Top 5 Wednesday – Books You’re Intimidated By

This week’s theme should be rather easy, right? After all, we all have these few books that kind of scared us, maybe even made us stop reading for a while but, in the end, we were happy to finish them.

Or maybe there are few books just lying there on your shelf, waiting for you to pick them up, staring at you in the night and showing up in your dreams moaning “reaaad meee” ;).

And then there are the over-hyped books. The ones with a huge fanbase. The ones that you feel pressured to read, and what’s worse – to like. These might not scare you at once. You take the book, start reading, and reading… and you realize it’s not really that great, you don’t really like it. “But there were so many great opinions about this story” – you think – “it just has to be good, I’ll read a bit more“. Sometimes you do finally get into the book, you find all the things people loved about it, but there are also the stories that just don’t work for you. What now? Will you go against this huge, raging fanbase and tell them how bad the book was?

5

The classics – the books that were written long before you were even born, the ones that many people pretend to have read, the ones that pretty much everyone talks about with a fearful respect. Yes, I don’t read that many of these. I do have few favorites and few on my TBR list, but honestly, I don’t have this feeling that I have to read them.

And here are my chosen three for today, 5-4-3 star books – the one I loved, the one I liked, but it was still not easy to get through it and the one that kind of disappointed me, but I’m still glad I’ve read it.

  

4

The Sci-Fi – I know it might sound strange, but the truth is I prefer to watch sci-fi movies/tv shows and read fantasy, so pretty much every sci-fi book is a bit intimidating for me. Except for the Martian. It’s awesome and I’ve started reading it as soon as my friend brought me the books.

Anyway, here are the book that looked a bit scary at first, but I ended up loving them:

 

I’ve read the Sphere few years ago and I did it because I used to like the movie. I don’t like the movie anymore. The book is so much better that I can’t stand to watch it. This story is fantastic! You should really read it.

As for Red Rising, I finished reading it just a few days ago. Or rather listening. I should really admit to listening to most of the books mentioned till now… I’ve only read The Master and Margarita on paper. Anyway, the story is so good! I was really surprised about all the feelings it touched. Plus I don’t understand how it could be shelved as a young adult. Yes, it’s about teenagers, but when you read/listen to it you don’t really feel that. He had a wife! You can’t possibly think about him as a teenager anymore! Plus everything that’s happening to them is so cruel. I can’t believe you could put your kids through that [yes, I know it’s just a book].

3

First author’s requests – when you’re a bookish person, actively reviewing books even if it’s just on Goodreads, maybe trying your chances at the Goodreads giveaways, at some point you might get this magical message from one of the authors with a review request. I don’t know about you, but for me, it was a mix of excitement (about 90%) and fear. After all – YES, you’d love to read and review their book! But what if you won’t like it?

OK, I don’t really remember what was my first request ever, but here are two books I was asked to review while ago and loved:

 

Shadow of Time is basically a paranormal romance and it’s amazing! The world created by Jen Minkman is magical, yet so real. The characters are full of life and the romance is believable, especially when you find out about all what happened.

Prophecies Awakening is a typical fantasy. It’s all about a prophecy. The book is very dynamic, fast paced, has a great cast of various characters and it’s really hard to put down. Check it out!

2

The popular ones – yup, here are the loved-by-all books. The ones I was kind of afraid to start, but couldn’t resist anyway and now I’m so glad I read them. I don’t think I need to explain why I liked them 😉

  

1

The big guys – these huge bricks that look almost too heavy to carry them around :P. Well, I’m just joking, but you know which books I mean.

All of these three books are long, but they are way beyond satisfying. I loved them! I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned these books before at one occasion or another, so let’s leave it at that.

  

How about your Top 5 Wednesday? Link it up or simply list some of the books that intimidated you in the comments 🙂
Have you read any of the stories I’ve mentioned?