I’m missing my fun graphic because I’m putting this together at work. Sad trombone. But this is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, so…ok then.

The top ten posts that describe me is kind of a tough one. Don’t get me wrong, I know myself pretty well, but finding ten posts that scream “misanthropic curmudgeon” isn’t easy. Just kidding. But not really. So here we go!

Number one has to be my post on Why YA? since it pretty much sums up why my blog even exists in the first place, and why I love to read YA.

This one on What I’ve Learned As a Blog Toddler reflects on life as an in-between blogger – not a total noob, but not super established.

The posts that kind of got me some notice early on and helped me meet some genuinely awesome people: my reviews for the Twilight series, which start off somewhat snarkily optimistic and quickly head down a shame spiral. I Am No Longer The Last Person on Earth Who Hasn’t Read Twilight; In Which I Read New Moon and React Violently; Well, That Happened: My Eclipse Review. I have yet to find within myself the intestinal fortitude to read Breaking Dawn but I’ve heard it’s, like, off the rails crazy. I did live blog the first Twilight movie, though: Review/live-ish blog of the Twilight Movie. Kill Me Now.

I also reacted violently to 50 Shades of Gray: Review of the book in which the world’s two most annoying people have thoroughly unsexy sex. Repeatedly. 18+

My favorite meme has to be my I Got Class(ics) reviews, which are nearly always reviews of Christopher Pike books.

 
And since it gives an idea of what I’m like outside of my reading tastes, a random selection from my Tune In Tuesday posts.

Please link me to your posts, I’m always in the market for new stalkees.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This weeks’ top ten list is:

Top Ten Books On My Spring To Be Read List

1. Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Wolf Shaw
2. 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad
3. Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig
4. Glimmer by Phoebe Kitanidis
5. The Night She Disappeared by April Henry
6. Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith
7. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
8. Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock
9. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
10. Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

I just picked from my April & May to-read lists. Please leave a list for your top ten so I can stop by and check out your list!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is supposed to be the top ten books I’d give a theme song too, but I don’t associate books and music much so I’m going to do it a little differently. Therefore, my countdown is:

Songs I’d Choose for the Soundtrack of The Fault In Our Stars

Great timing, since I just reviewed TFiOS, right? Here’s my ideal soundtrack for my most newly beloved book…

1. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel

Listen to the lyrics and it’ll be obvious why this song is THE song for Hazel & Augustus.

What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
What a beautiful dream
That could flash on the screen
In a blink of an eye and be gone from me
Soft and sweet
Let me hold it close and keep it here with me

And one day we will die
And our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea
But for now we are young
Let us lay in the sun
And count every beautiful thing we can see

Sad and perfect, right?

2. Can I Call You Mine by The Long Goodbye

Possibly the dorkiest & most awkward love song ever, but somehow appropriate. And yes, that’s Michael Cera from Arrested Development/Nick & Norah/Scott Pilgrim fame.

3. All I Want by Toad the Wet Sprocket

One of the ultimate songs about living in the moment.

4. There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

Also a song that is (to me) all about living for the day and not worrying about what will happen in the future. Annnnd it’s pretty much my favorite song of all time, so I was excited to get to use it. The Smiths seem like a band that Hazel & Augustus would appreciate, both in terms of music and the magnificent snideness that is Morrissey.

5. Hoppipolla by Sigur Ros

A song that I find both happy and sad at the same time, kind of like TFiOS. Hazel also strikes me as someone who would appreciate Sigur Ros.

6. Brand New Colony by The Postal Service

Romantic sans cheese.

7. Adelaide by Old 97′s

A wistful song of a not-perfect relationship.

8. Sick of Myself by Matthew Sweet

They couldn’t all be slow songs. The lyrics to this one are just perfect.

9. I Will Follow You Into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie

Maybe a little too literal? But whatever, it’s a good song.

10. If She Wants Me by Belle & Sebastian

It feels like this is the kind of song H&A would listen to on their picnic in the park.

**Bonus Track**

Amsterdam by Guster

Very obvious, but I couldn’t resist.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the cats at The Broke and the Bookish.

So this week’s question is top ten books you’d save if your house was being abducted by aliens (or other natural disaster). I’ve chosen to imagine what would happen if my house went all crazy and erupted with skeletons and black hole closets, and then finally just got sucked into itself and disappeared at the end. You know, like in Poltergeist. And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, please watch the movie.

This one is tough for me because I don’t actually OWN a lot of books anymore since I don’t have a ton of space, and because a lot of what I do have is on my eReader. It seems kind of cheap to just be all, “I’d pick up my Kindle and run out the door and save everything at once, suckers!” It also would make a lame top ten list. So I’m prob going to come up a bit short here. Basically I’d just worry about my pets and my boyfriend & me. Books are replaceable, so I’m going to pick stuff that’s less replaceable for the most part.

1. My Nancy Drew Collection – I have every Nancy Drew ever written from the original series. They’re all nice and safe in a box in my crawl space, so I’d probably burn to death trying to dig them out from behind my Christmas tree and 300 spare throw blankets. It would be worth it, though. I love some Nancy Drew. These books are how I really got into reading for enjoyment. My dad used to bring me one home every now and then as a surprise and eventually I ended up with the whole collection.

2. Weird Pennsylvania – Even though it’s a little heavy on the other side of the state, I still am amused endlessly by this book. I love oddities and this is a nice big hardback filled with cool pictures of and stories about weird stuff.

3. Hunger Games Trilogy – OK, these ones are on my ereader, so basically this would rescue most of the other books I’ve got as well.

4. The Handmaid’s Tale – Because anyone who would let this book burn up should be behind bars.

5. Any Stephen King I could carry – And actually, that probably wouldn’t be many because: a) I have most of his stuff in hardback, and; b) his books are, for the most part, total doorstoppers.

6. My high school yearbooks – Yep. Technically they’re probably replaceable, but it would be a huge pain in the ass. And let’s be honest, who would let an absolutely incredible senior picture like this be lost forever?

In my defense, it could have been worse. If I’d have graduated a few years earlier big hair still would have been in style.

7. Photo albums – Duh. These are probably the only non-living thing I’d even try to grab if my house were disappearing into a frightening alternate universe full of ghosts. Except my purse, because a lost drivers license means a trip to the DMV and I’d rather take my chances with the evil ghosts.

And that’s pretty much it. Lame. Like I said, I don’t own a lot of physical books anymore. I’m not a big “stuff” person and living in a small townhouse with a man who has more belongings than he knows what to do with necessitates me paring down for my own sanity.

Please comment and leave me a list for your TTT so I can check it out!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. And this is the anti-Valentine’s Day top 10!

Top Ten Books That Broke My Heart a Little (or a lot, in some cases)

1. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold – Oh, sweet little baby Jesus. I know opinions are mixed on this book overall and I can certainly understand why, but I can honestly say that no book has ever made me sob until I was literally hiccuping and doubling over the way this book did. I cried SO EFFING HARD while reading this book that it wasn’t even right. And it wasn’t just the last chapter. It was, like, 3/4 of the book.

2. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness – Obvious reasons. Plus as the child of a cancer survivor, it wasn’t hard for me to relate to Conor.

3. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand – I will never stop recommending this book. Never. And it really is heartbreaking.

4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – I’m starting to feel like a broken record with this one, but it’s just such a beautiful book. One thing in particular made me do the ugly cry, but the whole thing is heartbreaking.

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling – Obvs.

6. The Road by Cormac McCarthy – Just totally bleak, depressing, and yes, heartbreaking.

7. A Piece of Cake by Cupcake Brown – Every now and then I read a book that makes me really, really thankful for my life, my parents and my stable upbringing. This is one of those books.

8. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank – This one broke my heart a lot. A LOT.

9. Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi – Because it makes me endlessly sad what women are willing to do to themselves in order to attain an unrealistic standard of beauty.

10. Big Fish by Daniel Wallace – I’m not really sure which made me cry harder, the book or the movie.

What were your choices? Please leave a link so that I can check them out!