Welcome one, welcome all, to Top Ten Tuesday! For those who are unaware (or who might need a reminder) Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by book bloggers and list lovers, The Broke and the Bookish, and is now hosted fantastically by Jana from That Artsy Girl! Each week a topic is chosen for bloggers to respond to.

This week’s topic is Backlist Books I Want to Read. It’s a pretty self-explanatory topic: what are the main books that I want to read that aren’t… well… new releases. So since “backlist” basically means anything that isn’t the current publishing season, I can even include books that were released in Spring/Summer 2018. So that leaves quite a large category of books to choose from! In an effort to filter down this list, I’ve decided to make this the top ten backlist books I want to read before the end of 2018, the real priorities on my far too big TBR list. Now, that’s not to say I will at all get to all 10 of these before the end of December because who knows what will happen with my reading pace? Still, it never hurts to have a plan!

 

10) Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Although this backlist book is from 2013 and doesn’t seem like something I’d necessarily read, I feel as though I’ve seen tonnes of people online reading this because of the film adaptation which came out this year. Before that, this book hadn’t really been on my radar in a big way, but after hearing some good things about the film, and that the book was hilarious and a really enjoyable read, I promptly bought it in the hope of it being a light read for my holiday to Orlando. I’m really hoping it fits the bill in that respect since I do love reading (and watching TV shows) about annoyingly rich people, haha.

 

9) The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

I’m ashamed to say that, despite the fact this book is firmly on this list, I’m not sure I recall why I first decided I wanted to read it. I know it’s Russian-inspired fantasy steeped in folklore and tradition. And I know that a lot of readers seem to have found this very enchanting and evocative so I’m sure I will love this novel once I have a chance to set proper time aside to sink into the story it has to tell. I was recently reminded of this book’s existence by a YouTuber I watch, lexcanroar, so I’m glad for that timely reminder that I need to get to this book sooner rather than later.

 

8) If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

As with a fair few other books on this list, this book by M.L. Rio is one that I’ve been meaning to read for months at this point but that I’m hesitant to ultimately pick up. The reason why? I’m sure I’ll love it. That seems like a dumb reason not to read something but I’m so hesitant to pick this book up because so many people (myself including) are pretty sure I’m going to love this and I’m worried it could disappoint me. I’m told this is very The Secret History-ish but with Shakespeare-obsessed students rather than Classics ones so that does sound like something I should love – fingers crossed for me and this book, huh?

 

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Welcome one, welcome all, to Top Ten Tuesday! For those who are unaware (or who might need a reminder) Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by book bloggers and list lovers, The Broke and the Bookish, and is now hosted fantastically by Jana from That Artsy Girl! Each week a topic is chosen for bloggers to respond to.

This week’s topic is Longest Books I’ve Ever Read. I should point out that, for the purposes of this, I’m not counting any anthologies that I had to read in university, nor am I counting the likes of The Faerie Queene or Les Misérables which I say I’ve kind of read but haven’t really finished properly enough to say I’ve read it cover to cover. Mileage may vary, haha.

But, as far as topics go, this one is a very straightforward one that requires little to no explanation… so shall we just not waste any time and get to the books? These are not ranked per say but listed by how many pages they clock in at.

10) A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic #3) by V.E. Schwab (666 pages)

I’m surprised that this ended up on this list because whilst it was a chunker compared to the other books in the trilogy, I didn’t expect it to reach ‘longest books I’ve ever read’ levels. However, it seems I can’t go one tag or weekly meme without mentioning either Leigh Bardugo or V.E. Schwab so looks like this one will be the token Schwab book this time! I ended up trying to eek this book out because I didn’t want it to end, there was so many highs and so many lows and V, how dare you?

 

9) The Hero of Ages (Mistborn #3) by Brandon Sanderson (748 pages)

Brandon Sanderson is clearly fond of writing a tome or two, and this one is no exception, but such is often the way with writers of epic fantasy series. In fact, you may very well notice that theme running through a lot of the books on this list. Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series books are like 1200 pages apiece (and often split into two parts when published in the UK!) so this one from the Mistborn trilogy is practically a baby in comparison. Still, it’s pretty damn hefty…

 

8) Breaking Dawn (Twilight #4) by Stephenie Meyer (756 pages)

I had no idea that Breaking Dawn ended up being so long! I think we can all agree, though, that it would have been immeasurably better had a good editor been allowed to have a crack at it and removed some of the… weirder bits, right? I remember precisely zero about the reading experience of this… I must have blocked it out of my memory, for better or for worse.

 

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Welcome one, welcome all, to Top Ten Tuesday! For those who are unaware (or who might need a reminder) Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by book bloggers and list lovers, The Broke and the Bookish, and is now hosted fantastically by Jana from That Artsy Girl! Each week a topic is chosen for bloggers to respond to.

This week’s topic is Books By My Favourite Authors That I Still Haven’t Read. You might know the feeling: you’ve read an amazing top ten best of all-time book by an author so you call them one of your favourite authors and you enthusiastically track down, buy, or put on your TBR all of their other books. Then, time passes, and you realise you still haven’t read that book by them. Can you still consider them your favourite author? The guilt spirals…

But to bring it back to an optimistic tone, just think of how great it is that you still have books left by your favourite author to experience reading for the first time! Let’s see my list, shall we?

I should point out I only managed to think of 8 for this “Top Ten”, which is pretty good going… but I did only pick one book for each author as sort of stand ins for the ones where I have multiple books as of yet unread. Clearly, I need to get reading!

8) Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

I’ve read everything else Leigh Bardugo at this point so what’s one more book? I’ve heard mostly mixed reviews about the DC Icons series which is probably why I haven’t picking this one up yet. I’m also much more of a Marvel gal than a DC one. However, I did enjoy the recent Wonder Woman film so clearly I’m not completely adverse. Plus it’s Leigh Bardugo and I trust Leigh Bardugo with most things, so I’m sure this is wonderful.

 

7) Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

I’m a big fan of Matt Haig and I enjoy his fiction (though, again, I’ve only read The Humans and How to Stop Time, both of which I loved) but his non-fiction is what I often keep an eye on. Despite this, and despite buying a signed edition of this as soon as it was released, I still haven’t got to Notes on a Nervous Planet which is a little bit silly considering it’s a short, easily digestible book.

 

6) The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier

Rebecca is one of my favourite books of all-time and whilst I have re-read that a fair few times, and also tried out some other du Maurier for size (Jamaica Inn, Frenchman’s Creek, and My Cousin Rachel), I somehow haven’t read this novel which is silly because it sounds so intriguing.

 

 
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Well, we’ve reached the midpoint of the year which means it’s time to take a cursory look back at how our reading has been going so far. All in all, I’m having a great year of reading – I’m getting in some re-reads, rediscovering my love for some of my previous favourites (see: Sabriel by Garth Nix), catching up with series, and all this whilst enjoying some newer (or new to me at least) books. I can’t complain! So this week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is downright perfect, it’s: Best Books You’ve Read in 2017 So Far. (Side note: I like the use of the “so far”, it leaves some room for the remaining months of the year!) And, for those who are unaware Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by the book bloggers and list lovers, The Broke and the Bookish, and each week they post a topic for bloggers to respond to.

You may be thinking ‘But Emma, it’s not Tuesday, is it? I could have sworn it was Wednesday today.’ Well, friends, you’d be right – I just completely forgot to upload this post yesterday and it would be a shame if the lovely books missed out on their brief moment in the sun just because of my own ineptitude. So, I hope you’ll forgive the belated nature of this Top Ten Tuesday post – I mean what even are days, really, but constructs? It’s all just timey wimey wibbly wobbly stuff.

But, anyways, in compiling this list I’ve tried not to include any re-reads, simply because otherwise I could never have whittled this list down to only 10 titles. So it’s out of necessity that I’ve not given a proper place on this list to the likes of Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen, The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon, and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood – but consider them firm favourites all the same! I also have a couple of honourable mentions because I’ve read a lot of really good things and I’m incapable of sticking to a ‘just pick 10’ format apparently. Let’s just get on with it…

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