ABC Book Challenge |L|

Hello, Bookworms! This week we are talking about books with the letter L.

For those of you that are new here – each week we post about books beginning with a specific letter of the alphabet starting with A all the way through Z. We’re going to mention one or sometimes a few books that were memorable with the letter of the week and also books that are sadly still living on our TBR lists. So without further ado.

Read last week’s post here.

This week’s letter is – L

Most Memorable Books

Amanda

Looking for Alaska by John Green – This is my all time favorite book. My husband showed it to me when we were in high school and he was just my best friend. This book helped me think about and deal with things I didn’t know how to yet.

Antonia

(The) Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. One of my favorite childhood books. I will always adore this series.

 

 

Books Still on Our TBR Lists

Amanda

(The) The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo – This book of novellas is a recent buy for me. I love Bardugo’s writing so I’m excited to see what’s in store for me with this one.

Antonia

(The) Liar by Nora Roberts- I haven’t read this one since it first came out and I hardly remember it. (Which is actually really unusual for me.) I’ve been thinking of rereading this one soon.

 

 

 

Antonia’s Top Ten Tuesday – Sensory Memories

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week we’re given a new prompt for a top ten list of all things bookish. This week is top ten books with sensory reading memories. These are the books that are linked to very specific memories for you: where you were, what time of year it was, who you were with, what you were eating, what you were feeling, what you were seeing, etc.

I’m actually really excited for this topic because books almost always leave me with sensory memories; usually just a feeling or really vivid memory but it happens to me a lot. It’s one of the main reasons why I reread books so often.

I’m going to try not to list all the same books as Amanda but there will probably still be a couple. With that being said, here are my top ten for this week:

1. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis – I had a huge book that included all seven of the Narnia books in one. I remember carrying it around with me in sixth grade and having to leave it on top of my desk because it wouldn’t fit in the little cubby underneath. I’d have not only students but teachers asking me why I was reading such a big book.

2. Inheritance by Christopher Paolini – It felt like I waited forever for the last book in this series to come out and when it did I’d just started my first semester of college so it took awhile for me to get it. Every time I think of this book, it feels like I’m back in my sister’s apartment, crying over the bittersweet ending while my sister and her boyfriend stared at me in confusion.

3. Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer – This is going to be a long one: It was Amanda’s birthday and we’d had a giant, all-night party so I was exhausted that day. Amanda and another friend of ours received their pre-ordered books that day but mine was late and I was devastated. Luckily my family rented cottages for summer vacations and the girl staying there had already finished her copy and was nice enough to lend it to me. Like Amanda, I fell asleep reading it and woke up to my sister reading it several chapters ahead of me. I stayed in touch with that girl for several years.

4. Redwall by Brian Jacques – This series is the one that gives me the most sensory memories. Picking out the first one from the school library in 4th grade, telling my brother I was reading it and him being so excited because they were his favorite books as a child, always being so hungry because the descriptions of the giant feasts were amazing, the stuffed animal my brother made me to look like one of the more ridiculous characters, etc. I could go on forever about these books.

5. Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks – This was my first Sparks novel and before this I’d had no idea how devastating a book could be. Right up until the very end it seems happy then BOOM. I cried myself to sleep for days. I remember climbing out on my roof and just crying at like 4 in the morning and refusing to read the last few pages.

6. The Witches by Roald Dahl – Now technically numbers 6 and 7 were not books I read but books that were read to me but I still think they count. This one my third grade teacher read out loud to our class and it’s what got me started on Dahl’s books. I can still feel myself sitting in those tiny desks, listening to his voice bring the book alive.

7. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls – This one was read by my fifth grade teacher. He’d read many books to us that year but when it was time for this one he announced that it was kind of sad and that when we got to that part he was going to have to stop for the day and that he was going to cry. And he did. We all did. Just a class of ten year olds and their teacher crying over a book.

8. 10 Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn – All of Quinn’s books are funny but this one the most. I remember laying on a beach towel next to Amanda at the pond near my house. I wouldn’t stop laughing and trying to read parts out loud to her while she tried to read her own book. It got so bad she actually got mad at me.

9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling – I remember reading this on a hot summer night. We didn’t have AC so all my windows were open and the crickets were insane. I remember pacing around my room crying in the middle of the night for pretty much the last third of the book.

10. Eragon by Christopher Paolini – I know, I know. I’m repeating authors but I have so many memories for this one. The ten thousand times I read it, being absolutely disgusted by the movie, reading it out loud with my mom every night (keep in mind I was not a child when we did this). Everything about this book gives me happy memories.

 

Well that’s my top ten this week. I’d love to hear your own answers.

-Antonia

Amanda’s Top Ten Tuesday – Books I DNF

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week we’re given a new prompt for a top ten list of all things bookish. This week’s topic is top ten books that I decided to DNF (did not finish) too quickly. I’m going to put my own spin on this week’s topic because I always finish books once I make it past the first fifty pages or so and if it’s a book I don’t think I’m going to like, I just won’t read it. So this week I will be making a list of the top ten books I didn’t bother to start.

1. The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon – I started this series years ago, before it became a television show. I made it to the middle of the fourth book, The Drums of Autumn, before I had to return the copy I was borrowing to Antonia’s mom. I’ve never managed to get back into the series to reread/finish the series. Hopefully one day.
2. The Great Divorce by C.S Lewis – I was given this book as a gift by my aunt last Christmas (maybe it was actually a few Christmases ago.) I’ve picked it up just to put it back down a few days later. It sits and stares at me from my bookshelf silently asking to be read.
3. The Fifth Doll by Charlie N. Holmberg – I’ve been trying to read this book for the last two months and I can’t seem to make it further than a chapter or so every time I pick it up. I may give it another try in the future, but for now I’m not going to bother.
4. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins – I bought this around the same time that the movie came out because I wanted to read it before I saw the movie. Still haven’t read the book or seen the movie.
5. Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger – This was one I was supposed to read for school. I didn’t like it / couldn’t get into the story. It was just weird to me. So I didn’t read it and I faked all my assignments that had to do with the book.
6. The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K. Dick – This is one I found on my kindle and I tried to start it four or five times in the span of six months and never made it more than ten pages into the book. So I just gave up because I obviously didn’t want to read it that badly.
7. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle – I had this whole series as a kid and tried to read them a few times but never did. I wanted to try again when the movie came out and just didn’t. Maybe I’ll read them someday, but who knows.
8. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte – I have a huge problem when it comes to classics. I’ve gotten about fifty pages into this book a handful of times but to this day have never managed to finish it. Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.
9. Moby Dick by Herman Melville – Another book that I’ve read the first ten to fifty pages of and can’t find the drive or desire to make it any further than that.
10. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens – I guess I’m just a girl that doesn’t like the classics.

These are my top ten that I’ve tried but mostly didn’t bother with. What are your top ten that you didn’t finish (maybe too quickly) or however you changed this week’s topic to fit your reading style?
Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.

Antonia’s Top Ten Tuesday- Book Worlds

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.Each week we’re given a new prompt for a top ten list of all things bookish. This week’s topic is top ten bookish worlds I’d want to (or wouldn’t want to) live in. As usual, I agree with Amanda so I’m going to take her idea and do five book worlds I do want to live in and five I don’t.

 

Book Worlds I Would Want to Live In

1. The Obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory- Magic, dragons, elves, unicorns, and tons of other magical creatures? Yes please.
2. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien- I’d like to live in this one only after the events from these books take place and the war is over. I’d hole up in the shire with books and food and gardening. It would just be perfect.
3. Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling- Again, I would love to live here after the war was over. I just can’t imagine anything better than being a witch and going to Hogwarts.
4. Dragon Jousters by Mercedes Lackey- Have you guys figured out yet how much I love dragons? I seriously loved the way they were portrayed in this series. Almost like very large, slightly dangerous pets.
5. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis- These were the books that really got me into reading. I mean the staying up all night, crying over fictional characters kind of reading. I would LOVE to be able to go to Narnia.

2. Book Worlds I Wouldn’t Want to Live In

 

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins- Were these books amazing? Yes. Would I ever so much as visit this world for even five seconds? No.
2. The Seven Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima- I loved this world. It had fantastic characters and the setting and cultures were extremely interesting, but there was just as much about this world that I didn’t like. It’s on the brink of an all out war, they only just got rid of a semi-corrupt government and for a country that only ever has female rulers, the treatment of women was sometimes annoying.
3. Year One by Nora Roberts- I love Nora Roberts and I love dystopians but I would never want to live in one of these post-apocalyptic worlds.
4. Graceling by Kristin Cashore- This one actually sits between the two categories for me. I loved so much about this world but it was also very flawed.
5. The Devouring by Simon Holt- I’d blocked this one out until I was looking through my booklist while making this list. This. Series. TERRIFIED ME. Demons called Vours that possess people. The whole thing was creepy and frightening and I want nothing to do with it.

Well these are my choices this week. I really loved this topic and want to see what everyone else came up with as well. Let me know what you think in the comments. Thanks for reading!

-Antonia

Amanda’s Top Ten Tuesday – Rewind

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week we post our Top Ten for the weeks topic. This week’s is a rewind so we get to pick a topic we missed or wanted to revisit. I chose to do my top ten book I wish I could read again for the first time. Antonia chose a different topic, but also liked this one so her top ten is here along with mine. We hope you enjoy!

Amanda’s Top Ten:

1)Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling– I’d like to be able to re read this whole series for the first time because well, it’s Harry Potter and I love them.

2)Looking for Alaska by John Green– This is my all time favorite book ever. I would love to be able to read this for the first time again. It was an amazing book and I’m going to try to put it on as many Top Ten’s as I can.

3)Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn– I read this book when my older brother was in school and he had to read it for one of his classes. I’m really glad I got to read this book and it’s one that I’ll keep rereading forever.

4)Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich– I would like to read this book for the first time again for purely x rated reasons. This is one of my favorite books in the now twenty book series.

5)Exit Here by Jason Myers– This is another book that has made it to my favorites list. I’d love to read this again for the first time so that I can fall in love with the story all over again.

6)Burned by Ellen Hopkins– Ellen Hopkins needs to be on this list somewhere. Burned is my favorite of her books.

7)The Book Thief by Markus Zusak– This book was amazing. I did just recently read The Book Thief, but I’d love to read it again and again.

8)Twilight by Stephenie Meyer– I know, haha. I put Twilight on this list because this saga was a huge part of my younger years and I read it so many times I could almost recite it to you. If I could read these books over for the first time, I wonder how I would feel about them.

9)Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith– I put this on this list mainly because I would love to be able to sit down with all of the books and just go crazy reading the whole series for the first time.

10)The House of Night Series by P.C. and Kristin Cast– This is also on the list because now that the whole series is out I would love to be able to have all of them and read them all for the first time. I think I lost interest in this series because I couldn’t keep waiting for the next one to come out.

Antonia’s Top Ten:

1)The Outstretched Shadow by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory– This is a given for me. It’s my favorite series of all time and I wish I could meet the characters all over again.

2)The Seven Realms Series by Cinda Williams Chima– These books made me feel so many different emotions. I wish I could experience that all over again.

3)Twilight by Stephenie Meyer– I wish I could love this series like I did when I was fifteen before the movie and all the twihards ruined it for me.

4)The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis– I wish I could feel all the feelings these books made me feel before they ruined my childhood by ending.

5)The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks– It’s one of my favorite love stories ever. I wish I could read it again without knowing how it ends.

6)Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead– I wish I could fall in love with Dimitri again without knowing what happens to him.

7)The Shack by William Paul Young– This book literally ripped my heart out, stomped on it with steel toe boots and shoved it back into my body. As masochistic as it sounds, I wish that could happen again.

8)The Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling– I shouldn’t have to explain this one to anyone.

9)The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini– I wish I could read all four of these books consecutively for the first time. So much time passed between the release dates that I ended up forgetting too many details between reading them.

10)The Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout– I only wish I could read all of these consecutively for the first time, after the last book comes out this summer. I had so many feelings for all of these books.

These are our top ten books we’d love to read again for the first time. What are yours?