Top Ten Tuesday (#3)

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish, where the writers, like me, are particularly fond of lists.
This week's topic is... Top Ten Books I Thought I'd Like More/Less Than I Did.







1. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
I underestimated this series a little bit, because I was wary about the hype that it had got, and thought it couldn't live up to it. However, it completely did, and while I think the final book - Mockingbird - isn't a patch on The Hunger Games or Catching Fire, the series overall is still great.

2. The Host by Stephanie Meyer
While I enjoyed the Twilight books, I thought they were pretty shoddily written, so I didn't have high hopes for The Host. I was completely wrong - The Host was a tighter story, much better written, with more interesting characters.

3. Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
I'm not one for massive fantasy worlds, but having seen the programme, I decided to pick up the books, and fell completely in love with Martin's creation, which I didn't expect to.

4. Fire Spell by Laura Amy Schlitz
I've just finished Fire Spell, and found myself disappointed when I got to the end. I expected to enjoy it much more than I did, but there was just something missing for me. 

5. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
I'm not sure what I expected from The Fault in Our Stars, apart from the fact that I didn't expect to completely fall for this charming, beautiful novel. 

6. The Tattooed Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
I thought this novel about a reclusive author hiring an assistant sounded really interesting, but after struggling for days and only getting five pages in, I gave this up.

7. Nightwood by Djuna Barnes
This was a book I read as part of my university course, and is much loved by critics the world over. Not me. Nightwood is quite possibly the worst book I've ever read.

8. The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
I'd heard great things about Donna Tartt's work, so was really looking forward to The Little Friend. While I finished it, it was a real battle and it almost put me off reading A Secret History, which is actually a brilliant novel. 

9. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Ok, people are going to hate me for putting this on the list, since it's a complete classic. I didn't not like it, it was just that I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. 

10. Nineteen-Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Another classic that people will look at me in a funny way for because I've put it on my list. Again, I didn't not like it, it just wasn't as amazing as I'd been led to believe. I thought the first two thirds were pretty tough going because I was quite bored. However, credit to Orwell, it really picked up in the last third. While I liked it less than I thought I would, I would like to revisit it at some point to see if I can get more from it.