Ranking the first 10 books I've read so far this year

[Ryan]

I'm a few weeks behind on my goal of reading 52 books this year but I'm going to catch up and I just wanted to take a quick break and rank the books that I've read so far and give a quick reason why each is ranked where it is.



My Rankings

1) The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho -

I loved the journey in this book and although some of the religious aspects weren't my favorite, the book still had so many quotes I had to stop and write down. A few of my favorites are:

"It is the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."

"to die tomorrow was no worse than dying on any other day. Every day was there to be lived or to mark ones departure from this world."

"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself."



2) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee -

I'm not breaking new ground saying what an excellent book this is. Atticus is just such a perfect character and she brings the images to life so well when she writes.

3) Metamorphasis by Franz Kafka -

A fun little book that took like 2 hours to read and I enjoyed every minute of.

4) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon -

Unlike anything I've ever read. Probably the most memorable out of the 10 books I've read so far.

5) A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin -

I'm blaming the book a little that the show did such a good job and I learned almost nothing new from reading the first book. I know the series diverges some from the second book on so that's what I'm looking forward to.

6) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis -

A fun book. I was hoping it would be a little more complex, it felt a little bit on the "little kiddish" side of fantasy for me.

7) Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard -

I know I just said the last book was "little kiddish" and I just read Winnie the Pooh. I had never read it before though and the stories made me smile even in my 30s.

8) The Time Machine - H.G. Wells -

Pretty good but had trouble holding my attention at some stretches

9) A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer -

I liked the book but after reading it and doing a little research it seems like the author greatly exaggerated a decent amount of the abuse for "shock value" and to try and sell more books.

10 The Alice Network by Kate Quinn -

It wasn't bad. I just never thought about it for 1 second again as soon as I finished it.



Anyway..I doubt anyone will care but that's my list so far.

I know the books are quite varied and most are short (I fell behind and am trying to catch back up to my goal!)

[Suzanne]

Game of Thrones makes up for any short ones. This is a great list! And a great idea to do a list with comments. I hope you continue.