Tuesday, April 23, 2013

What A Surprise! Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like MORE/LESS Than I Did

This week The Broke and The Bookish want to know what are the Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like MORE/LESS Than I Did.  I decided to split the list, 5 each.  They're in no particular order.  Hopefully my ramblings are understandable.

I thought I'd like MORE:
(aka, Disappointed)

1. Heavenly Date and Other Flirtations, by Alexander McCall Smith - Everyone seems to love Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books.  I'd heard such good things about them. When I saw a copy of Heavenly Date and Other  Flirtations not only did I pick it up because of Smith's reputation, but I love short stories and I liked the title.  I was sadly disappointed.  I've since read another of Smith's books, a novel, not No. 1 Ladies, and also didn't really like it.  He's not a bad writer, just something about his style doesn't appeal to me.

2. Girl meets boy, by Ali Smith - Girl meets boy is a book from the Canongate Myth Series.  Up until this installment, I had enjoyed each Myth book.  They're all by different authors, so perhaps there was bound to be one I didn't really like.  It's a slim 149 pages, but it took ages for me to get through.

3. Undead Reckoning, by Mike Slabon - I was really looking forward to this self-published zombie-fantasy novel.  I've been getting more into zombies (perhaps blame Walking Dead) and I want to support self-published authors and Slabon seems like a genuinely nice guy.  I really wanted to love this book, but sadly didn't.

4. The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie, by Alan Bradley - Why do people love The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie?  I expected to love it too.  They synopsis, what other people were saying, all indicated to me that I would enjoy the book.  I found Flavia so irritating, I just couldn't handle it.

5. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen - Unlike the other books on this list, I really liked Pride and Prejudice.  I loved Lizzy and Darcy; all the characters were fantastic.  It's a great story.  I read it after I read Sense and Sensibility, which I loved.  The way people spoke about Pride and Prejudice, I expected to love it more than Sense and Sensibility and that just didn't happen.  So while I still enjoyed it, I didn't love it the way I expected.  Right now, Sense and Sensibility is my favourite Austen.

I thought I'd like LESS:
(aka, Pleasantly Surprised)

1. The Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling - So many people were complaining about The Casual Vacancy.  It wasn't Harry Potter, it was long, it was boring.  If you went in expecting it to be like Harry Potter then yes, you'd be disappointed, but I knew it wouldn't be.  I read the synopsis.  More than one it was mentioned that this was a book for adults.  It actually reminded me a bit of a Stephen King book.  I really liked it.

2. The Deception of Livvy Higgs, by Donna Morrissey - I knew I'd like Livvy Higgs, I just didn't know I'd love it!  I could seriously gush about it, but it would probably be simpler to read my review.

3. Living Dead In Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse #2), by Charlaine Harris - I read the first book in the series, Dead Until Dark and liked it.  I didn't think it was spectacular, but I had a box set and figured I'd eventually get to the rest of the books.  A while later I read Living Dead In Dallas and that was the surprise   Book 2 hooked me into the series.  I read five books in about two weeks, which is pretty fast for me.  Then, I borrowed book 8 because I just had to know what happened next. (I'm not going to talk about the most recent books.)

4. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee - I figured Lee's novel would be okay.  There would be some historical/societal/social stuff, but I didn't know.  I didn't know how amazing this novel really is and why EVERYONE should read it.  Everyone.

5. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: A Trilogy in Five Parts, by Douglas Adams - My hubby told me to read it.  He usually only reads fantasy, but here he was trying to get me to read sci-fi.  I didn't know how awesome  Hitchhiker's  was.  I want to re-read it.  Multiple times.

13 comments:

  1. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is one of those books that I keep meaning to get to, but after reading your comments -- maybe not! Count me as one who didn't enjoy The Casual Vacancy, not because it wasn't Harry Potter or because it was for adults... just because the plot and characters never really came together for me. And the Sookie books? I loved the first 7 or so, and at this point I'm just slogging through the rest to see how it all ends.

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    1. Lots of people love The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and the whole series.

      I'm hoping I like the last Sookie book.

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  2. I found Living Dead in Dallas a lot better the second time around, and you're right...the less said about the newer books the better!

    Also I've had an omnibus version of The Hitchhiker's Guide...for years and still haven't read it! Will have to dig it out and give it a try.

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    1. Hopefully the final Sookie book is... good...

      Hitchhiker's is hilariously campy.

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  3. YES to To Kill A Mockingbird and The Hitchhiker's Guide! There's a reason these books stand the test of time (and probably always will). I haven't read The Casual Vacancy but I'm really excited to see Rowling's departure from YA. I have a feeling she can bring it.

    As for the Sookie Stackhouse series --- I totally loved, like, the first five books (especially book #3), but after that, the series grew kind of stale. I'm ready for it to be over now.

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    1. Casual Vacancy is hit or miss for a lot of people. I liked it, but there is a lot going on.

      I liked books 7 and 8.... I'm hoping the last book ties everything together nicely.

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  4. If you're a Sense and Sensibilty fan, you might enjoy The Three Weissmanns of Westport. Im not usually a fan of modern retellings of classics, but was surprised at now much I enjoyed this one!

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    1. I'll have to look up Three Weissmanns. Thanks!

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  5. P&P is my favorite, but I'll take any Austen. I love The Hitchhiker's Guide. Great choice. Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier!

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    1. P & P is most people's favourite, it just didn't work out that way for me.

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  6. I agree with most on your list that I've read. Didn't read Sweetness but read I Am Half Sick of Shadows, and probably won't take on Flavia again. I'd add Douglas Coupland's Shampoo Planet and Atwood's Year of the Flood to my disappointment list.

    Reading Hitchhiker's Guide right now though, and sorry to say, I'm not loving as much as you appeared to. Pleasant surprises for me include David Bergen's The Age of Hope and Wayne Johnston's Colony of Unrequited Dreams, mostly because I'd read other books by both authors that I didn't enjoy.

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    1. I don't get why people like Flavia... but so many do.

      I've read a few of Coupland's books, but not Shampoo Planet. I'm sure it'll be a while before I get to it.

      Sorry you're not liking Hitchhiker's. Maybe you'll like it by the end :)

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  7. I'm reading WAR BEFORE CIVILIZATION right now, and I'm enjoying it more than I anticipated. I expected it to be a dry historical book, but it's proving surprisingly engaging.

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