Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish back 2010 before moving to That Artsy Reader Girl in 2018. It’s born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
Books I wish had been available…
- The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley – this would have blown my mind, opened my eyes, and allowed me to see myself (all of myself) in a story
- The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon – I can only imagine the impact this would have had as a beacon of feminine light on my epic fantasy shelves
- Silver by Darcy Abriel – this is a book that blew my mind when I read it, and which I wish I’d found during my sci-fi years
- Stealing Thunder by Alina Boyden – this is a book I’d spent decades hoping somebody would write, a story that would have spoken so loudly to young me
Books I wish I’d read sooner…
- The Bone Doll’s Twin by Lynn Flewelling – to think that Tobin’s story was right there waiting for me all along, that I could have shared their story sooner . . . wow, talk about TBR bookshelf regrets
- Raptor by Gary Jennings – I scavenged this from a used bookstore because of the history, letting it sit on the shelves for decades, never appreciating who Thorn was
- Sing the Four Quarters by Tanya Huff – some books you’re just not ready to appreciate, but the story here, the relationships, the themes, I wish I’d discovered them sooner
- A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay – I avoided this for years, kind of miffed that Kay had abandoned his epic fantasy roots, but goddamn what a magnificent book this is
Books I wish I’d never read…
- The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis – I’ve never despised the end of a saga so much, never had such disgust for an author, I wish I could get back that wasted time and have read something from the lists above instead
- Strange Highways by Dean Koontz – this collection, specifically ‘Twilight of the Dawn’ and it’s preachy patronizing, is where I first felt the pain of shifting a favorite author to the do-not-read list
