Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Books I've Read During the Lifespan of my Blog

For anyone who doesn't know, Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week has a different subject.

It's been ages since I've done a top ten Tuesday. I usually see other people's and think 'oh yeah, it's Tuesday', and then don't do anything about it, but the subject of this one is interesting and I'm interested to remind myself of some of the great stuff I've read since I've been blogging!

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 

I didn't even need to look at my blog for this one. I would never have read The Night Circus if not for the fact that I blog (and that the Telegraph reviewed it and hubby happened to read the review on the train and go out and buy the book, but still!). Other bloggers were raving about it for so long and it sounded so good and it is. If you haven't read it, you should go and do so immediately!

2. How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

This is the most hilarious memoir that I think I've ever read, and one of the most engaging books about feminism and what that means. Moran is a funny, funny woman and she talks about all the bits of being a woman that nobody ever talks about as well as all the other stuff. Parts of this book literally made me cry with laughter, and what's more, any time I read quotes from it online I still have to stop to giggle. Although this isn't meant to be a list of books we've read directly because of blogging, but this is another for which this is the case as it was sent to me as a present by the lovely Hanna of Booking in Heels.

3. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Another one that I finally succumbed to reading because of all the hype about it in the blogosphere. Despite the fact that I don't read YA and don't usually enjoy dystopian fiction, I so fell in love with these books. They were library reads and I so need to own them so I can re-read. I've not yet seen the movie but I plan to rectify that pretty soon. 

4. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

I.Love. This. Book. It's the first graphic novel I ever read that was just totally hilarious, and the first I read which wasn't about superheroes or other supernatural kinds of goings on. It made me realise that memoirs in the graphic form can be totally brilliant, and it was because of Persepolis that I discovered Alison Bechdel, who is also brilliant. I want to read more of Satrapi's work but I'm a little afraid as general consensus seems to be that none of it is quite as good as Persepolis, but we shall see. 

5. The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings

Yes I did buy this book because of the movie. Waterstone's had stuck it on one of their tables at the front of the shop, it had a pretty cover and was on special offer. What can I say? I'm very suggestible! I expected nothing from it but wanted to read it before seeing the movie (which I still haven't done because the cinema's heating had broken when we went and we decided we didn't really want to sit in an icebox!), but it was brilliant. Hart Hemmings' writing is quite beautiful and it helps that it's set in Hawaii which is a place I really want to go!

6. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I read this for the Classics Circuit - it had been on my shelf for literally years and for some reason I'd never mustered the motivation to read it. However, reading it confirmed what I had suspected while reading The Great Gatsby back in college; I love Fitzgerald. Really. A lot. Now I just have to get around to the other two of his books that are sat on my shelf... 

7. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

Another memoir about Iran; I had a kind of phase of these last year, but this one was particularly brilliant. Nafisi was a university lecturer in Iran and the book is told in parts, each part titled after a particular forbidden book that the women were reading at the time. It's brilliant and inspiring. 

8. Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story by Carolyne Turgeon

I read this for my Fairytale Feature (which desperately need resurrection, but I'm a bit distracted right now!) and it was just brilliant. So was her other book, Mermaid, and retelling of (you guessed it!) The Little Mermaid. Godmother is a really interesting take on the Cinderella story and I would seriously recommend it to anybody interested in this kind of thing!

9. The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

I just finished this the other week and it was lovely. It's another one that I read because of blogging (the Bookrageous Podcast in specific) and I'm now really excited for the sequel. Although technically it's a childrens book, it's really for anybody who likes pretty things and awesome fairytales. 

10. 1602 by Neil Gaiman

Having put a non-stereotypical graphic novel on the list, I felt the need to put a more stereotypical one on as well. 1602 is about superheroes and stuff, but it's also about much more than that. I just wrote about it last night so I won't say much here, except that Neil Gaiman is totally fantastic, especially for graphic novels.