Top 5 Wednesday - Favorite Character Tropes

Top 5 Wednesday

Favorite Character Tropes

July 29th

*a character trope are things you see often in books, maybe sometimes they get redundant or are overused (especially in ya) but you can't help but love them. A couple examples
- one girl against the government
- two best friends falling in love

• The Love Triangle  
• Two guys, one new flame, one old friend, + the girl
• Bad boy, Shy boy combo
• Anti Heroes
•  Bad boys who are good men
• The childhood and or past trauma 
• that is the root of all things evil 
• the reason why a character is so determined to "do good"
• how the other characters react
• maybe its something just the reader and the main character know
• That side character you always relate with or crush on
• For me its often the big muscly guy who has a : always had the same girlfriend or is always single with no one really interested in him
• Destiny. Fate. Signs ect
• This is a hard one to put down because there is so much love hate. Some books have it written in perfectly and with others I just find it unnecessary and frustrating. 
• Love should never be destined
• Birthday transformations are a grey area
• Prophecies are a favourite of mine
• Birth Marks are a grey area

Top 5 Wednesday - Side Characters That Deserve Their Own Series

Top 5 Wednesday

Side Characters That Deserve Their Own Series

July 22 2015

1. Cassie, Wintergirls, Laurie Halse Anderson
2. Gabriel, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, Holly Black
3. Cadvan, The books of Pellinor, Allison Croggon
4. Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter, JK Rowling
5. Girl wanting to be a bride, Wither,  The Chemical Garden, Lauren Destephano

Top 5 Wednesday - Things on your Bookshelf that Aren't Books

Top 5 Wednesday

July 8th

Things on your Bookshelf that Aren't Books

So I find doing this top 5 wednesday a little bit funny because I don't honestly have a "bookshelf" 90+% of the time, I just so happen to have one right now coincidentally but it doesn't have any books on it other than my library books because I don't own any books... Its more just a shelf then I guess? Which is what i normally don't have?

1. Supplements, I have one shelf entirely dedicated to protein powder, multivitamins, samples, progressive vegegreens, phytoberry, protein shakers, pre workout....

   

   
   

    
2. Yoga Mat, nicely rolled up and held together with an elastic
3. My steel toed work boots on the bottom shelf
4. My snowboard boots also on the bottom self 
5. cat litter

Top 5 Wednesday - Favourite Chapter Headings

Top 5 Wednesday

Favourite Chapter Headings
July 1

I tried to match the headings to what went on in the chapter, so if the name was kinda cool but really didn't match what went on it lost points and probably didn't make it to this list. 

Not many books I have read have chapter titles or headings, drawings even. Did anyone else have this problem too?

1. The Clock of the Time Dragon, Wicked, Gregory Maguire
2. A House Full of Books (doesn't that just sound beautiful?), Inkheart, Cornelia Funk
3. The Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, JK Rowling
4. Of Serpents and Paradoxes, Triss, Brian Jaques
5. Magic is the simplest thing, Eragon, Christopher Paolini 

Top 5 Wednesday - Characters You Wish You Could Drown

Top 5 Wednesday 

Characters You Wish You Could Down 

June 24 2015

I am going to list and rate (out of 5 stars) my most hated characters. The Criteria is..

* Star - You where mildly irritating

** Stars - I had hot flashes of rage towards you

*** - I loathed you

**** - You RUINED this book by being in it

***** - I sincerely wish you immortality through every torture I have ever witnessed on Criminal Minds,  AND then you can drown and die

1. Pearl, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, Holly Black *
2. Edmund,  The Lion The Witchand the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia), CS Lewis **
3. Davy, The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum ***
4. Medea, The Blade of Fire (The Icemark Chronicles), Stuart Hill ****
5. Bobbie Anderson, The Tommyknockers, Stephen King *****

Top 5 Wesdnesday - March

March 4th - Books You'd Save in a Fire

1. Agents of Light and Darkness, Simon R Green 
2. Under the Dome, Stephen King
3. The Doorkeepers,  Graham Masterton
4. Alanna the first adventure, Tamora Pierce
5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone

March 11th - Books That Made You Think

1. A Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
2. Not Without My Sister, Kristina Jones
3. The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum
4. The Help, Katherine Stockett
5. A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini

March 18th - Bookish Habits 

1. Leaving my book face down open to save my page, I never use a bookmark
2. Picking a book because of the cover... even if I don't like the synopsis 
3. Reading series out of order, or reading one random book out of the middle of a series
4. Love and Hating Cliches at the same time
5. Not remembering what you read but knowing you read it 
6. Moving around when I read
7. Tea, coffee, beverage
8. Reading super late at night
9. TBR - Hundreds, everywhere, it never ends

March 2th - Worst Series Enders 

I don't like this question and heres why, I find that generally before I reach the end of a series I will dislike the 2,3 books before the last meaning I don't normally make it to the final book.

And there are so many series that I LOVED THE ENDING this just feels like such a negative thing!

1. Breaking Dawn
2. Series of Unfortunate events *this was more so a personnel problem than an author problem I really wanted to finished the series but when I read it I really wasn't into it. I do remember wishing I had got more information about the secret society and everything but there where probably many things I forgot because I read so many of these at different times.

Top 5 Wednesday - Books You'd Like to See as TV Shows (NOT MOVIES) Part 1

Top 5 Wednesday

Books You'd Like to see as TV Shows NOT MOVIES

May 6 2015

Part 1 Animated Shows

1. Asterix, Rene Goscinny : there are a handful of "real people" films originally in french with a few translated into english, the same with a few Animated films. I would like to see them done in full as a cartoon for tv and have them stick more to the comics then some of the other movies did.
2. Redwall, Brian Jaques : again this was also started into a tv series but it only got through 3 out of the 22 books I would love to see it redone and finished. 
3. Wicked, Gregory Maguire : I really didn't like this book at all, but it would make a really good cartoon. Because as a show you would have to edit out the tediousness of the book. The base story would shine through
4. Fire Bringer, The Sight and Fell, David Clement Davis 
5. The Books of Blood, Clive Barker : These would be somewhere in-between films and a tv show, miniseries, each story being one or two episodes long and I think a couple of the stories would be told really well in almost a fantasia style (in thinking of "In the Hills the Cities" specifically when I say this) . I know at least one of these stories has already been turned into a non-animated film, although I believe because it is a full length feature they must have added to it (ive never seen the movie - midnight meat train) 

Top 5 Wednesday - Debut Novels

Top 5 Wednesday 

Debut Novels

May 27 2015

So to find these books I cheated a bit and used Goodreads here is The List I Used

For anyone who isn't 100% sure what a debut is heres the definition from wikipedea : 

*A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes.Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to publish in the future. 

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, JK Rowling
2. Twilight, Stephanie Meyer
3. Carrie, Stephen King
4. Alanna: The First Adventure, Tamora Pierce
5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon

I know these arnt recent books, again I used that list and at this point most authors I am reading are pretty well established, now that I am so far into so many series 

Top 5 Wednesday - Summer Covers

Top 5 Wednesday
Summer Covers
May 13 2015

These aren't in any particular order, you may notice a pattern here...

This is another topic pick

Much of my summers have been spent at the Zoo

Add caption

I chose this one equally for the topic

Top 5 Wednesday - Books You'd Like to See as TV Shows (NOT MOVIES) Part 2

Top 5 Wednesday

Books You'd Like to see as TV Shows NOT MOVIES

May 6 2015

Part 2

1. Simon R Greens Nightside Series.
2. The Beast House Series, Richard Laymon
3. Tamora Pierces Tortall Books, These would have to be some what overlapping with the novels going more so in a chronological order than in order of the books published or by series.
4. Sherrilyn Kenyons Dark Hunter universe Novels, 
5. Stephen Kings Derry Chronicles : this would be an incredible task 6 of Kings books are set in Derry and 18 books reference it. Not to mention how many movies have already been made from King's novels not to mention the Under the Dome TV show. I would love to see all of these different elements somehow incorporated and joined in a seamless continuous series. 

Top 5 Wednesay - Favourite Series Endings

Top 5 Wednesday 

 Favorite Series Endings 

April 29 2015

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling
2. The Last Olympian, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Rick Riordan
3. Song of the Lioness, Tamora Pierce
4. The Shinning, Dr Sleep, Stephen King
5. The Singing, Books of Pellinor, Allison Croggon

Top 5 Wednesday - Books that Feature Traveling

Top 5 Wednesday

Books That Feature Traveling 

April 22 2015

1. 11/22/63, Stephen King *Time Travel
2. Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer *Traveling USA
3. Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs *Dimensional Travel
4. The Doorkeepers, Graham Masterson * Dimensional Travel
5. Inkheart, Cornelia Funk *Travel in and out of book, 

Top 5 Wednesday - Most Frustrating Characters

Top 5 Wednesday

Most Frustrating Characters

April 15 2015

1. Bobbie Anderson, The TommyKnockers, Stephen King
2. Bella, Twilight, Stephanie Meyer
3. Sansa, Game of Thrones, George R Martin
4. Davy, The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum
5. Ever Davies, Skinny, Donna Cooner

Top 5 Wednesday - Worst Series Enders

Top 5 Wednesday

Worst Series Enders 

March 25 2015

Keep in mind that I haven't really finished a lot of series...

1. Mocking Jay, The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
2. Inkdeath, Inkworld, Cornelia Funk
3. Breaking Dawn, Stephanie Meyer

Il list these so that I have 5 but I am unwilling to put them on the same list as the above three monstrosities 

• Series of Unfortunate Events *This was less the final book than the overall mystery unsolved though all 13 books, too many questions left unanswered.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians I hate putting this on a list that says worst because this ending wasn't bad, it was a little anticlimactic but I still enjoyed it.

Top 5 Wednesday - Bookish Habbits

Top 5 Wednesday

Bookish Habbits (Bad Habbits)

March 18 2015

1. Bending the spines
2. Eating while reading : I am good about not getting food on the book, fingerprints and crumbs (getting trapped in the crease) are a different story
3. I don't care about paperbacks, this includes dog earring, leaving them open face down + folding them while reading, manhandling them, throwing them around, I just don't care about their condition period
4. Reading in the bath between the occasional splash and the humidity...
5. Forgetting What I've Read : this happens mostly with binge reading and quick reading

Top 5 Wednesday - Books That Made You Think

Top 5 Wednesday

Books That Made You Think

March 11 2015

1. Not Without My Sister, Kristina Jones :  It is a non fiction novel this was one of the first cult books that I had read, it also deals with child abuse, zealots, fanatics, brain washing,polygamy,.. it was harrowing, and terrible to think that people could do these things to one an other in the name of anything. I kept coming back to the thoughts of those who thought they where doing right, doing your worst while you intend on doing your best... I just can't fathom.
2. The Silence of the Lambs, Thomas Harris : The second book in the Hannibal Lecter Series, at this point you have gotten to know Lecter quite well, I had seen all the movies at this time as well so a had a general idea of where thing where going (the movies where accurate enough for a movie). This was the first book where I had to really consider if the "bad guy" was a villain, I knew he was a murderer, and a sociopath, psychopath... but considering his past, his motives, who he killed it was something I put a LOT of thought into.
3. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley : The original dystopia, from which I think most others spawned it had the most profound effect considering where our society was when the book was written (1932) to when I would have first read it (2011 ish) and where we are going currently. It was and is really unnerving to think that we are fallowing this pattern... how much can be a educated/formulated guess. it all uncanny
4. Futility, Morgan Robertson This book was written in 1898, it is about a ship on her maiden voyage, she is unparalleled in modern technology and luxury, On the maiden voyage the ship hits and iceberg and sinks with most of her passengers on board, due to inadequate safety precautions because the ship was considered unsinkable by her builders, this ship was called the Titan... Does that sound familiar? funny thing is the Titanic didn't sink until 14 years later in 1912 (construction wasn't even started on the titanic until 1909.
5. The Kite Runner, and 100 Splendid Suns, Khaled Hossini, I think anyone who says that they haven't ever been affected by mass opinion/popular opinion/ cultural prejudice/ outright racism towards people from the middle east is a liar. Even if you do not buy into what the media says if you have heard it (which we all have MULTIPLE TIMES) something has had to cross your mind. This book was from the perspective of a child in Afghanistan during the war, not on the side of the Taliban/ Zealots of any kind. He grows up in this war zone and to me he is the grey area to those of us not from the middle east. As an adult he goes to America and I can only imagine the judgement he faced. While he does not consider himself and is not "one of them" we (being the majority of outside society) still considered him "one of them"... this is such a hard concept to imagine, an entire section of culture belonging no where... I have done such a poor job explaining this novel. I put it last on this list because for me this is the hardest book to explain, what I was thinking about. Its much more an emotional explanation than rational..

Top 5 Wednesday - Books You'd Save in a Fire

Top 5 Wednesday

Books You'd Save in a Fire

March 4 2015

These are my go-to reads, most of them have been reread at least half a dozen times but I would say closer to a dozen. These are all great reads, but more so then that they have huge sentimental and nostalgic value which is more what I based this little exercise on. 

1. Agents of Light and Darkness, Simon R Green 
2. Fire Bringer, David Clement Davis
3. The Cove, Catherine Coulter
4. Mossflower, Brian Jaques
5. The Cry of the Icemark, Stuart Hill