Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week we list our top 10 book-related things.
This weeks Top Ten Tuesday consists of ten books that were hard for me to read.
For this one I decided not to stick to a general theme, all the books below of different reason as to why they were so hard for me to read. Some are books I actually managed to finish, while others are books I haven't finished yet and either plan to or don't plan to pick back up. But somehow I ended up having 5 books that were classics, how!? So, let's begin!!
Top 5 Classics
1) Lord of the Flies by William Golding (★★★) - This book...oh boy where do I even begin. Well, let me start by saying I love classics, even when I was younger I enjoyed reading them. I had to read this back in high school and I just hated it! I found the pace was too slow, heavily descriptive, I despised the characters and was just grossed out to the max when it comes to a certain event involving Piggy.
2) Animal Farm by George Orwell (★★)- Now this is a book that I was expecting to love but didn't. I read 1984 and LOVED IT! Read Animal Farm about 2 months after and just couldn't get into it...at all. I recently bought it and hoping to re-read it soon. Maybe my thoughts on it will change...
3) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (★★★★) - When I first read this book I gave it 2 stars, I ended up just re-reading it over the course of a couple of years and now I can finally (some what) appreciate it.
4) Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (★★★) - I'm just going to say that this one is my own fault. I had to write a comparative essay between Siddhartha and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and I read The Alchemist first and loved it! When I started Siddhartha I just couldn't get into the story or follow what was happening. I found the characters to be very bland and the moral of the book didn't really effect me the way The Alchemist does.
5) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (★★★★) - Oh Dickens. I'm not sure if there really is anything I can say that anyone hasn't heard. I struggled the first 3 times I read this, I constantly wanted to bang my head against the wall it was just so slow and too descriptive! But I took a university English Lit class and was actually able to really dissect and understand certain themes throughout Great Expectations.
Top 5 Books on my 'Try-Again' Shelf
6) The Host by Stephenie Meyer - I have actually lost count of how many times I have started this book, I've tried that many times. I read Twilight when it wasn't popular and nobody knew what it was (yes that phase did exist) so after the series blew up I was already hesitant but everyone kept saying that once you get passed the first couple of chapters it picks up...LIES!!
7) I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella - FOOTNOTES. This book has damn footnotes all throughout and I found it to be so distracting that I kept putting it down. I have yet to pick it back up and finish it.
8) The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey - I'm not sure if there are enough words to describe how upset I am with this stupid book!! Okay, it's not stupid. Why do I loathe this book at the moment? Because it put me in my first reading slump EVER! Last December I picked it up and got 183 pages in and just couldn't get passed 190.
9) Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson - I blame this entirely on the edition I received. I bought the e-book version and there were grammatical errors and it drove me up the wall. I thought it was just me but another girl made the same comment when we were reading this for Bookish Beauties Book Club. It sucks that I'll be paying for this twice, but at some point I'm just going to buy a physical copy and give it a try.
10) Cinder by Marissa Meyer - Oh Cinder, I want to love!! I started this as a buddy read with 2 other girls and was just so confused within the first 6 chapters that I just had to put it down. I'm not giving up, I WILL try to read it again before this year is over.
Are anyone of these are your list? Have you read any of these? Please leave comments & links to your Top Ten Tuesday posts below!
Thanks for stopping by!
Oh no! Cinder! I love that series but I can see why the start may not have hooked you. The footnotes in I've Got Your Number put me off too although I did finish it because I was on holiday and had no other books with me!
ReplyDeleteI've started The Great Gatsby half a dozen times but always get bored around twenty pages in. I should just stumble though. Afterall - it's not a very long book!
Cinder!! I hope you try it again, it's definitely one of the better series I've read (and each one keeps getting better and better)--though of course, if it's not you're thing, then I'm glad you tried at least! And that's a bummer about your edition of SYBG! Did you email the place you purchased the e-book from? Maybe they'll replace it? I loved that one too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by!
Yes! Lord of the Flies is a great pick! I was very disturbed by that book when I read it. Especially after gaining some background info about the author.
ReplyDeleteErrors in e-books are so annoying! That's why I only buy ebooks when they are five dollars or under, otherwise I could probably find a physical copy of the book for the same price as the ebook.
Great List!
Great Gatsby & Great Expectations made my list as well.
ReplyDeleteCinder! I actually only recently finished it. Try the audio version. It is narrated very well and I've now gone a quest at the library for book 2.
Here is my list if you want to stop by. http://dawnsdreams.blogspot.com/2014/09/top-ten-books-that-were-hard-for-me-to.html
I ended up loving Cinder and never expected to. I picked it up on a whim and I'm glad I did. And now I've just put off reading the other books so I can binge read them once Fairest comes out.
ReplyDeleteAnd The Hose! It's weirdly one of my favorite books. I never had the issue of getting into it like many did, though. So that helped.
Great list!
Chelsea @ Books Turn Brains
I really want to read Lord of the Fly and Animal Farm, I've saw newer version of Great Gatsby and loved it so I'm interested in reading the book but maybe when there won't be school so I have more patience. I didn't like The Host either, it was soo boring and besides the little brother I hated all those damn characters, the movie wasn't better either. I haven't read this Sophia Kinsella novel but I HATE footnotes, it gets so old reading a book and having to check those out too. I want to feel invested in the story and footnotes just ruin the whole reading experience for me. I plan to read The 5th Wave but I heard it's over hyped so I'm hesitant to pick it up. I felt like nothing really happened in Since You've Been Gone and I couldn't get myself to like the main characters... why do I have to dislike books that other love? Cinder is AMAZING! Pick it up, pick it up, pick it up! I didn't expect to like that series because I'm not into sci-fis but I LOVED that book. And it keeps getting better and better.
ReplyDeleteFinally a list I could really comment to. lol.
My TTT: http://reading-is-dreaming-with-open-eyes.blogspot.hu/2014/09/top-ten-books-that-were-hard-for-me-to.html
Cinder is on my list to try again as well. It's so popular for a reason, right?:)
ReplyDeletehttp://amandanicolle.blogspot.com/2014/09/ten-difficult-reads.html
Oh no not Cinder! I would definitely recommend continuing with that series. It really only gets better and better! My favorite couple is from the second book :)
ReplyDeleteThe Host took a while for me to get into as well, but in the end I did end up enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteTeresa @ Readers Live A Thousand Lives