Top Ten Tuesday (4)

Top Ten Tuesday (TTT) is a weekly meme hosted by the ladies over at The Broke and Bookish. Each week, there is a different topic, and all you need to do is give your answers in the form of a top ten list. They love making lists. I love making lists. It's a win for them, and it's a win for me.

This week is about book recommendations, more specifically the top ten books that your friends recommend to you because they think you'll love it or because the book is just so popular that it is just being recommended all of the time.

This one is kind of tough for me because people often recommend books to me that I just don't want to read. I try to be as polite as I can, but sometimes, I just know that I don't want to read a book. When I get a recommendation on Goodreads that I know isn't for me, I just ignore it. It's a little bit tougher when it happens in real life, though.

I recently opened another recommendation on Goodreads, so I am using some of the books from there. I'm also using some books that I've been told to read in the past.

1. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling -  I'm not afraid to admit this, but I didn't read the Harry Potter books until I was twenty-three despite so many middle school and high school friends practically begging me to read them. I tried to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when I was in sixth grade, but it wasn't for me. After more people in college told me to give them another try, I finally did, and I couldn't be happier with myself. They are by far the best books I've ever read.
   
2. The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer - These were another set of books that my high school friends wanted me to read. I gave them a shot after my younger sister read and loved them, but I threw Twilight book at her head after three pages. Meyer's style just wasn't for me.
   
3. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - Everyone was passing this book around and recommending it. Everyone. Even some of the students I interact with thought I would enjoy it. I read it. I hated it. End of story.
   
4. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer - It seems like everyone is reading these books, and I'm currently binge reading the released books in the series. I am actually really happy that people told me to read these because I kept passing them up in the store. So far, I'm enjoying them.
   
5. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell - As a substitute teacher, I saw a lot of young girls reading this book. When I was in a long-term substitute position, I spent my prep periods in a middle school library. The school librarian was the one who finally convinced me to read it. I enjoyed it, and I went on to read all of Rainbow's books.
   
6. Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern - I got an email that said I would enjoy this book. It's also been recommended to me on Goodreads a few times. I haven't read it yet.
   
7. If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman - Obviously these two go hand in hand. For the longest time, I ignored the recommendations on these ones just because I wasn't sure that I would like them. I thought about it for a bit, and gave them a try. These are two of my favorite books, and I even passed If I Stay on to my mom because she was really curious about the movie.
   
8. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes - My one friend from college keeps telling me to read this. She's told me to read it so many times that I've lost track, but I am going to keep my promise and eventually read it because she's not much of a reader.
   
9. Anna and the French Kiss series by Stephanie Perkins - I had seen this book everywhere, and then it started showing up in my automatic recommendations from Goodreads. Then my Goodreads friends started recommending it to me, so I when I found it at a used bookstore, I grabbed it. I loved it, and I'm currently waiting on Lola and the Boy Next Door to get here.
   
10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky - My eleventh grade English teacher was obsessed with this book. I paid enough attention to his fanboy moments to know that I wanted to read the book. I kid you not... my English teacher was a Stephen Chbosky fanboy. He would rave about the book and Jericho all the time. When I finally got to college, the whole English department started recommending it. It turns out that they were planning to bring Mr. Chbosky in to speak to us. It's one of my favorite books ever. I had Stephen sign it, and then a year later, I met him again.