Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Series I Have Yet To Finish:

I'm really going to have trouble with this weeks topic, because I don't really read that many series, and if I do, I tend to finish them. I actually don't think I could make a list of 10 series I have read...With that in mind I'm going to have to change up the prompt to have anything to write about this week, so here's my...

Top Five Books I Have Yet To Finish:

1) Titus Groan (oh hey that actually is from a series!) - Mervyn Peake. I started reading this a few weeks ago and got about half way through before I put it down for a few days, after that I started a couple of new books and I just haven't got back into it yet.

2) The Complete Marquis De Sade, Vol.1 - Marquis De Sade, Paul J. Gillette. I bought this from Amazon after picking up an Angela Carter non-fiction at a charity shop called The Sadien Woman, where she discusses Sade's work. I bought the book more so to read and understand the criticism and theories on his work and understood that it was, shall we say, not for the light hearted? So I recommend neither of these titles if you are under 18, as they both contain mature content.

3) Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks. I mentioned this in my mini-haul last week and haven't started it yet, though I'm excited to!

4) White Oleander - Janet Fitch. Same reason as the above!

5) Superman: Man Of Steel - John Byrne, Marv Wolfman, Jerry Ordway and Karl Kesel. A graphic novel, not a book, but I'll include it anyway! I'm a big Superman fan, he's my second favourite Superhero, not much to say about this really, other than I'm reading it currently. 

Maybe some of you should recommend me some series so that I don't get stuck like this again...

Mini Charity Shop Haul

Charity shops are such a good way of buying new books, actually, second hand books in general - whether it's from a shop, eBay, Amazon sellers or Play-trade - I just love a good book bargain. This week I went to Annan, which is in south west Scotland, and not too far from where I live. There's quite a lot of good charity shops in the area, but I only bought from one this time (it doesn't have a name! but if you know the area it's the one by the Corner House), Plus, books in that particular shop were 3 for £1 that day so it was a total bargain, I saved myself over £16! I picked up:

White Oleander - Janet Fitch

I'm not sure from where - it could have been from a review I've read recently, but I recognized this title when I saw it and it looked quite interesting. Amazon says "White Oleander is a painfully beautiful first novel about a young girl growing up the hard way. It is a powerful story of mothers and daughters, their ambiguous alliances, their selfish love and cruel behaviour, and the search for love and identity.Astrid has been raised by her mother, a beautiful, headstrong poet. Astrid forgives her everything as her world revolves around this beautiful creature until Ingrid murders a former lover and is imprisoned for life. Astrid's fierce determination to survive and be loved makes her an unforgettable figure."

The Reader - Bernhard Schlink

I saw the film adaptation on The Reader last year on TV and loved it, such a great story, and Kate Winslet - Bonus. Amazon Says "For 15-year-old Michael Berg, a chance meeting with an older woman leads to far more than he ever imagined. The woman in question is Hanna, and before long they embark on a passionate, clandestine love affair which leaves Michael both euphoric and confused. For Hanna is not all she seems. Years later, as a law student observing a trial in Germany, Michael is shocked to realize that the person in the dock is Hanna. The woman he had loved is a criminal. Much about her behaviour during the trial does not make sense. But then suddenly, and terribly, it does - Hanna is not only obliged to answer for a horrible crime, she is also desperately concealing an even deeper secret."

Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

I never really buy war novels, but this is the first time I've bought books in ages and I managed to come home with two! Birdsong was adapted into an ITV drama earlier this year and I was gutted to have missed it because it looked brilliant (I adore ITV drama's, they are the bees knees.) So I was so pleased to see this on the stacks! Amazon says "Set before and during the great war, Birdsong captures the drama of that era on both a national and a personal scale. It is the story of Stephen, a young Englishman, who arrives in Amiens in 1910. Over the course of the novel he suffers a series of traumatic experiences, from the clandestine love affair that tears apart the family with whom he lives, to the unprecedented experiences of the war itself."

I can't wait to start reading these books, have you read any of them? What did you think? And any other titles by the authors I should pick up?