Hi, Megan here, reporting that I will be sitting on my hands and letting someone else have a turn making a Top Ten Tuesday list. This week The Broke and The Bookish have left the topic up to us, so I am turning things over to Sarah, the awesome librarian-in-training who has been learning the ropes from me and my colleagues.
Books I’d Want on a Desert Island
1. The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – I’ve always loved Sherlock Holmes, but to be honest I never owned the complete works until a few years ago when it was given to me as a birthday present. That being said, this would be the first book I would take with me to a desert island. Of course if I was going to be stranded there I might consider grabbing a few other things first, but as far as reading material – this would be it.
2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – This is probably one of the classics that I can safely say I could read on a regular basis, so it makes the cut. I just love the time period and the way F. Scott Fitzgerald paints it. It kind of embodies everything that was good and disastrous about the ’20s, and even though I’ve read it dozens of times it always manages to pull me back.
3. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline – I will read this book all day long and then read it all over again. I love it that much. Maybe it comes from an excessive love of video games or being a self-proclaimed geek, but I always find something new to love about this book when I read it. Even if it’s just from researching an 80’s reference I missed the first time around.
4. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green – If I’m going to be stranded on a desert island then I’m going to bring a John Green book with me, end of story. And as much as I would love to bring TFioS, I don’t want to spend all of eternity on this desert island in tears. This is one of my favorite road trip themed books, and is just a fun story all around. And also, Hassan is probably one of my favorite characters in any John Green book.
5. X-Men: Magneto Testament by Greg Pak – I know. This isn’t a book, it’s a graphic novel. And admittedly, I’m not a huge graphic novel person (I’m working on fixing that!). This, however, is probably my all time favorite. It’s historically accurate, and impressively so – the footnotes alone are proof of that. The illustration is beautiful, and the way some panels are left completely black so the reader can really use their imagination makes the story even more pronounced. And then there’s the story itself, which is just…phenomenal, is probably the best word I can come up with. It’s an excellent read for X-Men fans (or history buffs!).
6. Zombies vs. Unicorns – Probably one of my favorite compilations, with stories by a really great group of authors answering the age-old question…who would win in a battle between zombies and unicorns? I usually don’t read a ton of short story collections, but it was hard to ignore a collection with so many of my favorite authors. But really, how can I pass up Libba Bray, Scott Westerfield, Maureen Johnson, and Cassandra Clare in the same book?! For the record, my bet is always on zombies.
7. Leviathon by Scott Westerfield – If this wasn’t a top ten list and I had the ability to take an infinite amount of books with me, I would take this entire series. As it stands, though, I’ll gladly settle take one rather than none. I love the steampunk/sci-fi world that Westerfield created and, possibly even more so, I love getting lost in it. This is definitely a “just one more chapter” kind of book.
8. Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen – This one is an interesting re-telling of Robin Hood that doesn’t quite focus entirely on Robin Hood, and ended up being more fun to read than I expected. In any case, the Robin Hood legend is one of my guilty pleasures, so I find myself gravitating toward those stories quite a bit; and I really enjoyed the female-in-disguise aspect of this one. Plus, Scarlet was a really well written character who – to be perfectly honest – kicked butt and did a really good job of it!
9. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell – I just finished this three months ago, but I have no shame in saying that I would definitely grab this one to read again. I love Cath and Levi and Reagan and Wren; I relate to them and what they’re going through in this story. And I think everyone, at some point, has known someone similar to at least one of these characters.
10. Eon by Alison Goodman – Finally, one that I actually haven’t gotten around to reading yet. I’ve had this sitting on my shelf for at least a year, if not close to it. It was the cover that caught my eye first, but the idea of the Dragoneye really appealed to me – and “energy dragons”? I’m intrigued! Now I just need to keep reminding myself to actually read it…
Happy Reading!
˜Sarah
YA? Why Not? 