Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
The rules are simple:
- Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
- Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to The Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
- Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists.
- Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment on her weekly post.
This week – January 31, 2023 – the topic is: Freebie.
That means I can do any type of top ten list I want. So, without any further ado, I give you…
Top ten books I read and loved, but never reviewed!
10 – Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving. While everyone was raving about “The World According to Garp,” I decided to try this instead. While there are some less than pleasant bits in this book there are parts I’ll never forget. “Keep passing open windows.”
9 – The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler. This was one of those books that became wildly popular when it was released, and I guess we bought into the hype – which wasn’t hype at all for me; I fell in love!
8 – Howard’s End by E.M Forster. (I keep thinking I read “Remains of the Day” as well, but I don’t see it on my shelf or on my Goodreads list, so maybe I only saw the movie.)
7 – The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles. The movie of this was almost good, but not good enough to do full justice to this novel. I also went to a dramatic reading of his book “The Collector” but never read it myself.
6 – ANY and ALL of the Jane Austen novels – okay, so I didn’t succeed in finishing “Lady Susan,” and haven’t gotten around to reading “The Watsons,” but I did read Sanditon not too long ago, and didn’t review it either! Sure, I read the unfinished manuscript, which wasn’t amazing, but it really had potential. If she had lived to finish it, it might have outshone all the others!
5 – Testament of Youth by Vera Brittan (although I read her second book, “Testament of Friendship,” I didn’t enjoy it as much as her first one. Maybe that’s why I didn’t read the third book in the series, “Testament of Experience”).
4 – The Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough. Okay, so as I’ve said before, I devoured the first five of these monstrously long books, and then with the sixth one… I got stuck half way through.
3 – Notes on a Scandal (aka What was She Thinking?) by Zoë Heller. Read it before the movie, which was actually a good adaptation.
2 – Notes on an Exhibition by Patrick Gale. This book is just lovely, and poignant. Before reading this, I knew essentially nothing about Quakers.
1 – The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje! Yes, you all know this already, don’t you. Just too breathtaking for me to review, and a book that is still at the top of my favorite novel lists.
The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog 
OMG, what a smart idea of freebie post, I need to do that too!!
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Go for it!
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This is a good idea for a post. I read most of my all-time-favorite books before I started blogging, so I never reviewed them.
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I can honestly say I didn’t realize most of these were novels, as I have only heard of the adaptations.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/ten-of-roses-favorite-books-of-all-time/
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Great topic choice! Someday I want to read an Anne Tyler book. I have Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant waiting on my shelf.
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That’s one I haven’t read, actually, but I did buy a copy not long ago, so I too have it waiting on my shelf!
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I used to be totally obsessed with reviewing EVERY book I read, no matter what. A couple years ago, I gave myself permission to only review the ones I wanted to review and it has been so liberating! However, there are a lot of books I’ve loved and never reviewed. I should use this topic for my next freebie.
Enough about me…I haven’t read any of these books except for a few of Jane Austen’s. I need to read more of hers since they’re just so fun.
Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
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I’m actually finding that I WANT to review all the books I read, but if I don’t think a book is worthy of a review, then I’ll probably not finish reading that book anyway!
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I do love Testament of Youth. Did you see the old BBC miniseries? I thought it was better than the movie several years ago.
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Never saw the movie, but the miniseries was WONDERFUL!
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I had no idea that the unfinished manuscript of Sanditon was something you could read!
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2023/01/31/top-ten-tuesday-405/
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Yes, and I’m glad I read that rather than someone’s attempt to finish it. The TV series isn’t bad, though.
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Yeah I definitely get that. Good to know.
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I drew a complete blank on what to do for a TTT topic this week — I love yours! Probably especially because I love so many of the books you included — Accidental Tourist, Hotel New Hampshire, more… 🙂
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It’s always fun to share books I loved but didn’t review. I’m glad you did that today.
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I have waaaaaaay too many books unread, especially from last year. Have you read all of Austen’s juvenalia?
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No, I haven’t. I didn’t like Lady Susan and DNF it, and I haven’t tried The Watsons. But I did read Sanditon, which could have been better than P&P if she had finished it!
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I’ve set a challenge for myself to get books reread and reviewed for those books that I have somehow skipped.
The post is here (way, way at the bottom) if you’d like to take a look: https://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/p/my-2023-book-challenges.html
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Oh I think I have a list like this! Lol 😂 I’m writing a book tag post.
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I loved Accidental Tourist!
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I’ll never get that scene out of my head where they make Turkey for Thanksgiving and how they put the oven on a very low heat, and it comes out dry but mushy.
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