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 Characters I liked That Were In Non-Favorite/Disliked Books.  I completely blanked out when it came to books that I didn’t like so I decided to flip the topic and do Top 10 Characters I Hate in Books I Love.

 

Top 10 Characters I Hate in Books That I Love

 

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 1. DOLORES UMBRIDGE from HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

 

What a horrible, horrible woman.  I loathed her just as much as I loathed Lord Voldemort, especially after the awful things she did to Harry when he had detention.

 

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2. MISS TRUNCHBULL from MATILDA

 

This lady could be Umbridge’s evil sister.  She’s just plain evil, clearly hates children, and has no business being the headmistress of a school.

 

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3. PRINCESS SOPHIA from THE BELLES

 

I just finished this book last week and couldn’t get over how awful Princess Sophia was.  She’s cruel and sadistic, using the Belle’s powers to make those she doesn’t like ugly and deformed.  When she forced a Belle to transform a woman’s nose into a pig snout, I was beyond done with Sophia.

 

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4. JOFFREY BARATHEON from A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE series

 

Is there anymore of an ass in literature than Joffrey?  He’s’ nasty, spoiled rotten, and I’m pretty sure he never had a single redeeming moment throughout the entire series.  When he finally got what was coming to him, I could have danced for joy.

 

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5. GEORGE WICKHAM from PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

 

Wickham almost had me fooled in the beginning of this novel since he was just so much nicer and more charming than Darcy.  Funny how things quickly changed though and Darcy became my favorite, while I thought of Wickham as little more than a rogue.

 

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6. DRACO MALFOY from the HARRY POTTER series

 

I guess I probably had a few moments in this series where I didn’t want to throttle Draco, but those moments were few and far between.  For the most part, Draco was an arrogant little jerk and I cheered when Hermione punched him in the face in one of the books.

 

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7. THE WHITE WITCH from THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE

 

What a cold and calculating woman!  I mean, seriously, what kind of person uses their power to stop Christmas from coming?  She’s like a more attractive version of The Grinch.

 

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8. PRESIDENT SNOW & PRESIDENT COIN in THE HUNGER GAMES series

 

Yep, a two-fer here. I totally hated both of these characters, Snow for perpetuating the Hunger Games so that he could stay in power and Coin because she tricked me into thinking she was the good guy and I don’t like to be tricked.  They’re both just rotten leaders who sees the citizens as expendable as long as it furthers their agenda.

 

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9. AMY DUNNE from GONE GIRL

 

Amy Dunne was so unlikable and manipulative that even though I enjoyed Gone Girl, I got to the point where I just didn’t care what happened to her.  It was just disturbing to follow her. I think she was an actual psychopath.

 

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10. JOHN WILLOUGHBY from SENSE AND SENSIBILITY

 

In many ways, John Willoughby reminds me of Henry Wickham from Pride and Prejudice.  When we first meet him, he is charming and very handsome, sure to win all the ladies’ hearts and the reader’s.  And then we find out he’s a philandering pig; the charming good guy routine is just an act.

 

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Question:  Who are some characters you hate in books that you otherwise love?

 

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 Books I’ve Decided I’m No Longer Interested In Reading.  I tweaked this topic a bit because even after I made a list of ten books I was pretty sure I no longer wanted to read, I still kept rethinking my decision.  (In case you haven’t heard, we Libras can be an indecisive bunch, haha!).  I could, however, pretty easily come up with 10 series that I’m not interested in continuing (or in some cases, even starting) at this point.

 

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Top Ten Book Series I’ve Decided to Quit

 

• FIFTY SHADES by E.L. James – In this case, it’s not so much quitting a series as it is deciding not to even start it.  I bought a copy of the first book back in my pre-blogging days when the hype was so high for this series.  Everyone I knew was telling me I needed to read it.  The more I heard about it, the less interested I was until I finally sold the book the last time we had a yard sale, lol.

 

• OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon – I liked the first book in this series well enough, but I started reading the series right about the time I got completely burnt out on reading romance so the chrmistry of Claire and Jamie just didn’t do much for me.  I do keep this one in the back of my mind in case I ever do get solidly back into reading romance.

 

• THE NEOPOLITAN NOVELS by Elena Ferrante – My Brilliant Friend, the first book in this series, was actually one of my most anticipated reads for 2016.  With its post-war Italian setting and its focus on the friendship of two school-age girls, I thought it just sounded like such a wonderful read.  Unfortunately, it took me nearly 3 weeks to slog through the first 40% of the book and I completely lost interest in finishing it or in continuing the series.

 

• STEPHANIE PLUM by Janet Evanovich – I think with this series, it’s a case of too much of a good thing.  I actually really love the series and all of the characters, but I got as far as book 12 and just had no interest in continuing because at a certain point, the books all start to sound the same. I could see myself revisiting this at some point, but for now, we’re on a break.

 

• SOOKIE STACKHOUSE by Charlaine Harris  – Another good series that I just lost interest in because it started to get too predictable.  I noticed that I was starting to rate each book lower and lower so I decided it was time to stop reading.

 

• THE MAZE RUNNER by James Dashner – Up until recently, I was pretty excited about starting this series sometime soon, but now I’m just not feeling it.

 

• THE WOLVES OF MERCY FALLS by Maggie Stiefvater – I’m not entirely sure why this series is no longer of interest.  I think maybe because I had such a mixed reaction to All the Crooked Saints, which was my first Stiefvater read.  I’m still interested in reading The Raven Cycle so maybe if I like that one, I’ll reconsider this one, but for now, it’s coming off my list.

 

• RED QUEEN by Victoria Aveyard – I spent so much time yelling at Mare when I read the first two books of this series.  I know I’m the unpopular opinion when it comes to this series, but I just don’t think I can take a third book of her trying to decide what’s more important, boys or saving her people…

 

• MISS PEREGRINE’S PECULIAR CHILDREN – I read the first book and thought it was pretty good, but then just lost interest in continuing with the second book.  My sister read the second book recently and said she thought it was a disappointing read even though she loved the first book.  She and I have similar taste so my gut says not to continue.

 

• GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by Stieg Larsson and now David Lagercrantz – I read and loved all of the books in this series that were written by the original author, Stieg Larsson.  When he passed away and David Lagercrantz took over the writing duties, I decided I wasn’t interested in continuing the series.  It just didn’t feel right to have a different author at the helm of Lisbeth’s story.

Question:  Do you think I should give any of these series a second chance?  What series have you decided to quit?

 

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 Books That Have Been On My TBR the Longest and I Still Haven’t Read.  I’m a little embarrassed to say that all of these books were added to my Goodreads ‘Want to Read’ shelf back in 2012 and I still haven’t touched any of them.  There’s something about each of them though that still appeals to me, so even when I do occasionally go in and purge, these books still remain.  Considering they’ve been sitting there for six years, it seems doubtful that I’ll ever actually make the time for them, but we’ll see.  Maybe 2018 is finally the year…

 

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Top 10 Books That Have Been On My TBR the Longest and I Still Haven’t Read

 

NECESSARY LIES by Diane Chamberlain

PRODIGAL SUMMER by Barbara Kingsolver

SHADOW OF THE WIND by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST by Anne Tyler

OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham

INFERNO by Dante Alighieri

BURIAL RITES by Hannah Kent

THE STREET SWEEPER by Elliot Perlman

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO by Boris Pasternak

SOPHIE’S CHOICE by William Styron

Question:  What books have been on your TBR the longest?