Original Top Ten Tuesday Prompt: Ten Books I Enjoyed Recently (last yearish) That Weren’t My Typical Genre/Type of Book (or that were out of your comfort zone)
Revised Prompt Because I’m an Obnoxious Little Rebel: 5 books I loved even though they might not be the most intellectual reads (conquering my pride) and 5 books I loved even though they seem like stuffy old classics (conquering my prejudice).
1. Stephanie Perkins‘ Books
For heaven’s sake, it’s called Anna and the French Kiss! You can’t get more ridiculously superficial than that!
And they are. The books are tremendously superficial, monstrously cheesy. But they’re good. They feed the guilty pleasure monster lurking inside. They create the stomach happy-bubbles. They quiet the fairy-tale deprivation.
So who cares if it’s a book I probably wouldn’t read in public? (The books conquered my pride. However, it seems my dignity is still very much intact) As long as they make you happy, then so what?
STOP JUDGING ME.
Yes, I love rom-coms. Yes, these are rom-coms in book form. Yes, I love it. No, I don’t care if you’re feeling the pretentious need to judge me. SORRY.
These are adorable. Intellectual? Pfft. Not even close. But they’re a good time. They’re good for the soul. So.
3. The To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before Duology by Jenny Han
Again…To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before? P. S. I Still Love You? The covers are lovely, but the titles implore me to only read the books at home.
In fact, the titles are why it took me so long to read the books.
Silly me! That’s what I get for being a everything-judger title-judger. Yes, this book was cheesy. Yes, it was good anyway. But most importantly, it was more than superficiality. It had strong family themes surrounding the book, something I wouldn’t have realized if I hadn’t defeated my pride.
4. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
OKAY YES I WAS HESITANT AT THIS. It seemed, I don’t know, silly? Not meaningful? The point is, I’m a pretentious potato and this book seemed beneath me.
Moral of the story: I’m a blubbering idiot and have no idea what I’m talking about 89% of the time.
I loved it. I humbled myself and read it and I loved it. It was more than meaningful, it was beautiful. It was witty without being stupid, it was lyrical without being boring. It was so very real.
5. Just One Day by Gayle Forman
“So she goes with some random guy to Paris? Pfft. How typical. How unrealistic?” -Me before this book. I am currently slapping me before this book.
If terribly done, it would be typical and it would be unrealistic. But it wasn’t. It wasn’t because GAYLE FORMAN IS ONE OF THE BEST WRITERS ALIVE. I don’t know how she managed to take something so romance-based, yet turn it into something so much more than that. I can only compare it to Jane Austen’s writing.
So there.
6. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
My friend actually recommended this to me when I was a small child.
What I said in reply was: Oh sure! I’ll check it out of the library!
What I thought: Sounds OLD. And BORING.
SOMEONE KICK ME. Because Anne is my hero. Anne is everything.
7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
I had to read this for school in 7th grade, and BOY WAS I UPSET ABOUT THAT. To ignorant, from-the-past Becca, this looked like the most boring, irrelevant book I could possibly be forced to read.
I was wrong.
I was so wrong.
This is magic. This is wondrous.
(I do indeed refuse to read Go Set a Watchman.)
8. The Secret Garden by France’s Hodgson Burnett
I was fury of a fifth grader, resolute in my decision to hate this book.
Here’s the thing, I’m not great at hating things. Especially when these things are books that intrigue and capture your heart, your mind, your everything.
This book is scrumptious.
9. The Adventures of Tom Saywer by Mark Twain
I knew it was going to be a boring little biography-style book of the perfect little boy. I just knew.
Well, it turns out I just knew wrong.
Tom Saywer is quite the scoundrel which was THRILLING to tiny-child-Becca. Of course, he became my new role model an example of what not to be.
10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Well would you look at that, the namesake for this post.
My prejudice for this one was actually not my fault. It was my sister who filled my poor, impressionable young mind with her groans while reading this masterpiece. I can take no blame!
This post has been immensely humbling. I shall never do anything like this ever again.
What books have humbled you? Don’t you hate/love it when they do that?
SAME. If I stay is so overhyped. Just have REALLY low expectations for Just One Day and you’ll be golden!
I’m probably one of the very few that didn’t feel anything for If I Stay. But after a lot of recommendations I feel inclined to try Just One Day. It sounds silly and like an impractical story but I’m glad that was memorable enough to make an impact on your reading journey, Becca!
I absolutely do not remember! Which is why I need to reread them all hahaha 😅
I’ve never gotten around the rest of the series, I must! Let me guess, she pairs up with Gilbert?
Anne of Green Gables is wonderful. I have been meaning to reread the whole series this year! 😁
RIGHT. It’s a first draft—obviously Harper Lee wanted her story to be told in an COMPLETELY DIFFERENT LIGHT which is why To Kill a Mockingbird is so differently. So. It’s not a sequel, friends.
Love Fangirl, loved Anne of Green Gables and To Kill a Mockingbird.
And no, I will not ever read Go Set a Watchman. It’s not a sequel; it’s exploitation of the elderly. If people want to read it as a window to the editing process (of yesteryear) and some insight into how TKAM was created, fine. But no first draft should be repackaged as a sequel, particularly under those circumstances.
I KNOW IT’S SO CUTE. I know, the cheese is real.
THANKS! Haha, go you! That book is adorable and you are far more humble than silly old me.
I loved Can You Keep a Secret but I hide it on my bookshelves so no one will ask me about it cause I always felt real cheesy reading it.
I love this!! I’m currently reading Isla and the happily ever after, it’s such a guilty pleasure, I love it so much. I read it in public, too, because I don’t care if I seem cheesy, I AM, hahaha. Great choices 😀
I love it when books surprise you like that! Very passive aggressive and annoying but it’s still so awesome. It’s truly ingenious!
Honestly I first only really first read PS I still love you cause it was cheap on book outlet and it had an asian girl on the cover. I never thought it would be one of my favorite YA contemporaries ever. Ugh, what a gem
She sure is funny! Ah, that’s too bad.
YES REFUSING CLUB RIGHT HERE.
It’s been years since I’ve read a Sophie Kinsella book! They all started to seem the same to me after awhile though I love the early Confessions of a Shopaholic novels 🙂
(Also refusing to read Go Set a Watchman)
My TTT
Thanks!
YES LET US UNITE IN OUR REFUSAL.
Oh, this is a great post! Mind if I steal the idea?
(PS: I am also refusing to read Go Set a Watchman!)