Top Ten Tuesday #4 - Most Intimidating Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a Meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where I will be picking from their top tens and attempting to reveal what my thinking is behind these choices.

Top Ten Most Intimidating Books:

The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R Tolkien
Have you seen the size of those books, and the style of the writing? This monster of a book took me three months to read, and even then I may have skim-read parts.

Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
A miserable story about miserable people, lasting over decades and detailing one man's life as he struggles to become a better person. In three parts, and none of them are particularly short.

War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
The most massive book I've ever seen, and the title really puts me off.

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
Maybe it's the title its-self that is part of the unsettlingness, but this is also a pretty hefty book. It's on my to-read list though, so keep an eye out!

The Glass Books of the Dreameaters - GW Dahlquist
An 800-page steampunk adventure, written in a corresponding victorian style that hurts your head if you read it for too long. Clever too, and therefore oh-so scary to start.

The Luminaries - Eleanor Catton
Unsolved crimes and twisting plots, this book has me written all over it but, again, with its 800-or-so-pages, it won't be the quick reads I'm so used to.

The Iliad - Homer
Greek mythology all wrapped up into one sprawling epic poem. Yes, it will be interesting and it will be full of terms I probably won't understand, and so to tackle it is going to be a massive, but doable, feat.

Richard III - Shakespeare
Let's be honest, since when to plays truly appeal to anyone just wanting to read it for the sake of it? I'd much rather allow people to act it for me than having to read a script. As much as I love learning about history, reading a play-shaped history lesson is my idea of scary. Needless to say, unless this is made into a novel, I won't be trying it. I also have no doubt that I won't understand half of it.

Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
An immense read with plenty going on, and in terms of content, I think it will be pretty hard-going. Will it be worth it? I think so.

The Eye of the World - Robert Jordan
With a whopping 14 books, this is a massive series. It also happens to be a series that my boyfriend adores, and I'm terrified of disliking it. So far though, I've loved his recommendations, so fingers crossed for these.. when I eventually take up the challenge, that is.

Top Ten Tuesday #3 - Classics I Want to Read

Top Ten Tuesday is something I made up on my own, but recently I discovered a Meme over at The Broke and the Bookish that is entirely the same, and so I've decided to go ahead and join in with them, because honestly I am already running out of good top ten topics. Instead of joining in on their set lists, I'm being a rebel and picking those ideas I like the best. This week's Top Ten is therefore:

Top Ten Classic Books I Want to Read:

Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
I've read Pride and Prejudice and it was a joy to read, now I want to further my reading with all the rest of Jane Austen's novels, starting with this one. I already own it, it's just getting around to reading it that's the issue!

Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
Widely translated into films and tv, this classic is etched deep into my childhood memory with songs from the musical being sung at school plays. It will be nice to see what the adaptations have missed out, as well as to understand the story better.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
I've only ever heard of this book a little bit, but I know that it is widely read and deals with difficult issues such as rape, ethics and discrimination from the perspective of a child, which sounds not only intriguing but like a learning experience.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Sherlock Holmes has been in the spotlight for a while now, with the Robert Downey Junior films and the Benedict Cumberbatch TV series coming out one after the other. Our fascination with the detective who showed modern policemen how it was done never seems to end, and neither do the adaptations. I'd love to know what the real stories were like.

The Time Machine - HG Wells
Not quite his most famous work, but still sounds like a good read. I'd love to read War of the Worlds even though it seems a bit daunting, The Island of Doctor Moreau and The Invisible Man when I get the chance, too.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
My friend studied this at College and adored it, so based on that recommendation I think I'll rather like it too.

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Strangely, I've never seen any adaptations of this hugely famous novel, but I know enough that although I'm quite sceptical about the way that Cathy will act, i am still really intrigued to see how their story plays out.

Animal Farm - George Orwell
This has been on my wishlist for ages, and it is one that I simply must read. I enjoyed 1984 immensely (though I still think Brave New World is better) and I can't wait to get my teeth sunk in to the strange world of animal society.

Farenheit 451 -Ray Bradbury
I love dystopias, and this is meant to be one of the best. It's all about the power of words and the power of books. If there's anything I love, it's books that are about books.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo
Ever since I watched Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame as a little girl, I was enraptured by the story of the gypsy woman Esmerelda, the misshapen Quasimodo and the pious Frollo, and now that I am a bit older, I want to take on the task of reading through this classic French story to see the reality behind the Disney gloss-over.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them?