Tag Archives: top 5 wednesday

Top 5 Wednesday: Books Outside Our Comfort Zone

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Welcome to another Top 5 Wednesday as hosted by Sam @ Thoughts on Tomes. This week’s topic is about the books that we’ve read outside of our comfort zone, or what we usually read. So the types of books I usually read are fantasy – adult and YA – and YA contemporaries. Those are the main types of books in which I read, and of course there are subgenres within those that fall out of what I normally do, but here I’m going to talk about a few books I’ve read (and some I haven’t finished) that fall out of my comfort zone.

5. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

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This YA sci-fi book is very popular with a lot of people, and I thought it was okay at best. I really wanted to get into it because I love the idea of mixing sci-fi with fairytale retellings, but this first book just didn’t really do it for me, but I did still enjoy it. I do enjoy reading sci-fi books, but I don’t do it often and I want to change that.

4. Saga by Brian K Vaughan

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This comic book series definitely falls out of my comfort zone because even though I’m a manga fanatic, I’ve never read a comic book series before. I may have dabbled here and there on them before, but this is the only comic book series that I’ve actually invested myself in – and I love it! Comics are very similar to manga in that they tell a story through pictures, but they’re very different because they’re generally smaller volumes, bright, colorful art throughout, and all of the art styles differ in some way. Not to say that manga isn’t the same, but the color aspect is definitely different.

3. My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, & Jodi Meadows

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Now I do enjoy reading historical fiction novels and period pieces, but I’ve never read a YA historical comedy retelling. It’s a mouthful, but it was such a fun book! I felt like the authors did a wonderful job not only retelling the story of Lady Jane, the nine day queen, and then incorporating their own twists and magical elements to the mix. It made for a fascinating, wonderful story about awkward teens in the 1600s.

2. The Deal by Elle Kennedy

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I’ve never read a New Adult story before, and as this series was my first in that genre, I’m really glad to have picked it up. Sure, it’s got a lot (A LOT) of sex, but it also has a story around it and I felt like I was becoming very invested in the characters. I haven’t really heard much about the NA genre except that it’s college aged kids, lots of sex, and drama. I mean, that does kind of sum it up, but I’m sure that there is more out there that’s different and explores more. This series definitely made me interested to read more in the NA genre.

1 . Asylum by Madeleine Roux

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It’s a horror novel. I hate horror. I haven’t finished reading this book, but I started it a while ago for a readathon and I just… I can’t. I want to finish it, I do, but horror is just not something I’m comfortable with watching or reading (unless I’m in a weird mood). The thing is, I’m really interested to see what happens in the book but the pacing and story are creepy, and then the pictures inside it? Forget, I can’t.

Let’s Chat! ≧◡≦

What kinds of books fall out of your comfort zone? Have you read any that fall into mine? What kinds of books do you want to explore that you don’t normally read? What’s stopping you?

Top 5 Wednesday: Favorite Posts

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Welcome to another Top 5 Wednesday as hosted by Sam @ Thoughts on Tomes. This week’s topic is all about our favorite posts/videos/photos that we’ve posted rather than shouting out others’. So I have a mix here of Instagram photos and blog posts, so let’s just into it!

5. Am I A Reader?

This discussion post was one that I wrote after some controversy appeared online about book bloggers and Booktubers and such, and I thought that it was important to touch upon the issue and really take a look at what makes a reader.

4. Queen of Shadows Book Review

This was one of my most passionate reviews that I’ve ever written and it was also one of my longest. I really enjoyed getting to explode all of my feels onto my blog because I wanted to share with everyone just how much the book meant to me.

3. Happy Memorial Day Photo

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This photo was in celebration of Memorial Day here in the States, and it was one of my more creative ones even in its simplicity. I had a lot of fun doing it and it’s definitely something I’d do again!

2. May Book Challenge Day 10 | Favorite Title

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I love this photo because I got really crazy with the decorations in terms of volume, but also because I just like how it came out. Plus these are three of my favorite books/titles, so yeah, there’s that.

1 . Ten Reasons I Love Disney

This recent Top Ten Tuesday post was probably my funnest post I’ve ever made. I got to take my love for Disney and explain why I love it plus share a bunch of memories and photos of my trip to Disney World, my tattoo, and more. I loved doing this post and I’d love to do more like it.

Let’s Chat! ≧◡≦

What are some of your favorite posts that you’ve written? Are they more discussion focused or memes or photos? Share them with me!

Top 5 Wednesday: Favorite Character Names

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Welcome to another Top 5 Wednesday as hosted by Sam @ Thoughts on Tomes. I know I’m posting this week’s topic a week or so late, but I wanted to do this topic so here we are!

This week’s topic is about our favorite character names. Pretty self explanatory, but I’ll talk a little bit about why I like each of these names.

5. Morrighan

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I find the name to be a strong feminine name, one that I associate with old tales and proud women. It’s very lovely.

4. Iseult

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I love Iseult as a character, but her name is also pretty. I think it’s harsh in tone, but it holds a kind of tenderness to it, too.

3. Ronan

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I just. Ugh. I love the name and I love him.

2. Jace

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I’ve actually really liked this name for a long time and my husband and I have decided that if we ever have a baby boy that that’s going to be his name.

1 . Celaena Sardothian/Aelin Galathynius

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I love high fantasy names as I used to role-play with those kinds of names, so I just love the flow of both Celaena and Aelin. Both are lovely and strong and telling of who they belong to.

Let’s Chat! ≧◡≦

What are some of your favorite character names? What do you think your name would be if you were in a fantasy story?

Top 5 Wednesday: Book Theme Songs

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Welcome to another Top 5 Wednesday as hosted by Sam @ Thoughts on Tomes. Today’s topic is our top five book theme songs that we associate with books. So this can mean matching the lyrics to the book, if the tone fits the story, or because we listened to it a lot while reading a book. These aren’t really in any particular order, so let’s jump right in:

5. Bring Me to Life by Evanescence for Shatter Me

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Alright, let’s just all appreciate the gloriousness that is Evanescence, okay? If you listen not only to the lyrics of this song, but also the tone of it, I feel like it really matches the overall theme of this trilogy. It starts out kind of melancholy like how Juliette is at the beginning, and gets more intense as the song continues.

Lyrics:

How can you see into my eyes like open doors?
Leading you down into my core where I’ve become so numb
Without a soul my spirit’s sleeping somewhere cold
Until you find it there and lead it back home
Wake me up inside
(I can’t wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
Call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
Bid my blood to run
(I can’t wake up)
Before I come undone
(Save me)
Save me from the nothing I’ve become

4. Demons by Imagine Dragons for Daughter of Smoke & Bone

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Look at the lyrics of this song! I mean, a lot of this trilogy is about monsters and angels and having secrets. There’s so many good lyrics in this song that I think really fits well with Akiva and Karou, especially.

Lyrics:

When the days are cold
And the cards all fold
And the saints we see
Are all made of gold
When your dreams all fail
And the ones we hail
Are the worst of all
And the blood’s run stale
I wanna hide the truth
I wanna shelter you
But with the beast inside
There’s nowhere we can hide
No matter what we breed
We still are made of greed
This is my kingdom come
This is my kingdom come
When you feel my heat
Look into my eyes
It’s where my demons hide
It’s where my demons hide
Don’t get too close
It’s dark inside
It’s where my demons hide
It’s where my demons hide

3. We Are Giants by Lindsey Stirling (feat. Dia Frampton) for The Raven Boys

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Okay, after thinking about it and listening to this song, I think this song fits the characters in this book so well because they’re all misfits in their own rights, but they are also all bigger than life in the group that they form. And then I think that the beat of the song really encompasses the feeling of the book.

Lyrics:

Do you feel like you’re second-hand?
Do you feel you’re afraid to stand alone?
Cut away every safety net
Live your life so you won’t regret the road
Feels like you’re standing there so small
Just the space between the stars
Don’t be afraid to risk it all
Cause we are we are
We are giants
We are giants
We are giants
We are we are
We are giants
We are giants
We are giants
We are we are

2. I Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift for Their Fractured Light

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I had to pick this song for this book in particular because Gideon and Sofia are both trouble and when they walked into each other’s lives? Oh man.

Lyrics:

Once upon a time a few mistakes ago
I was in your sights, you got me alone
You found me, you found me, you found me
I guess you didn’t care, and I guess I liked that
And when I fell hard you took a step back
Without me, without me, without me
And he’s long gone when he’s next to me
And I realize the blame is on me
‘Cause I knew you were trouble when you walked in
So shame on me now
Flew me to places I’d never been
‘Til you put me down, oh
I knew you were trouble when you walked in
So shame on me now
Flew me to places I’d never been
Now I’m lying on the cold hard ground
Oh, oh, trouble, trouble, trouble
Oh, oh, trouble, trouble, trouble

1 . Shooting Star by Owl City for A Court of Mist and Fury

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Other than the fact that this song has shooting stars in it and the book does, too, the lyrics itself I think really fit with Feyre and her mental illness in this book. She struggles a lot in the beginning, but with the help of a strong support group she realizes just how strong she is.

Lyrics:

Close your tired eyes, relax and then
Count from 1 to 10 and open them
All these heavy thoughts will try to weigh you down
But not this time
Way up in the air, you’re finally free
And you can stay up there right next to me
All this gravity will try to pull you down
But not this time
When the sun goes down and the lights burn out
Then it’s time for you to shine
Brighter than a shooting star
So shine no matter where you are
Fill the darkest night with a brilliant light
‘Cause it’s time for you to shine
Brighter than a shooting star
So shine no matter where you are tonight
Woah-oh, woah-oh, woah-oh
Brighter than a shooting star
Shine no matter where you are tonight
I loved this topic! It was also a lot more difficult than I was expecting it to be. But I think that songs are so powerful because they can fit so many different stories as well as tell many different stories.

Let’s Chat! ≧◡≦

What are some songs that you associate with books or characters? Do you think that music can really tell its own story? When you hear a song do you automatically think of any characters from some of your favorite books?

Top 5 Wednesday: Intimidating Books

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Welcome to another Top 5 Wednesday as hosted by Sam of Thoughts on Tomes. Today’s topic is about five books that intimidate us when it comes to reading them. I actually did the My Intimidating TBR Tag on my channel last week, so I thought that this would be perfect to mention some of the books from that tag, but also talk about a few different ones.

5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

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Why is this one on here? Because it’s such a well known and beloved classic that I’m afraid I’m not going to love it as much as others do. I’ve watched a bunch of movie renditions of Austen’s books, and Pride and Prejudice is definitely my favorite, but I’m still worried I won’t enjoy the book as much because I read Sense and Sensibility by her and it was a lot of old language and kind of hard to get into. But I hope that I enjoy it! This is my smallest book on this list coming in at just under 500 pages long.

4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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Again, another well beloved modern classic, I think, and I’m just intimidated by it because soooo many people like this book. And it’s large. I got the special anniversary edition as soon as I saw it and decided I’m finally going to try reading it. The synopsis sounds awesome and I hope that I like it when I get around to reading it. This one’s 592 pages, which isn’t horrible, but I think it’s just because of how well known and loved it is that makes this intimidating.

3. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

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Can we just talk for a second about how GINORMOUS this book is? It’s as long as A Game of Thrones. And it doesn’t really even fall into any sort of genre because it’s a mix of romance, historical fiction, fantasy… There’s just a lot going on with this series. And I’ve watched the first episode of the TV show, which really made me want to read the book before watching the series, so I want to try to do that, but this is a time commitment piece. The edition I have is 850 pages long, so there’s that, too.

2. A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin

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I’m making it my mission this year to finish this first book in this series. I WILL DO IT, DAMMIT. I’ve been reading this for years now, and I’m almost half way through. I’ve watched the first season of the show, and spoilers run free on the Internet, so I know a lot of things that happen, but I still want to read this series because it is really interesting! I find that even though there’s way too much death and a whole lot of sexual things, it’s still a good series for politics and fantasy read. Just… over 800 pages for the first book alone, and the rest are well over 1000 pages each.

1 . The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

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Can we just talk about this book for a second? I got this on audiobook because I’ve seen the MONSTER in stores and thought, “Maybe the audiobook will be better.” Well, I’ve started the audiobook a while ago, and it is interesting and I’m enjoying the narrator and the story so far, but it’s over 45 hours long. Forty. Five. HOURS. And if I had bought this in book form is would have been over 1000 pages long – and this is just the first book in this ongoing series. Talk about a time commitment, but I really love Sanderson’s writing and storytelling, so I hope to finish this eventually. It’s just hard when the only times I really listen to my audiobooks are when I’m driving long distances, which isn’t too often.

And there you have it! I didn’t notice until I was writing out the pages for each book that I wrote it in ascension order. Yup, from the smallest to the biggest, this is what I’m intimidated by. But I’m determined to finish all of these at some point in my life, it’ll just take a while to get there.

Accompanying video: Top 5 Wednesday | Intimidating Books

What are some of the books on your TBR that you’re most intimidated by? How many pages are they? Are they well known and beloved? Let me know!