Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books That Will Make You Cry

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday! Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week bloggers post a top ten list related to a specific theme. This week's theme is Top Ten Books That Will Make You Cry. All links lead to GoodReads.

*I can't promise that you will cry in all of these books, but they will all pull at your heartstrings by the end!*

1. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
This book probably won't make everyone cry, but the climax at the end was just so "oh my goodness." Willis did an amazing job of making you care about all of these characters, before horrible things happen.

2. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Although I knew what was going to happen, the book still pulled at my heartstrings.

3. Where She Went by Gayle Forman
I didn't know how this book was going to end, and Forman just knows what to say to get me near tears.

4. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
This book was so funny and lovely, and then so...feelings.

5. The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Peterson
When I read this book as a kid, I didn't know what was going to happen. This book came at me like a wrecking ball to quote Miley Cyrus.

6. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
I remember reading this book in grade school and being heartbroken by the end.

7. Feed by Mira Grant
I wasn't expecting the book to end the way it did. Grant knows how to toy with me!

8. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
I can't even begin to imagine what it was like to live in an attic for several years.

9. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
I couldn't decide whether to put The Color Purple or Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl here. They are both horribly sad books but there is hope in both.

10. Charlotte's Web by EB White
I had to pick this other classic from my childhood.

January Wrap Up

I decided that this year I wanted to track how I did in the world of reading each month. I am still working with the template, but this is what this monthly wrap-up post will look like each month. I want to share with you fun links, what I read in the last month, and how I am doing in terms of my read-a-thon goals.

Some of My Favorite Bookish Links that I Shared on Twitter in January

12 Incredibly Strange Underground Realms from Science Fiction 

Here's What Your Favorite Children's Book Series Says About You 

The first Outlander trailer is all epic battles (with a hint of sex) 

A Pride and Prejudice Engagement 

If you wrote Lemony Snicket fanmail, you'd receive a reply in code 

Disney appoints a group to determine a new, official Star Wars canon 

11 Incredible Bookcases For People Who Really, Really Love Their Books 

19 Quirky Conundrums Only Book Lovers Understand 

21 Cats Who Are Secretly Excellent Readers 

17 Book-Inspired Accessories You’ll Want Immediately 

16 Quotes That Will Make You Want To Cuddle Up With A Book 

All library audiobooks going to DRM-free MP3s 

12 Fascinating Facts About Famous Literature 

Jo Walton explains why series aren't numbered on the covers! 

23 Epic Literary Love Tattoos 

Break In a Hardcover Book (Without Ruining the Spine) 

Book changes temperature or vibrates, depending on the plot 

16 Major Advantages Of Being A Book Lover 

Read This Month 
The Creature Department by Robert Paul Weston

Dark Talisman by Steven M Booth

Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber

The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R Delany

A Study in Ashes by Emma Jane Holloway

Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

Hang Wire by Adam Christopher
Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

Annual Challenges

Double Trouble Challenge - Twin Reading Challenge: 5 for Review vs. 4 from Personal TBR
I am quite impressed with how close I am on this challenge! I thought I would have thought that I would have read way more review books than personal books already.

Jane Austen Challenge: - 0/6

I am not worried about this, because I don't need to have my first book read for this challenge until the end of February.

2014 Series Challenge!: - 1/3

I am caught up with the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series. I would like to catch up on some series that I am farther behind on though.

2014 Audiobook Challenge: 4/12

Review Pile Reading Challenge: 5/24

2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge: 4/50

2014 GoodReads Challenge: 9/100

Sunday Update!

This has been a pretty decent week all around. I am trucking along with my reading, and I am very excited about some of the books coming up on my immediate TBR list. I had my first DNF, since I started book blogging regularly (review will be on Wednesday). I was going to push through and finish the book, but then I decided that it was not worth it, and I should only be reading books that I want to read. Unfortunately, it was a review book that I didn't like, but that is how it goes sometimes. 

I am doing a pretty good job on scheduling my posts in advance and writing reviews within 72 hours of finishing a book. I am noticing that blogging is becoming less stressful than it was a few months ago. I am also enjoying not being permanently attached to my computer. I changed my comment system yet again. I really liked Disqus, but there were a few big problems that I couldn't overlook. The big problem is that if a person is using a program like AVAST that blocks social media plugins, a person will not see Disqus. When I move to WordPress later this year, I will use a different commenting system, but in the mean time, I will use IntenseDebate.

Book Haul  

From the Library

I picked up Joyland by Stephen King at the library today. I am not sure if I am going to read it, but it was just sitting on a display begging for me to pick it up.

Bought

I just finished Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken, and I needed more in this series. I decided to pick up In Time by Alexandra Bracken, which takes places in between The Darkest Minds and Never Fade. I picked up the first book for $0.99 and I borrowed the second book from the library, but I decided to spend $1.99 on a <90 page novella. You know how cheap I am, so you can see how much I love this series.

Currently Reading 

A Dance with Dragons by GRR Martin: At 20 minutes per day, I should be done with this book in 2016. :) I am still enjoying it though.

Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen: I love the movie and television versions of this story, so I am so excited to finally jump into the source document. I am enjoying it so far.

Read This Week 

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken

Sense & Sensibility Links & Reminder

In one month, it will be time for everyone to post their comments and reviews of Sense & Sensibility for the 2014 Jane Austen Challenge! I will post my review of Sense & Sensibility on February 28th, and there will be a linky for your posts. 

In order to inspire folks and to get you excited about the book, if you haven't read it yet (like me!), I have found some great book-related links.  I was surprised how little I found when I did a scan of the Internet about Sense & Sensibility. I am guessing I am going to find tons of information about Pride & Prejudice, because it is the most popular of Austen's books.

Enjoy the links and then get reading! :)

Need to Read Sense & Sensibility?

Scanned copy of the original Sense & Sensibility

Free e-book copy of Sense & Sensibility

Free audio book of Sense & Sensibility

Need an adaptation or more stories in the world of Sense & Sensibility?

A musical version of Sense & Sensibility

Movie adaptations of Sense & Sensibility 
I didn't realize that From Prada to Nada was an adaptation of Sense & Sensibility!

Sense & Sensibility fan fiction

Need more information about Sense & Sensibility?

Map of all of the places in Sense & Sensibility

Penguin reading guide  

Wikipedia Sense & Sensibility page

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Thoughtful Thursday: Perfect Marriage between Book Type & Format?

It is time for Thoughtful Thursday and the bookish questions that pop up while I am reading. Please share your thoughts on the bookish question of the week. I am curious to hear what you have to say! There are no wrong answers. Questions about Thoughtful Thursday or future Thoughtful Thursday posts? Check out my Thoughtful Thursday section. Alright, on to the question!

Does the type of book (e.g., genre, demographic, page length) inspire you to read the book in a particular format (e.g., audio book, paperback, hardcover, e-book)?

I have noticed over the last couple of months that I seem to have a preference for different book formats based on the type of book that I am reading. If a book is quite long (~1000 pages), I prefer to listen to the audio book version of the book rather than read the book. For some reason, a 40-hour book seems more manageable to me than an 800-page book. Even though it is faster for me to read the book than listen, I will chose the audio book (assuming that the reader is good). I have been doing the audio books for the Song of Ice and Fire series, and I think I am enjoying it more having Roy Dotrice read the books to me than me reading the book by myself.

I prefer to read e-books, because my kindle is light weight. If I do decide to read a physical book, I prefer a hardcover (if it is over 400 pages) or a softcover (if it is under 400 pages). I found this preference baffling at first, but then I realized that this is due to book bindings. I find hardcovers help hold the book together when there are a lot of pages. When there are less than 400 pages, the softcover works well enough to hold the book together. I hate it when you see large books squeezed into mass paperbacks with horrible bindings and all of the pages start falling out when you get halfway through the book. When I read Gone with the Wind years ago, I would peel each page out of the book after I read it, because the book feel apart halfway through it. If the book is a romance, thriller, or something more action-packed "beach read," however, then I want a mass market paperback. Usually books like this are the right length for a mass market paperback, and I don't have the book binding problem. 

As an aside, I prefer to read galleys/ARCs as physical books. This is because I find the e-book ARCs to have weird formatting issues fairly often.

Okay, now that I have told you some of my crazy book habits, I want to hear yours.

Now it is your turn! Does the type of book (e.g., genre, demographic, page length) inspire you to read the book in a particular format (e.g., audio book, paperback, hardcover, e-book)?

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Test Post

This is just a test to see if I installed IntenseDebate correctly.

Bloggiesta Wrap Up

Bloggiesta was a lot of fun. I wish I had more time, but I ended up having to do errands on Saturday. It was really nice to have an excuse to just work on the blog. I will have lots of commenting to do over the next few days, but it was worth it. 

I was only able to do the one basic challenge, but I have saved the other challenges and I plan to work on them later. The image map challenge is so amazing. I can't wait to try it out for the next Sunday Update.

My To Do List

•  Research web hosts --> Any suggestions??? 

I have researched a few web hosts, and I have narrowed down the list. Now, I need to do some research on the next step of the self-hosting process.

• Write four Thoughtful Thursday posts

This didn't happen. I wish I had more time on Saturday to work on this.

• Write eight Top Ten Tuesday posts

I am so happy that I got eight of these posts done! I really enjoy this meme, but it takes so much time with getting links and pictures. Writing a stack of these at the same time saves so much time.

• Organize sidebar better 
• Maybe move annual challenges to its own page?
• Maybe get rid of the archive and just keep the keywords?
• Have all of my social media buttons uniform (Bloglovin' I am looking at you!) 

I moved some things around on my sidebar. I didn't get rid of anything, but I like the layout a bit better. Also, I updated my social media icons a bit. Bloglovin' matches and I have pop up text for the icons when you hoover over them.

• Update pages
• Explain my rating system
• Update my About Me page
• Begin making a page linking to all reviews
• Create a page with favorite posts

I didn't get to any of this either. I have ideas of what I want to do, and I will slowly be working on this over the next month.

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