Top Ten Tuesday (4)

 Each week the folks over at The Broke and the Bookish host a Top Ten list based on a certain bookish topic. Other bloggers are able to join in and post their own top ten answers. Here are my answers to:

Ten books I read that were outside of my comfort zone 
(but was glad I read them in the end):


CHILDRENS/YA:

1. HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, by J.K Rowling: Before I read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone I was very much "Oh no, I only read books that have girls as the main character." What can I say, I was young, and boys had cooties. But when I did eventually pick it up, I was suffering from severe boredom - and a little pain after having my finger slammed in the door - at one of my family birthday parties. Needless to say the cover intrigued me, and I thought, "Oh, what the heck. It's this or Goosebumps again:

2. UNEARTHLY, by Cynthia Hand: Before Unearthly I was never a very big fan of the Angel trend that was going around. So when I checked this out from the library I was pretty much thinking: "Oh, this will be... interesting." I didn't think I would like it, but boy was I wrong.

3. LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI, by Melina Marchetta: I'm going to let you all in on a little secret: prior to reading Looking for Alibrandi I didn't really like Contemporary Young Adult novels. But all my friends were raving about this one, so I gave it a go and loved it to pieces.

4. SO MUCH TO TELL YOU, by John Marsden: One of those books that you read for school, and figure that you'll hate it. I soon learned that John Marsden is a brilliant writer, and So Much To Tell You is an amazing, touching novel.

5. UGLIES, by Scott Westerfeld: It seems really rather silly when I think back to the reasons I told myself that this book wasn't one that I would enjoy. In many ways it was because it was futuristic, and at the time I hadn't read anything like it. I'm very much a person who gets comfortable in one genre. 

OTHER:

6. THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY: There were three books, they were all large. My brother liked it, and boy books had cooties and were boring, right? Oh, young me, aren't you glad you were wrong?

7. PET SEMETARY, by Stephen King: I was never one for Horror novels, but my parents were always saying how much the movie adaption freaked them, so I figured I would check it out for myself. Of course, I always like to read the book first. The book scared me (and I loved it). The movie? Not so much.
8. THE BRONZE HORSEMAN, by Paullina Simons: This one is difficult for me to explain. I suppose I was a little dubious because I'd never really read such a moving novel before, nor one set in such horrific times. Certainly not one that the crept under my skin and stayed with me for so long after I had finished reading it. 

9. VANISHING ACTS, by Jodi Picoult: This was actually the first of Jodi Picoult's novels that I had read at the time, and I wasn't expecting to enjoy it very much. Crime, and law and such things were never really "my thing", but once I had the book in my hands - thanks to my sister - and read the synopsis I was pretty much hooked. 

10. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith: "What do you mean you added zombies to a classic? Are you insane, Seth Grahame-Smith?! ..Oh, but the cover is rather fantastic, even if I don't like zombies. Maybe it won't be so bad."