Top Ten Tuesday – First 10 Books I Ever Reviewed
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is First 10 Books I Ever Reviewed. Okay, I’m using the term “reviewed” very loosely here since these titles come from around the time I first joined Goodreads. I joined back in 2008 and when I first started out, I rarely ever wrote more than a sentence about a book, if I even did that much. I think I set up my account, “reviewed” a couple of current reads, and then got sucked down the rabbit hole of rating books I’d read in order to supposedly get better book recommendations generated by GR. I also must have only been interested in putting ratings on books that I liked because as you can see, these first books reviewed are almost all 4 and 5 star reads.
My, how my review style and my taste in books has changed over the years…
* * * * *
First 10 Books I Ever Reviewed
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS by Sara Gruen (4 STARS)
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen (5 STARS)
THE THIRTEENTH TALE by Diane Setterfield (4 STARS)
THE KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hosseini (5 STARS)
ANGELS & DEMONS by Dan Brown (5 STARS)
THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE by Pat Conroy (5 STARS)
A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS by Khaled Hosseini (5 STARS)
BLEAK HOUSE by Charles Dickens (5 STARS)
ONE FOR THE MONEY by Janet Evanovich (4 STARS)
1ST TO DIE by James Patterson (3 STARS)
* * * * *
What are first books you remember reviewing?
What a wonderfully broad range of books you reviewed, Suzanne:)). I think you should be very proud of the overall quality and breadth of that Top Ten! I started reviewing books for a site I regularly used to visit and found I really enjoyed it. As the reviews started stacking up, I then decided to start my own blog and use one or two of them – it’s got a bit out of hand since then! Needless to say, as it was a science fiction and fantasy site – the books I first reviewed didn’t have a similar wide appeal… Happy reading and reviewing!
As much as I enjoy science fiction and fantasy and have for most of my reading life, I was actually surprised that none of my earliest reviews fell into those categories.
There are a couple I know here, but i must admit, The Thirteenth Tale has me sooo curious thanks to that gorgeous cover! I still forget to update my goodreads (dammit!)
I really liked The Thirteenth Tale. I’d actually like to re-read it at some point even though I don’t usually re-read much.
A lot of 5 stars!!! I didn’t write much on GR when I started out either.
Yeah, I think when I first started out I was only interested in rating/reviewing books I knew I loved.
My first reviews were kept on a Yahoo group called Book-a-Week. I focused on reading books, and I felt like it was reviewed if I wrote even a couple of words. I’m not even sure that Goodreads or Amazon even consider these reviews!
I was struck with how all your early reviews were for very-good-books, but I’m glad you explained the reasons behind that. Otherwise, I think I would have thought you only read great books!
Yeah, it took me a minute as well to realize why they were all so highly rated. I completely forgot that GR had that option where you could scroll through and rate books to improve your recommendations.
Great list! A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Thirteenth Tale are two I’d really like to check out. 🙂
Those were both fantastic. I remember when they first came out, I used to recommend them to pretty much everyone.
Definitely interesting to see some classics up there!
Yeah, surprised me too. I didn’t write much of anything about them either, lol.
I started reviewing books on my blog back in 2011 and out of curiosity I went back to the beginning to see what I had reviewed. It was a weird sensation! I’m more about looking forward than looking back😁
Right? Same here. It was weird to see what I reviewed and what I had to say when I actually bothered to write something down. My, how I’ve changed, lol.
You had a great start, Suzanne!
Thanks!
Oh wow, your reading tastes really do seem to have changed a lot over the years. I love that though. I definitely read different books now due to blogging!
-Lauren
Yeah, I still love to read the classics but I have definitely expanded my reading horizons since I first joined Goodreads back in 2008.
I think it’s great that you’ve reviewed so many classics.
My TTT.
Thanks. I really need to get back to reading more of those. I don’t think I’ve read one since right after I graduated from college.
I love seeing how much my review style has changed over the years! It’s really interesting.
I agree. This week’s topic was a lot of fun for that reason.
I know I reviewed The Last Jihad series… but that wasn’t my first review. I couldn’t even tell you, LOL.
I haven’t read any of these books, but I did read 2 Dan Brown books.
I know. It’s hard to remember that far back. I can barely remember what I reviewed last month, lol.
Love this, Suzanne, and your caveats. I hadn’t thought about that with GR and first joining, but it’s so true. We were looking for book recs! Now we have recs coming out our ears! Wonderful share!
Haha, right? I have more recs than I know what to do with!
Oh I loved these by Khaled Hossaini!
I love his books!
Nice list of books!
Here’s a link to my TTT post for this week: https://captivatedreader.blogspot.com/2019/04/top-ten-tuesday-first-ten-books-i.html
Thanks!
Have you reread any of these books in the last decade?
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
No I haven’t. I’d like to go back and re-read The Thirteenth Tale but so far it hasn’t happened.
I have not read Water For Elephants but I loved the movie!
I still need to watch the movie. I had forgotten all about it.
It’s funny how I really enjoy some of the Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility movie adaptations, but have trouble with the books. And Water for Elephants- after seeing the movie I was really curious about the book, but never did get to it…
I still need to watch the Water for Elephants movie. I had forgotten it was even made into a film.
I was going to go all the way back to my first GR reviews, but I was super inconsistent with reviewing what I read, and they were like thoughts, not really reviews. So many popular books, yet I read none
Yeah, my first “reviews” on there looked like word vomit, lol.
Oh, Janet E… How I loved the Stephanie Plum books back in the day. Great reading memories there!
Visiting from TTT
My TTT: https://edb214.blogspot.com/2019/04/top-ten-tuesday-first-ten-books-i.html
I loved those too. Always such funny reads!
I’ve read and loved a few of these. I can remember Cemetery Girl by David Bell and Briggs.
I don’t think I’ve read that one yet.
Honestly, soo many throwbacks on this! Water for Elephants, ahh! I almost forgot about that one, I don’t know why.
I did too actually until I looked back and saw it on my list, lol.
I loved and adored The Thirteenth Tale. I loved Setterfield’s new book Once Upon a River even more. 💜
I think I read Bleak House three or four times in junior high school. I was a sucker for Dickens. 😀
Same here. They were both such great reads!
I didn’t review it, but Water for Elephants was one of the first books I read when I got back into reading after a couple year break, and I loved it!
I loved it too!