Category: Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Halloween Books Little Jana Loved

Posted October 28, 2024 by Jana in About Me, Top Ten Tuesday / 19 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! Can you believe Halloween is this week?? I sure can’t! This week’s topic is a freebie, and I’ve chosen to think back to when I was a kid and loved the magic of Halloween. I loved coming up with costumes, school parties, and trick-or-treating so much. I still love many aspects of Halloween like atmospheric/spooky reads, candy, pumpkins, black cats, ghosts, and cute kids in costumes, but Halloween is now a cozy night in watching Arsenic and Old Lace under my fall-themed Snoopy blanket with a bag of my favorite candy next to me instead of going out and being a part of the festivities. So here are the Halloween books I loved as a kid, some of which I also loved reading my classes when I taught elementary school.

1. Popcorn by Frank Asch
2. Trick or Treat, Little Critter by Gina Mayer and Mercer Mayer
3. The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams
4. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz and Kara McMahon (Adapter)
5. The Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat by Stan Berenstain and Jan Berenstain

6. Clifford’s Halloween by Norman Bridwell
7. Franklin’s Halloween by Paulette Bourgeois
8. Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman
9. Clifford’s First Halloween by Norman Bridwell (I really loved Clifford!)
10. Sherlock Chick and the Case of the Night Noises by Robert M. Quackenbush (This is not Halloween-themed, but it was spooky for little Jana!)

It was so much fun strolling down memory lane and coming up with this list today. I always feel so nostalgic this time of year!
Did you love any of these as a kid?

I hope you have a happy Halloween!

Top Ten Ways My Reading Habits Have Changed Over Time

Posted October 21, 2024 by Jana in About Me, Top Ten Tuesday / 20 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic was submitted by Lydia @ lydiaschoch.com and is “How My Reading Habits Have Changed Over Time”. I love this topic! It’s always fun to look back and see how we’ve grown and changed. I decided to think all the way back to the year I started blogging: 2011–two years after I graduated college. My reading habits and tastes have changed a lot since that time, but here are the ten biggest changes!

1. I used to read YA exclusively, but not anymore! I read maybe one YA title a year now.

2. I could not make audiobooks work for me back then. I tried, but I could not pay attention and I really didn’t like most of the narrators. Now I’ve found my audiobook niche and my favorite narrators, so I listen to them all the time now!

3. I DNF more. Not finishing a book wasn’t even a thing I thought about, most likely because I was still fresh off my years of required reading from high school and college and DNFing meant getting a bad grade. I’ve embraced the DNF and my reading life is better for it.

4. I prioritize the books I want to read, rather than saving them for the opportune moment. I’m a mood reader, and I’ve accepted that! I no longer read from a schedule, and I no longer save books as incentives for getting things done or for specific trips. I read when I want, because I never know when I’ll want to read that book again anyway. lol.

5. I read WAY more historical romance and historical fiction than I used to! I’ve always liked it, but now it’s my favorite. Maybe the turmoil in today’s world has me wanting to escape to the past?

6. I read a lot of indie titles now! I used to go for the big publishers only, but I love seeking out lesser-known titles and authors now.

7. Maybe the market is just more saturated, but closed-door romances are in abundance right now and I love them! I love all romance, but sometimes I’m not in the mood for spice.

8. I rarely read physical copies anymore. My eyes just aren’t what they used to be, and after two surgeries I’m no longer in danger of losing my vision but a lot of damage was done from my degenerative eye disease. So I exclusively read on a Kindle! I love owning physical copies of my favorite books, though. I call it my “apocalypse collection” in case my Kindle ever dies. LOL. I have a magnifying glass, too! Just in case!

9. I don’t read as many books as I used to. I have a lot of new hobbies that I didn’t have back then, namely crochet and cross stitch and Switch games, so I don’t have as much time.

10. I re-read now! I always thought there wasn’t enough time to get my TBR under control if I re-read any books, but now I love re-visiting favorites!

How have your reading habits changed over the years?
Can you identify with any of my changes?

Top Ten Tuesday Link-up: October 15, 2024

Posted October 14, 2024 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 8 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is Books I Was Assigned to Read in School. These can be books you loved or hated. Or just tolerated. Bonus points if you share some of your thoughts on the titles!

I won’t be posting a list this week, as I’m not feeling well, but here’s the link-up for you! I’ll be back next week!

Please share with me a title or two of a required read that stuck with you, for good or bad.
How do you feel about required reading in school?

 

Top Ten Bookish Brags & Confessions

Posted October 7, 2024 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 13 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is Bookish Brags (or Confessions!), submitted by Lydia! What are you proud of or… not-so proud of in your bookish life? I’m going to do five of each. I can’t wait to come see what you’ve got to say!

Bookish Brags

I struggle with bragging about myself, so I am purposely not naming books or authors here because that just feels too braggy. lol.

1. I was a subject matter expert for a novel written by an internationally best selling author. We spoke on the phone! I’m listed by name in the acknowledgments and one main idea I posed made it on the page. Major bucket list item achieved!

2. I’ve got a blurb on the front page of another book!

3. Publisher’s Weekly linked to my blog in one of their articles!

4. I was in a signing line at ALA for a book that everyone was excited about. I had never met this author before and when I made it to the front of the line to meet her, she read my name badge, screamed my name, jumped up, and ran over to hug me. Everyone looked at me trying to figure out who I was. lol.

5. I was personally thanked for being so supportive in another author’s acknowledgements section. It made me cry!

Bookish Confessions

6. As a baby blogger I downloaded WAY too many books for review on Netgalley and it’s going to take me the rest of my life to raise my ratio to the recommended 80% of books reviewed.

7. I hate hurting feelings, so if I DNF a book or if end up not liking it I won’t write back to the author who requested I review it. I also won’t post a review. I will quietly share my thoughts on Goodreads for my personal records and that’s it. Sometimes I worry that authors think I’m ghosting them or that I accepted a free book and just never read it, but that’s not true! I just really don’t want to make anyone sad!

8. I have thrown a book in the trash before. I will never say what book or why, but the book deserved it and I’m not sorry.

9. I dog-ear pages in my books and I LOVE it because then when I re-read them I’m reminded of where I left off before.

10. I don’t care for A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. As much as I love Christmas, I really don’t like this story and all the movie adaptations.

Share a bookish brag or confession of yours with me!
Do you identify with any of mine?

Books I Read Because of the Hype

Posted September 30, 2024 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 15 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! And happy October!! This week’s topic is: Books I Read/Avoided Because of the Hype (and did you make the right choice?). Hyped books usually go one of two ways for me: I either love it or I hate it.  Sometimes a synopsis sounds too good and the hype is so huge that I fear missing out on what everyone’s talking about and eventually give in. And sometimes I seriously don’t care. But I’m focusing this week on the books I read!

1. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (SO worth the hype.)
2. The Ravenels series by Lisa Kleypas (This is cheating since there are 7 books but oh well. Extremely worth the hype. My favorite of the series, Hello Stranger, is pictured.)
3. The Hating Game by Sally Thorne (I loved this at the time, but I don’t know if I still would now because I’ve had a major falling out with enemies to lovers.)
4. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (This was so far off my radar until the book review world went bonkers. I begged the publicist for an ARC and she sent it, and it was amazing. I suppose I was part of the hype for this one!)
5. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (I saw the cover and thought no way. The title? Too cheesy. I wasn’t into YA contemporary romance at all. But I finally gave it and I LOVED it. And it changed my reading tastes forever!)
6. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (I thought the idea of teens killing each other while the entire world watched like it was a reality TV show made me sick, but I got way too curious. Loved it.)
7. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (I hate crying. I hate death. This one hurt me a lot, but it was beautiful.)
8. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (I LOVED IT. And it got me reading for fun!)
9. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (I read this for the first time in 2014… and honestly, it was required reading for one of my classes in grad school so I guess I’m cheating here. lol. It was a cute story, but I have never had even an inkling of interest in continuing the series or watching the movies or falling into the fandom.)
10. Roomies by Christina Lauren (I read this for the authors, actually, and not the book itself. I’d been hearing about their books for so long! I love them!!)

Did you fall for the hype with any of these, too?
What’s one hyped book you thought was really worth the hype?