(Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish. Want to make your own list? Clicking the image will take you to this week’s post. Happy listing!)
In books, as in life, there’s “the one that got away.” This week’s list is all about books I’ve loved, but haven’t reviewed for whatever reason (mainly because they’re just too awesome, and no review I could write would do them justice).
1. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) – The first period novel I ever read, as well as the first book I read where people were falling in love. I love the main characters, as well as the humor, satire, intelligence, and wit. Reading this book was my first taste of characters who verbally spar with each other, and I’ve been totally hooked. I re-read it at least twice a year, but I’ve never reviewed it because it’s just too wonderful — anything I wrote would just spoil the magic for me.
2. The Eyre Affair (Jasper Fforde) – The entire Thursday Next series is so deep and complex that it’s hard to review. Allusions and puns run absolutely amok, and the title character is one of my heroes. Much like Pride and Prejudice, I’m so in love with Fforde that it’s hard to review his stuff; I just can’t critique it.
3. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (E.L. Konigsburg) – I read this book over and over as a kid, and it’s firmly entwined with my childhood memories. Deep down, a part of me still wants to join Jamie and Claudia as they run away and live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
4. The Scarlet Pimpernel (Baroness Emmuska Orczy) – I didn’t read any of Orczy’s writings until I was in college, but this story is part of my childhood nonetheless. My father and I would watch the the 1982 made-for-television adaptation (Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour) together, and the story has everything I love: adventure, disguises, danger, romance, mystery, close calls…in short, it’s the perfect story. Which makes it impossible to review.
5. Plays – I’ve read a lot of plays, but I don’t review them — the review process is different than it is for books, and I’ve just never attempted it. I’ve always been partial to Shakespeare’s comedies (Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew), Margaret Edson’s Wit, and Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile, among others (and yes, it’s that Steve Martin).
6. The Host (Stephanie Meyer) – I have intensely mixed feelings about Meyer’s Twilight series, but I really did love The Host. The plot is intriguing, and the themes are incredible. I don’t think I could review this book without “fangirl-ing” to an excessive degree.
7. Harry Potter series (J.K. Rowling) – A great series with amazing character development, plot, themes, and lessons. But just about everyone has reviewed it, and nothing I could say would add anything of value to the conversation.
8. Sexuality texts – A big part of my college career was spent taking Psychology classes such as “Human Sexuality,” “Sexual Deviance,” and “Abnormal Psychology.” I love reading about evolutionary psychology and the social and cultural definitions, importance, and meaning of sex and sexuality. But it’s a topic that just isn’t for everyone, so I don’t review those books here. The only exception have been several feminism-related books.
9. Work-related reading – I do a fair amount of reading related to my job. I think it’s interesting stuff, but it’s industry-specific, and isn’t something that I think my readers want to hear about.
What books have you read and then not reviewed? What are your reasons behind what you choose to not review?
I have read a few of those!
Here is my Top Ten post!
You should read all of them. 😉
Totally agree with the Harry Potter statement. It’s so hard to find unique ways to profess how much you enjoyed a book that’s already been reviewed to death…
Also, good points on The Eyre Affair and P&P. Those are terribly hard books to review.
I love when a book (or series of books) gets so wrapped up in one’s personal identity that the two become impossible to separate. I love that stories can become part of a person — it’s magical. But that makes it hard to be objective in a review. 🙂
I had this compelling feeling once I finished the Eyre Affair to talk to someone about the book. I really should give Mr. Fforde another try since I liked that book so much.
Thanks for dropping by my blog.
-Anne
My Head is Full of Books
You should definitely keep reading the series — they just keep getting better. I was a bit disappointed in the most recent (One of Our Thursdays is Missing), but only because it wasn’t what I was expecting. It’s still a great addition to the series.
Read them all, and then we can gush over them together!
You sound like me. There are so many books I’ve read but not reviewed! I don’t often do that anymore – I at least give the book a shout-out on the blog – but my pre-blogging days included thousands of books. 🙂
These days I almost always review every book I read (except #’s 8 and 9 on my list). I’d love to go back and review some that I read before I started blogging, but bookishness doesn’t let you go backward — the time you spend re-reading means that you’re not reading something new that could be totally exciting and awesome! 🙂