Every Tuesday The Broke and The Bookish provide their readers with a subject for a Top Ten list. This week it’s all about the books we thought we’d like/dislike but turned out to have the opposite opinion about. I’ve picked a few of each, so here we go!

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Yeah, I avoided it for the longest time, because I thought it sounded so silly and childish. And then I loved it.

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Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
I thought I’d love this one, I really did, I loved the idea more than the actual book though, and in the end I was pretty disappointed.

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The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
I mention this every now and then, but wow, I really dislike this book. Again, I had high hopes, the plot even sounded decent and so many people love it. I read it and really, genuinely wonder what all the fuss was about.

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Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
I’m not going to lie, I thought I’d hate this book, it just didn’t sound interesting and a lot of the classics which focus on families and love and drama are really not my thing. I had to read this for one of my Swedish classes, and surprisingly I loved it!

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The Road by Cormac McCarthy
I didn’t dislike this book, but I didn’t like it at all as much as I’d expected. I’m a huge fan of dystopian novels and everyone talks about this one, so I thought I’d adore it. It was decent, but far from the best book in the genre.

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Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
I’m going to come out and say it; I discriminate against Swedish literature. I often don’t like it. I don’t like the language, I don’t like a lot of the famous authors, and more often than not, I find the plots to be extremely forced and non-Swedish. It’s like they force a foreign setting onto Swedish culture, and the clash makes for an awful mess. Thus when I started reading this, I hoped for nothing. But hey, look, it’s a good book! Really good even! I actually enjoyed it (right up until the end, at which point I think one of my worst phobias got about 10 steps worse!!)!

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Niceville by Kathryn Stockett
I usually don’t like these kind of books, that are supposed to move you but are too superficial and stereotypical. This was none of it, and it really did move me.

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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
There is one simple reason to why I didn’t expect to like this book. Because everyone else does. I’ve learned from experience that a lot of the books other people adore, or that are generally said to be good books, I end up disliking. Maybe because I don’t appreciate the fact that they’re classics if they’re not good, maybe because I have my expectations set too high, I don’t know. Either way, I expected to be disappointed by this, but I was not. It’s a brilliant book, fully deserving of all the praise it gets!

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Chocolat by Joanne Harris
I accidentally picked up the sequel to this one at a thrift store a while back without knowing it was a sequel. I really just liked the cover, to be honest. Upon reading the synopsis for this book, I thought I wouldn’t like it at all, it didn’t seem like my type of reading. I was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed it a lot, and am looking forward to reading the sequel!

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The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
This book has been extremely hyped in the online book community over the past couple of months, and everyone seems to have read it. I seem to be the only one who doesn’t have an obsession with circuses, but I liked the cover and the synopsis sounded interesting enough so I thought I’d give it a shot. Turned out to be a fantastic book, I finished it in one day!

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So, thats my list for today! Please link me to your Top Ten so I can check it out!

Every Tuesday The Broke and The Bookish provide their readers with a subject for a Top Ten list. This week was Rewind Week, meaning we got to pick any previous subject we liked. As I just started doing Top Ten Tuesday, I had a lot to choose from, but I picked this subject because it’s something I’ve thought a lot about, since I’m surrounded by people who don’t like to read.

Without further ado, Top Ten Books that I would hand to someone who says they don’t like to read (but are open to suggestions anyway)!

1984 by George Orwell
I believe this is a book that anyone can get something from, and I think almost anyone will feel like their life is just a tiny bit richer and they’ll feel a tiny bit more free than they did before. Also it’s just a book that everyone should’ve read, in my opinion.

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Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Pretty much the same reasons as above. It’s dystopian and I think anyone can enjoy it. It makes you think, and thinking is important. I already recommend this book to everyone so..

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Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
This book is tested. My boyfriend (who doesn’t read, but apparently used to) recommended this book to me, and I loved it. He remembered enjoying it a lot, so since it stuck with him for all these years, it’s got to be a generally good book.

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Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
It’s one of those go to choices when it comes to these lists, and I’m not sure everyone would enjoy it, but I think a lot of people would. It’s a whole lot easier to like than for example Wuthering Heights, at least in my opinion. You don’t have to love classics to get something from the book.

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
This is a very easy read, you get through it quickly and you still gain something from reading it. It doesn’t make reading feel like a chore. I think this is a book that would encourage a person to consider picking up another one.

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Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
As I said in my review, I’d recommend this book to anyone, and I meant it. You don’t have to be a literature nerd to enjoy this. It’s easy to read, easy to love. Funny, quirky, interesting and good characters that you don’t get bored with. Perfect first read for someone who doesn’t usually enjoy books!

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If I Stay by Gayle Forman
If the person I was recommending a book for wanted something that wasn’t so fantasy or..surreal, so to speak, I’d recommend this book. It’s a touching story that I think a lot of people can connect with, even if they don’t have any personal experience with any of the things going on in the book. I felt that it was a very easy read, which is probably encouraging if you don’t like reading.

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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
I’m just going to come out and say it; I have not read this book. I have recently bought a copy of it though, so it will be one of the next few ones I read. Still, I’m going to recommend it, because it is such a classic, it’s a book most people grow up reading and it’s something I think everyone should have read. Seeing as it is for children, I assume it will be a pretty easy read, and most people already know the base of the story.

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The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
I believe that a lot of people will recommend this book, and at first, that made me want to not put it on my list. However, a good book is a good book, no matter how many times people say it. I believe that this sort of book is a great start for someone who needs an introduction into the world of reading. TFiOS will make you feel things, and it will show you how amazing the experience of reading can be. It’ll be a good way to see how you can connect to fictional characters and care for them and about their fate.

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The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
This is a very short book containing a couple of fairy tales. This is not a difficult book to read, but it contains some good stories and a few great life lessons. Yep, I’d recommend this to anyone!

Have you read any of these books? If not, do you want to? If you’ve done this week’s Top Ten Tuesday too, please leave a link, I’d love to see which topics you’ve chosen!

Every Tuesday The Broke and The Bookish provide their readers with a subject for a Top Ten list. This week it’s “Top Ten books you read before you were a blogger”.
As I’ve only recently started blogging about books more regularly, I’m going to answer with books I read before I realised I could talk to people online about them (yes, the first part of my childhood was actually lived without Internet, I am that old!!)! Here’s my list!

Not Without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody
I vividly remember that my parents never agreed on how young I was when I was allowed to read this. As a child, I ravaged my mother’s book case so at 10-11 I started reading adult books. My mother told me I could read this when I was 12, so I did!

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And I Don’t Want To Live This Life by Deborah Spungen
Another very adult non-fiction book that I read at a very young age. It tells the story about Nancy Spungen and her youth, her relationship with Sid Vicious and ultimately, her death. It’s very personal, as is to be expected from a book written by her mother. Brilliant book!

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Jewels by Danielle Steel
I did read quite a lot of Danielle Steel, again, from my mother’s book collection, but this is without doubt the one I remember the most, because I’ve read it SO many times.

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The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Okay, let’s jump forward a bit. I actually read this book in 2009, but it was definitely before I started talking about books regularly online. I picked it up at the train station in Stockholm on my way to Chicago, which is funny because the book is actually set in Chicago too, I just didn’t know that when I bought it. This book made me cry so so much.

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A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer
I don’t remember when I bought this, I do remember where though, and it was before 2004. Seems like I was a lot into non-fiction when I was younger, but I think I needed the inspiration. I liked reading about other people’s horrible lives and how they survived and fought back because I wanted that for myself too.
Almost everyone knows Dave’s story, and I don’t think anyone read these books without tears.

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The Diary Of A Young Girl by Anne Frank
I think most kids in Europe are more or less forced to read this book in school at some point, but the only reason to why I mention it is that I enjoyed reading it. I mean, as much as you can enjoy reading a book like this, but you know. All my classmates were all “uuuuuh whyyy do we have to read this?! It’s booooooring” and I was like “shut up this is interesting!”.

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The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams
I bought my copy of this enormous book for about 3€ at a flee market where my family used to go to sell some stuff. It was like this huge place underground, some people did like us and just rented a table every now and then when we had too much crap and wanted to get rid of it, and some people had more permanent shops there. I loved that place, and there was one elderly man who had a large section of books, which is where I found this. Mind you, this was long before thrifting was considered cool or trendy (or even remotely socially accepted).

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The Famous Five by Enid Blyton
This was easily one of my favourite series as a kid. There are 21 books written by Enid Blyton, and I’ve read them all. They made for a very good escape, and I often dreamed of joining Julian, Dick, Anne and George on their cool adventures to beautiful places. I also loved the TV show, I just checked and most of it seems to be on Youtube. Whenever I get a weekend off I might re-watch them :P

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Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Back in 2001, when the first Lord of the Rings movie was about to be released, this was a huge deal. And with huge I mean huge. So, because I’ve always disliked reading books after watching movies, I read the book first. And then I watched the movie and then I read the other books and watched the other movies, and frankly, I was quite obsessed with Tolkien’s work for several years. Luckily I had friends who were too, so this was, so to speak, the first fandom I was a part of.
I think this was the first time I read proper fantasy, and I loved it. I read The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-Earth and I even taught myself Sindarin. Good times :)

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I’m sorry but I can’t not mention the Harry Potter series, because they were the books that first made me go online and talk about books. I found forums for people who loved them and who loved reading and I still, to this day, have friends from the Harry Potter forum that I joined in 2001. Actually one of them is my colleague today, which I find hilarious.
I am not joking when I say that Joanne Rowling has made a huge difference in my life and the way I live it. If nothing else, she made people around me want to read too, and all of a sudden, I wasn’t so lonely with my books :)

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That’s my list! Looking back at it, I realise that I can probably section off the books I read when I was younger into two sections. One is tragic non-fiction and the other one is escape books, the stories I loved because they granted me entrance into a different world where I could be whoever I wanted.