Top 10 Tuesday – March 22nd, 2016

Happy Tuesday, everyone! It’s time for another Top 10 Tuesday list. This is an original weekly blog meme created over at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week, there is a new bookish topic for bloggers to create a list about. If you want to know more about Top 10 Tuesday, click here!

This week’s Top 10 Tuesday topic is the top ten books you really love but feel like you haven’t talked about enough or in a while. It was actually a surprisingly tricky topic to come up with ten books for—I tend to fangirl over my favorite books quite often on here. However, I did finally manage to put together a list of my less fangirled over favorites! 😀

Also, on a personal side note, I apologize for slow replies to comments and posts in the past few weeks. I haven’t been feeling quite up to snuff lately and that’s caused me to get a bit behind on everything. I promise, I will be catching up very soon! ❤

   

1. Aimless Love by Billy Collins – Okay, so this isn’t technically a novel exactly—it’s a collection of poems. But this is by far one of my favorite reads in the last few years. Billy Collins is an incredible writer and has created so many stunning pieces. His poems are deceptively simple, each one packed with a surprising amount of meaning. This is a particularly beautiful collection and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

2. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster – One of my childhood favorites. My mom loves this as well, and I remember her giving it to me to read in elementary school, around the same time she gave me the Narnia series. I can’t even begin to count the number of times I read this book when I was little—I couldn’t get enough of it. This is one of many old favorites of mine that I haven’t read in ages, so I’m definitely going to have to have a reread nostalgia-fest at some point!

3. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury – Back when I was a kid, I said the most horrifying words ever: I hate science fiction books! …Let us pause to feel pity for the hopelessly naïve young Ari. I am (obviously) a most massive sci-fi fan now, as well as a huge Ray Bradbury fan, and this is a novel that I credit for both. On a side note, there is also a fantastic movie adaptation of this that I would highly recommend as well.

4. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini – This is honestly one of the most beautiful novels I have ever come across. An incredibly thought-provoking read, it deals with important topics and proved to be very eye-opening. On top of that, Khaled Hosseini’s writing is stellar, and this novel quickly made him one of my favorite authors.

  

5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – I have totally mentioned this before, but it is one of my all-time favorite classics by one of my all-time favorite authors, so it deserves another mention. I’ve come to the realization that there are some books (mainly classics) that I love so much (*ahem*To Kill a Mockingbird*ahem*) that I actually find them genuinely difficult to talk about it depth because I feel that I can’t possibly do my love of them justice. This is most definitely one of those books.

6. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett – I had to read this one summer for class back in high school and ended up completely falling in love with it. This is an engrossing story about the bonds between humans and how people who are very different can be brought together in the most unexpected of ways. I have not yet had a chance to read any more of Ann Patchett’s work, but I definitely intend to some time soon.

7. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett – Another childhood favorite—both the book and the movies. I completely adore this novel and have so many fond memories of reading this beautiful story over the years. When I was little, I always wished I could find a secret garden of my own. And this definitely contributed to my love of old keys. This is another one I’m going to have to add to my reread nostalgia-fest list!

  

8. The Marvels by Brian Selznick – I have spoken about this novel before since I do have a review up on here about it, but I think it definitely deserves another mention. This was just a lovely and beautiful read (both the text and the pictures) with a deep and meaningful message. Though I was already a huge fan of Brian Selznick’s work, I enjoyed this even more than I had expected.

9. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams – Though I actually have never mentioned this one on here before, something tells me that you all know me well enough by now to not be at all shocked. The plot is brilliant, the characters are incredibly lovable, the humor is witty. Everything about this book is fantastic, especially to a nerd such as myself! I also cannot recommend the movie adaptation of this book highly enough—one of my all-time favorites since I was a little kid!

10. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston – This was another school book that I thoroughly enjoyed. It is a very emotional, bittersweet, but very rewarding read. A stunning depiction of braving through the ups and downs of life, it is a perfect mix of heartbreaking and uplifting moments. This is yet another novel on this list that I would also highly recommend the movie adaptation of as well.

What are some books that you guys love and can never get tired of talking about? Please gush about them in the comments! 😀

-Ariana