Top Ten Tuesday is brought to you by the lovely Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Check out the Top Ten Tuesday post for a full list of prompts!
This week’s prompt is:
Spring Cleaning Freebie
I struggled a bit with what to write for this one… I thought about talking about some books I’m getting rid of from my physical book shelves for some actual, literal spring cleaning, but I already put them in bags and don’t really want to pull them out again. Clearly, I don’t care enough about them to keep them, so why would I want to dedicate blog space to them?
Instead I want to talk about 10 books that have been on my physical TBR shelves for what feels like FOREVER, and I’m ready to finally get them off my shelves – whether it’s by reading them or attempting to and DNFing or just deciding I’m not feeling it anymore. So let’s go!
Persuasion by Jane Austen
I have started this book so many times, haha. I never seem to get past the first few chapters! Which is nuts because I really like the move adaptation and the story, and I’ve read all of Austen’s other novels so it’s not a writing style thing… Maybe 2021 is finally the year of getting past the intro. (Her family is just SO insufferable!)
Once Upon A Winter’s Night by Dennis L. McKiernan
I’m a sucker for fairy tale retellings, and I LOVE East of the Sun and West of the Moon. I’m pretty sure I also own the second book in this series, Once Upon A Summer’s Day…
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
I can’t remember, I think I may have bought this whole hecking series because it was on sale or something? I should probably actually attempt to at least read the first book but… it’s so LONG…
His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
I loved Uprooted so much that I immediately went searching Naomi Novik’s backlist, and bought the first three or four books of the Temeraire series right away… and there they’ve sat, for YEARS. Come ON, why am I like this?!
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
Do you recognize this story yet? Because that’s right – own the whole series, haven’t even read book one. I AM SO ASHAMED. But also, if I love it just think! I already have the entire rest of the series right at my finger tips! Okay, yes, I know I need to actually READ it to know if I love it…
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
Hmm, I’m sending a trend here… These epic fantasies that come in weighty series and trilogies… I’ve spent the past several years reading a lot of romance novels which I can read in a few days and it feels so SLOW reading larger books like this, but maybe it’s time to just accept that I can’t read 150+ books a year, and that’s okay. Anyway, I love Russian fairy tales and I remember being so excited for this book to come out, and there it sits, waiting.
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
I jokingly picked up a friend’s copy of The Starless Sea at a readathon weekend we had at a cabin. She’d left the room to get a snack or something and I picked up her book and started reading it to see if she’d notice, and when she came back was all confused, haha, I’m hilarious. Well the JOKE WAS ON ME, because I was hooked from page one and as soon as I got home from the trip I immediately ordered this book. Why didn’t I read it the second it came?? That was almost 2 years ago…
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Most of the books on the list have made me go “oh wow, I should really read this.” This is the first one where I read the synopsis and sort of skimmed even that. Maybe I’m not really interested in reading this anymore… But I really loved some of Sanderson’s other works, like Mistborn and Elantris. What say you, my people? Should I keep this on my TBR, or put it in the donate pile?
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Oh no, another one where I bought the whole series before ever reading any of it. Someone on the interwebs was yelling about how good it was, and I went “Hey, it DO look good!” and bought it all. /sigh The endless folly of me.
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Oh no, I have such a block about this one, especially now that it’s going to be a movie or a show or whatever and everyone is yelling about it. I don’t know what it is inside of me that needs to be so contrariwise and just refuse to read things that everyone likes, haha.
Do you have any input on any of these books? (No spoilers please, of course!) Are there any I absolutely MUST read? Any that I should just skip? Let me know in the comments. 🙂
What would your Top Ten look like? Let me know in the comments, or link me to your post!
Elley the Book Otter 
I haven’t read Six of Crows yet either. You’re not alone.
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-books-about-fresh-starts/
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I loved The Way of Kings, but these books are SO long that I’ll confess I never did end up picking up the sequel. I keep telling myself, “One of these days…”
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You’ve got some great books on this list! I definitely recommend The Bear and the Nightingale and Six of Crows. Novik’s Temeraire series is very different from Uprooted, so it will depend if you like the setting, but it’s a great series.
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Loving this list- I’ve read (and enjoyed) Once Upon A Winter’s Night, The Starless Sea, The Bear and the Nightingale, and Persuasion, which is a strong contender for my favorite Austen novel of all time. Hopefully next time you give it a chance it will go better for you, haha!
Here’s a link to my post, I had a different take on the topic this week…
https://chasingthefourwinds.wordpress.com/2021/03/08/spring-cleaning-freebie/
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I’m not the best with series, so I have not read most of these. LOL I’ve read Persuasion though! It’s actually the one Austen I’ve read (though I want to read more). I really liked it!!
-Lauren
http://www.shootingstarsmag.net
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I have that exact same it’s-too-popular-there’s-too-much-pressure-to-read-it block! (And to be super unhelpful, Six of Crows is excellent, and I hope you read it!)
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ooooo I hope you start with Cruel Prince!!
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Haha, I’m the same way with fantasy books! I buy a bunch of them because everybody is talking about them, but then they sit around forever. Or, I read a few chapters, get bored, and then they sit around forever.
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