Top Ten Tuesday

Yaaay, my favourite blogging day ever is here again! Thanks, as always, go to our hosts, The Broke and the Bookish, especially this week since I get to pick my own Top Ten! Well, I say I get to pick it, but what I really mean is that it's a top ten tuesday rewind, so I get to pick a list from those that happened before my little blog ever even existed. I spent a surprisingly/embarrassingly long time choosing which to do (there are a lot of great choices) but it really came down to only one- and I think the choices will tell you pretty much everything you need to know about me. So, here it goes:

Top Ten All Time Favourite Books


1. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee- I just always come back to this book-it deserves to be cited in almost any situation, and it is just indispensable to my life- absolutely amazing and unmissable. You can read my review of it here, for more ridiculous gushing about it.


2. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck- I really don't know why or when I first read this book, but I'm so glad I did. There is nothing not to like about the novel- it is a fight against social injustice, a rallying call to arms, all mixed in with a story about a family just struggling to survive. It is simply perfect, as most of Steinbeck's novels tend to be!


3. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath- It may have made me think I was going crazy, but The Bell Jar remains one of my favourite novels of all time- it's just such a perfect portrait of a person falling apart, but other than that it is astonishingly well written, and unstoppably heartbreaking.


4. Angels in America by Tony Kushner- I do just go on about this play all the time, but it honestly just is one of the best things I have ever seen, read, or had any contact with ever. It is funny, heartbreaking, thought-provoking, and manages to marry fantasy and reality so well together that it is practically seamless. I think if you see this, you will be changed in at least some small way.


5. 1984 by George Orwell- Because, when you live in a pretty unjust society yourself, it's nice to be reminded that things could always be worse. A bit, anyway...


6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky- I've literally only just read it, but it is already one of my favourite ever novels- the narrator is wonderfully innocent, and I really really felt a connection to book. A perfect tale of teenage woes, but also a great deal more than that. I've reviewed it here.


7. It by Stephen King- I could basically pick nearly any Stephen King novel (Bag of Bones, Desperation and the whole Dark Tower series are also favourites) but It is just perfect in the way it portrays childhood friendships, and the way that, once you get back together with childhood friends, it's like nothing has changed at all. It also has basically the scariest monster of any King book I've read so far, which is really all you need from the King of horror.


8. The Hours by Michael Cunningham- I can't remember why I even picked up this book (possibly because a film was made of it where Nicole Kidman had a fake nose) but I am so glad I did. A complex story spanning 3 eras and 3 different but equally amazing women, it has a very well deserved place on my list.


9. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott- This is probably the book that could most easily be replaced on my list, but that doesn't mean I don't completely love it. The very first classic I can remember reading and adoring, and I still sort of want to be Jo, even though, I fear, I am a bit more of a Beth. But at least I'm not Amy.


10. Harry Potter by JK Rowling- Even though I'm probably not supposed to like them, I can't help but being completely and utterly in love with the entire Harry Potter series. I've basically never been so utterly sucked into a fictional world like I have Hogwarts, and, had the inevitable ending happened, I would have lost all faith in all things forever. As more of a cultural thing, I just love that Harry Potter has made so many people fall in love with reading, possibly again, or possibly just for the first time, setting up millions of kids for a lifetime of bookishness. And could any life be better?!


That was my rewind- I'm so excited to see which top tens you all picked, and all the bookish fun that Tuesdays bring!