again like you run as a child: without pain. Later, you reach a point at which you’ve run the fastest you will ever run — the pinnacle that goes unrecognized at the time. I remember whispering the word indestructible as I ran or as I approached a great grief, but I only chanted it because I knew I wasn’t. I never ran because I was strong, if you see what I’m saying. It wasn’t strength that made me a runner, it was the desire to be strong.

I ran for courage. Still do, if only in my mind.

What lines made you laugh, cry, or gasp this week? Do tell!

If you’d like to participate in Thursday Quotables, it’s really simple:

Write a Thursday Quotables post on your blog. Try to pick something from whatever you’re reading now. And please be sure to include a link back to Bookshelf Fantasies in your post (http://www.bookshelffantasies.com), if you’d be so kind!
Leave your link in the comments — or, if you have a quote to share but not a blog post, you can leave your quote in the comments too!
Visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!

4Feb2015

Book Review: War of the Wives by Tamar Cohen

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Selena and her husband have been happily married for close to thirty years and have three children. Lottie and her husband have been married for seventeen years and have one teen-aged daughter. Both women wish their husband could be home more often, but understand that his demanding job is important to him. Both look forward to the moment when he walks back in the door after his latest business trip to Dubai.

And both show up as the newly bereaved widow when Simon Busfield is laid to rest after a fatal drowning.

Yes, Simon was a busy guy. He lived in London with Selena in a beautiful, posh home, keeping Selena in fashionable clothing and expensive getaways to their house in Tuscany. Simon also lived with Lottie in a smaller flat, after living with her in Dubai for most of their marriage. Wife #1 knew nothing of wife #2, and vice versa. But an untimely death lets out all the secrets, and to say that chaos ensues is an understatement.

I’ll be honest: My first thought upon reading the synopsis was “Hmm. Sounds like a Lifetime movie.” I’m pleased to say that War of the Wives is a lot more than that.

In War of the Wives, author Tamar Cohen skillfully gives each wife a voice that’s distinct and true. We often get both women’s viewpoints on the same situation, and it’s enlightening to see how two people can interpret a statement or gesture so very differently. In what must be a very difficult feat, the author creates two sympathetic characters, almost daring us to take sides. And the truth is, it’s really impossible. Neither woman is culpable. Lottie didn’t know she was sleeping with a married man. Neither intentionally set out to steal the other’s husband. The guilty party here is Simon, but he’s no longer around to blame, so of course it’s the women who have to pick up the pieces.

There’s plenty of pain and remorse, doubts and anger. Both women remember Simon as a loving husband and father. Was one life a lie? Can Simon be faulted for loving both of his families so much that he couldn’t give either up? (Of course he can! Selfish beast.)

Selena and Lottie are wrecked not just emotionally, but financially too. The homes, the lifestyles, the luxuries all have to go. The legalities and taxes and mortgages are so intertwined that neither woman can walk away from the other, and so they have to navigate their post-Simon lives together, hating it every step of the way.

I do feel that the title of the book is a bit misleading. When I first saw the title War of the Wives, I expected cat fights, public scenes of bitchiness, scheming and nastiness. But that’s not what happens. The book ultimately is less about two women battling each other and more about them figuring out how their lives took such wrong turns and how to rebuild.

There’s a mystery here too: Simon died under suspicious circumstances — did he really just fall into the river, or did he commit suicide? Or was he pushed? Just what sort of shady business dealings was he involved in? Who keeps sending Selena all these random spam texts and emails? Who broke into Lottie’s flat? It all comes together by the end, and it definitely was not what I expected… which is a very good thing.

I love a book that keeps me guessing, that gives me plenty of clues but none that make an outcome obvious. The inner lives of Selena and Lottie are fascinating to read about, and I was invested in both women, their struggles to rebuild, to be good mothers, and to stand on their own two feet. Because they really were the victims of their husband’s deceptions, it’s easy to relate to both women and want both to find happiness and get a fresh start.

War of the Wives is a compulsively readable novel with a dark streak amidst the scenes of domesticity. I enjoyed the writing, the characters, and the unexpected plot twists. Author Tamar Cohen does a great job of taking a melodramatic, seemingly made-for-TV set-up and giving it an original spin that keeps the reader guessing.

Final note: Tamar Cohen is a new-to-me author, but I’ve now heard from other bloggers that she has some other can’t-miss books as well — and I’m looking forward to checking them out!

_________________________________________

The details:

Title: War of the Wives
Author: Tamar Cohen
Publisher: Mira
Publication date: January 27, 2015 (originally published in UK in 2012)
Length: 384 pages
Genre: Adult contemporary fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of Mira via NetGalley

3Feb2015

Blog Tour & Book Review: Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

I’m delighted to be participating in the blog tour celebrating the release of an inspiring new novel: Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder.

Girl Runner is the story of Aganetha Smart, a Canadian farm girl who gains a brief moment in the spotlight when she wins gold for Canada running the 800 meter race in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics.

When we first meeting Aganetha, however, she is 105 years old, living in a hazy dream-state in a nursing home, alone and forgotten by the world, having outlived her entire family and anyone who ever knew her. With the unexpected arrival of a young man and woman, Aganetha finds herself bundled up for a supposed family visit with these two strangers, who proceed to drive her to her family’s old farm.

As she travels the familiar roads, Aggie’s thoughts return to her early days. Bit by bit, we learn of her family’s tumultuous past, the sibling love and tensions that featured throughout her life, and that small period of time in which Aggie was a star.

From early childhood, Aggie ran so fast she was practically flying, and her need to run is a core piece of her soul. In fact, as she tells us through her fractured memories, Aggie kept running until midway through her 90s, when a final family tragedy seems to have sapped her of her drive to run once and for all.

Through Aggie’s reminiscences, we gain a picture of what life was like for young women in Canada in the 1920s, with a heady mix of independence in the big city, the glory of being selected for the national Olympic team, and the pain of love gone wrong and friendship betrayed.

As we move further into the story, Aggie reveals secrets upon secrets, until the deepest, darkest mystery of her lonely life is finally unearthed. Through her memories, we get a glimpse of the life of a strong woman who achieved great things yet never had what she most wanted.

Girl Runner is a moving story that seems simple at the outset, yet eventually moves into the complicated territory of a large family with criss-crossing needs, deceptions, joys, and shames. Each new memory unravels yet another thread in the mystery of Aganetha’s life and helps us understand how she lived so long and yet ended up so lost and alone.

I did find the time jumps somewhat distracting. The story bounces between modern-day Aggie, wheelchair bound in the nursing home, and her memories of the past — but her memories come in a jumble, not chronologically. I suppose this makes sense, in that we’re seeing the events of the past as they resurface in this very old woman’s confused mind — so of course, it’s not linear and neatly spelled out.

While this approach works in finally revealing the full story by the end of the book, it does make it a bit challenging for the reader to unknot the storylines and put together the pieces into a coherent, logical picture.

However, it’s worth sticking it out. While the narrative jumps take some getting used to, once the story hits its stride, it flows nicely and quickly. By the end, I couldn’t stop reading. I just had to know what really happened and how it all fit together.

Told in language that’s brisk but personal, Girl Runner is an intriguing family story as well as a tribute to pioneering girl athletes and the obstacles along their path to glory. Despite its long time arc, spanning about 90 years, Girl Runner is less than 300 pages in length. It’s not a long book, but it is deep and emotional, and I recommend it to anyone who might enjoy an historical novel built around a strong, enigmatic woman.

About the Author:

Carrie Snyder’s Girl Runner is shortlisted for the 2014 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Her previous book, The Juliet Stories, was shortlisted for the prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award and named one of the Globe and Mail‘s Top 100 Books of the Year. Her first book, the short story collection Hair Hat, was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award for Short Fiction. A mother of four, Carrie lives with her family in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Find out more about Carrie at her website, and follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

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The details:

Title: Girl Runner
Author: Carrie Snyder
Publisher: Harper
Publication date: February 3, 2015
Length: 288 pages
Genre: Adult fiction (contemporary/historical)
Source: Review copy courtesy of TLC Book Tours

For further information, stop by TLC Book Tours to view other blog tour hosts.

2Feb2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

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 I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read From X Genre” (choosing whatever genre fits best) — but since I prefer to jump around rather than read a ton of books just from one genre, I thought I’d jump between genres for this list as well.

So, ten books that I probably should have read ages ago:

From childhood:

1) Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

2) Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Young adult:

3) The Beka Cooper series by Tamora Pierce

Horror:

4) The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub

Classics:

5) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

6) The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

7) Middlemarch by George Eliot

Sci-fi/fantasy:

8) The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

9) The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov

10) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin

What books are on your list this week? Please share your links!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥