Top Ten Tuesday: Guys I Would Crush On If I Were A Heroine

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is about characters we'd crush on if we were fictional characters. Even though I've always wanted to be very clever and sensible in my love relationships, I must confess that for a very long time I used to closely resemble Marianne Dashwood in this regard.

I was not only hyper-romantic but also mega naive; hence, I trusted in many a man who were charming and loved by everybody but who turned out to be such a disappointment to me. Hence, I'm sure that even if I were a fictional character, I would have a crush on some bad boys. At the same time, I hope that, after one or more of those bad boys would have broken my heart, I would have the good fortune to meet at least one of the good guys, one who would really be worthy of my attention and feelings. :-D For all these reasons, it should come as no surprise that my Top Ten List today doesn't consist of positive characters only...

Top Ten Tuesday: Books at the Top of My Spring 2013 TBR List

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is about books that we'd like to read this spring. Some days ago I finished Tom Jones by Henry Fielding at last. Even though it's one of my favourite classics, it's a chunkster and a rather difficult read, especially if you're a non-native English speaker. Thus, it took me a long time to finish it. But now I'm done reading it and can devote myself to reading other books.

This year, I finished five classics from my Classics Club list and am going to read five or six more. But, I also want to read some contemporary fictions—adult and young adult. The Top Ten Books at the Top of My Spring 2013 TBR Pile reflect these plans:

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

Pauline, Petrova and Posy are orphans determined to help out their new family by joining the Children's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training. But when they vow to make a name for themselves, they have no idea it's going to be such hard work! They launch themselves into the world of show business, complete with working papers, the glare of the spotlight, and practice, practice, practice! Pauline is destined for the movies. Posy is a born dancer. But practical Petrova finds she'd rather pilot a plane than perform a pirouette. Each girl must find the courage to follow her dream. (Source: Goodreads)

My Thoughts
To be honest, even though I spent my childhood and young adulthood with reading children’s classics, I had never heard of Noel Streatfield until I saw the movie You’ve Got Mail (1998), by which time I had attained full age already. Nevertheless, Meg Ryan’s enthusing about Streatfield’s Ballet Shoes made me want to read it, but somehow life prevented me from reading it. Several years later, a good friend of mine presented me with this book, but I still wasn’t able to read it, because I was writing on my doctoral thesis at that time. But last year, upon joining the Classics Club, I decided that this novel will be among the first classics, which had been sitting on my shelf unread, that I will read for the Classics Club challenge. I had been looking forward to reading it for so long, and was so sure that I will love it. But I didn't. I am very sorry to admit that this book was really disappointing.

Top Ten Tuesday: Series I'd Like To Start But Haven't Yet

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is about series that we'd like to start but haven’t yet. I love good series and there are many I’ve read, but there also are many I haven’t read yet. Some series I haven’t and didn’t want to read because everybody else wanted to read them. I used to be afraid of reading books that are too popular. I am a non-conformist at heart, which also entails that I like to discover and read books that most people never heard of. But this year, I decided to become more open minded, which is why I am going to read some series that I abandoned before. There are also some series that I’ve been looking forward to read for ages but simply haven’t had the time yet. I hope that in the next two years I will be able to start and finish those too.

So, here are the Top Ten Series I’d Like To Start But Haven’t Yet:

Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

The popular story of orphaned Pollyanna and the 'glad game'. As soon as Pollyanna arrives in Beldingsville to live with her strict and dutiful maiden aunt, she begins to brighten up everybody's life. The 'glad game' she plays, of finding a silver lining in every cloud, transforms the sick, the lonely and the plain miserable - until one day something so terrible happens that even Pollyanna doesn't know how to feel glad about it. (Source: Goodreads)

My Thoughts
This was the second time that I'd read this book and I enjoyed it. I re-read it for my Classics Club challenge but also because this is the book that the Kindred Spirits book club on Goodreads, which I am member of, was reading in February. The Kindred Spirits decided to read this book, because there seem to be many similarities between the plot of L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables and that of Eleanor H. Porter's Pollyanna.

As Pollyanna wasn't an undiscovered terrain for me, I knew what to expect. But this time, I wanted to read it also for the sake of drawing a comparison between the two above-mentioned novels. This is why I'm laying the emphasis of my review on the differences and similarities between Anne of Green Gables and Pollyanna.

The next part of the review may contain spoilers; so, proceed with caution!

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors That I'd Put On My Auto-Buy List

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is about authors that we'd put on our auto-buy lists. In other words, we should compile a list of authors that we love so much that no matter what they wrote next we'd buy it regardless of genre or subject matter. Regrettably, most authors that I love THAT much are dead by now. So, there is only a slim chance that they write a new book. :-D Nevertheless, I have had to include some of those on my list, because they're very dear to my heart, and I couldn't sleep well, if I wouldn't mention them. :-D But I restricted myself to put only five authors on my list who are walking across the Elysian Fields by now. The remaining five authors mentioned on my list are still alive, and even though only time will tell whether they make it big, I've loved a book or two by them that much that I'm planning to buy and read other books by them too.

So, here are the Top Ten Authors (dead and living) That I'd Put On My Auto-Buy List:

The Classics Club: Check-In #2

It's been a very cold winter with lots of snow and blizzards. Do you see what the girl's doing on the painting by Briton Rivière? This is pretty much how I spent those long winter days. No, my dog wasn't a naughty boy and I didn't force him to read. However, I spent even the moments when I was reading with him; I was holding him in my arms while I was reading. I did so because, as I mentioned in an earlier post, my dog had some major health issues over last autumn and this winter and underwent a surgery. But now, it seems that spring is approaching. Our garden is full of singing birds, the first snowdrops are popping up at last, and my beautiful Vizsla is feeling much better. Also, the Classics Club emerged from hibernation and asked us to check in again. In other words, they ask us to write a progress report. :-D So, here is mine.

Naughty Boy or Compulsory Education
by Briton Rivière
© The Bridgeman Art Library

Past: I joined the Club at the beginning of September 2013 and since then I have read two classics from my list of 50: Fadette by George Sand and The Danube Pilot by Jules Verne. I was also able to share my thoughts on the former; my review of the letter is still a draft, but coming soon... Since I wasn't happy with my progress, I decided to give up my original idea of reading the books on my list in chronological order. Instead, I read the books in an almost random order. I'm saying "almost," because I broke up my list into five smaller lists consisting of ten classics each. That is to say, I put ten classics each onto my TBR lists for the next five years and each year, I plan to read approximately the same amount of pages. So, I tried to distribute my reading load equally over the five years. I didn't want to end up in the last year with chunksters only and I also wanted to spare time for other kind of books. I also made myself a reading schedule for this year's chunkster, which is The History of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding.

Present: Currently, I am reading three classics—Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter, Ballet Shoes by Noel Straitfeild, and The History of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding—concurrently, and I'm sticking to my reading schedule. So, I'm very happy. According to my plans, I will have finished the former two by the end of this month and the third one in three weeks.

Future: My spring TBR list is full with classics and what I'm particularly happy about is that I will spend my favourite season reading Jane Austen. I have four novels by Jane Austen on my list: Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Mansfield Park. They are not completely new to me; they are re-reads. Nevertheless, I'm sure that I will be surprised, because in my experience one always gains new insights upon re-reading a book. I also hope that I will like the latter three more than the first time I read them. But, before I am allowed to immerse myself in Austen, I have to read The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I didn't plan to read it this year, but the Classics Spin game "forced" me into reading it, and I don't mind. Though I'm afraid that Austen will need all her magical power to heal my heart afterwards...

So, that has been my progress so far. And, how are you doing? Are you on schedule? I hope you didn't give up completely! My tip: try to find a schedule that suits you and stick to it! It has worked for me; it will work for you!