Top Ten Tuesday: Spring Fever

This is my first Top Ten Tuesday!

The Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Every week they choose a new topic for bloggers to list their top ten of whatever books fit into the category. (Click on the category title below to be taken to the current TTT post on The Broke and The Bookish).

Spring Fever: Top Ten Books I’d Play Hooky With

1. Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling

Anyone who knows me knows I love this series.  I started reading it when I was 12 (probably a couple of months after it was published in the US).  I remember my mom handing me the book (after having read it herself) and said “read this, I think you’ll like it” (or something to that effect).  Anyway, I remember turning to the first page and seeing the chapter title “The Boy Who Lived”, at which point I turned to my mom and said “Obviously he lives, the whole series is about him!” She gave me a look and said “just read the book.”  And it was then that my love affair with all things Harry Potter began.  I got books 5, 6 & 7 at midnight.  I re-read each of the current books before I got the newest installment.  I remember when I got Half-Blood Prince that I began reading as soon as I got home.  I kept saying to myself, I’ll go to bed after I finish this chapter (remember, I got this at midnight). The next thing I knew I heard birds and it was getting light outside.  I looked at the clock and it was after 6am.  Pure dedication.  I was also part of a book club in college, and at the end of almost every meeting, I managed to bring the conversation back to Harry Potter and whatever was happening at the time (new book, new movie, etc.).

2.  Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde

I first read this book back in my sophomore year of college (so 2005/2006).  I thought it was a really interesting read, and a super interesting concept. (I recently re-read it, but it could have been a first-time read for all intents and purposes because I barely remembered it).  I think this is a light, fun read.  I know there are a few more books in the series and I plan to read them all.  I think it would be tremendous fun to be able to jump into books!

3. Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon (and the Lord John Grey spin-offs)

I thoroughly enjoyed this series and always look forward to when there is a new novel.  The Lord John Grey spin-offs are just as good.  Lord John is a character I like, so it’s pretty cool to see some of the same events from his point of view.  My mom first bought these books a few years ago and because she had many other books sitting on her nightstand, I started reading the series before her.  She’s almost done with The Fiery Cross.  I love the adventures that Claire gets into!  (Um, traveling through time, living the past…hello!)

4. A Dog’s Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron (love that dog)

This is a wonderful, feel-good, bittersweet, I’ll-never-look-at-my-dog-the-same-way-again kind of book.  Bailey is such a sweet character and really seems to have a voice all of his own.  It’s a great story of man’s true best friend.  I will suggest this to anyone, but especially anyone who has a dog.  Trust me, you’ll fall in love with Bailey.

5. Watchers by Dean Koontz

I posted about this for Musing Mondays yesterday.  This is another book whose main characters include a super intelligent golden retriever named Einstein.  Once again, I fell in love with the dog and made me look at other dogs differently, wondering just how much they understand.  Scrabble anyone? (you’ll get that if you’ve read the book…and if you want to get it, go read the book!)

6. Timeline by Michael Crichton (do I have thing for traveling through time? yup)

I really enjoyed this book.  It mixed two things I love to read about: science/physics/time travel and history.  Unfortunately, a movie was made based on this book.  VERY LOOSELY BASED. I was excited when I heard a movie was being made but never had the opportunity to see it in theatres.  I rented in one night and after the first 15 minutes I turned it off, sorely disappointed. Character relationships were altered (example: in the book, the main character is an archaeology student who thinks of the professor like a father, in the movie he IS his father and is not an archaeology student).   This was my first real encounter with a terrible adaptation.  But I still love the book.  I love that Crichton had scientific research to back it up.  I still re-read it every now and again.

7. Jessica Darling series by Megan McCafferty (Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings, etc.)

This was another series I enjoyed. I especially liked that the books were written in a journal format.  I’ve re-read a few of them, mainly when I discovered that a 5th book had been written and it had been a couple of years since I read the first 4.  I love Marcus Flutie.  Great character.  They’re definitely great beach reads.

 8. A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin (no brainer)

I love this series.  There are so many fantastic characters.  Even though it is fantasy and there is magic, it is still a very real, very gritty story.  There is so much going on and I love re-reading them to pick up on new things that I didn’t catch before or forgot.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well the HBO TV series has been and I am super excited for Season 2 to begin on Sunday.  I actually came across these books by accident, probably in 2005/2006 (the first four books were all available in paperback).  I was out shopping not too long after Christmas with my mom and we stopped in Barnes and Noble.  I wanted a new series to read but didn’t have anything in mind.  Little did my mom and I that know when she grabbed this yellow/gold paperback book  she had struck gold (no pun intended) for me.  I fell in love with the series and re-read the books probably about 3 times each before the 5th one finally came out last year. I bought it for my Kindle just so I could read it, and once the same style paperback book is available,  I will buy it to add to my collection.  These books have the worn, creased spines…a great sign of a beloved book!

9. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

I had to read this book for my senior year of high school.  While I have a specific, non-related memory associated with this book, I still fell in love with Owen Meany.  What a lovely and wonderful character.  I love that Irving used all caps to emphasis his speaking.  The story is a tragic bittersweet one in places. but I just absolutely love it.  It’s one of the few books I read for school that I bought (after borrowing it from the library) and have read on more than one occasion.

 10. The Black Jewels Trilogy, (and all of its spin-offs)  by Anne Bishop

Another series introduced to me by my mom.  It is most certainly fantasy, but an interesting one.  It’s a matriarchal society with special rankings.  They are witches and warlocks (aka the Blood).  There are landens (aka regular human beings).  It’s a wonderful fantasy to get wrapped up in.  The best thing about these books is that it originally started as a trilogy and there have been spin-offs/continuations, so there are now actually 9 books in the series.  They don’t all necessarily follow the same main characters, so we really get well-rounded views of many of the characters we grow to love while reading these books.