Top Ten Auto-buy Authors

The theme for this week's top ten Tuesday is your top ten auto-buy authors. So you all know I read mostly classic works so most of these authors aren't putting out books anymore. I'm just going to list the ones that I don't already own all of their works (which is why Jane Austen isn't on the list). For those not familiar with some of these authors, I have put in parentheses one of their more famous works.

1. J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings)
2. Charles Dickens (David Copperfield) 
3. Agatha Christie (Murder on the Orient Express)
4. C.S. Lewis (The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe) 
5. Louisa May Alcott (Little Women)
6. Lucy Maud Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables)
7. Emmuska Orczy (The Scarlet Pimpernel) 
8. G.A. Henty (In the Reign of Terror)
9. Brian Jacques (Redwall)
10. P.G. Wodehouse (The Code of the Woosters)

With these authors I would have no hesitation in buying their novels. They are tried and true authors who have never let me down. :)

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Top Ten Authors I've Read the Most Books From

This week's them is the top ten authors I've read he most books from. Now we already did one of the top ten authors we own the books of and these lists will be pretty similar. Looking back at that list though I see I owned a lot less books then. I thankfully have Goodreads to tell me the answers to this list though there are books (mostly ones I read as a child) that still haven't gotten put on Goodreads.

1. Agatha Christie- According to Goodreads I've read 69 of her books... I'm not sure if that number is totally accurate... I think I've read more than that. I've read almost all of her books. 
2. P.G.Wodehouse- According to Goodreads I've read 43 of his books... that number is probably pretty accurate. 
3. Thornton Burgess- A favorite author growing up. According to Goodreads I've read 38 of his books. 
4. Brian Jacques- According to Goodreads I've read 28 of his books. I'm pretty sure I've read all of his books. 
5. G.A. Henty- According to Goodreads I've read 21 of his books. I think though I've read more. 
6. C.S. Lewis- According to Goodreads I've read 14 of his books.
7. Charles Dickens- According to Goodreads I've read 14 of his books.
8. J.R.R. Tolkien- According to Goodreads I've read 13 of his books. 
9. Arthur Ransome- According to Goodreads I've read 12 of his books. 
10. L.M. Montgomery- According to Goodreads I've read 12 of her books. 

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Top Ten Authors I REALLY want to meet!

Fun topic! There are a lot of authors I like that for various reasons I'm not entirely intrigued to meet so this list does not reflect my favorite authors necessarily. :)

1. Jane Austen
2. J.R.R. Tolkien
3. Charles Dickens 
4. P.G. Wodehouse
5. Agatha Christie
6. Brian Jacques- I actually did meet him years ago when I was seven. 
7. Samuel Clemens- AKA Mark Twain
8. Charles Dodgson- AKA Lewis Carroll
9. Harper Lee
10. G.K. Chesterton 

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Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I want to Re-read

Now this is a topic near and dear to me! I actually made a list not too long ago of books I want to re-read that is currently 293 books long and still growing (will be posting it in the near future). However, I won't bore you with that list right now and just share the normal ten... and by ten I mean a cheating ten and by cheating ten I mean I may put several books from one author on the list and count it as one. ;)
If you are interested in doing a heavy duty re-reading challenge in 2015 I have opened up the sign-up page for my 2015 Hard Core Re-Reading Challenge and you can view it HERE.

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee- I re-watched the movie recently and it just gave me a yearning to re-read the book. I remember enjoying it when I first read it but I think I could get a lot more out of it now. 
2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain- I read them back in the day and I'd like to re-read them now. I remember enjoying Huckleberry Finn but I don't remember enjoying Tom Sawyer as much.
3. David Copperfield and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens- Two of Dickens' novels that I wasn't as crazy about when I read them but they are two of the first I read so I'd like to give them another chance as they are some of the most highly acclaimed. Plus, David Copperfield is one of my Dad's favorite books and he thinks that my not loving it as he does is a serious character deficit. ;) Since my Dad is normally an excellent judge of books, I feel that probably I should give it another try. :)
4.  Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul- This book made a big impact on my spiritual life back when I read it my freshman year of high school and I would love to re-read it now that I'm older. 
5. Little Britches and others in series by Ralph Moody- These are essentially the male version of Little House in the Big Woods. I enjoyed them as a kid but never read the last three so I'd like to re-read these so I can read the last three with more understanding. Plus, they are great books so I want to re-read them anyways. :)
6. Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss- I've mentioned my wanting to re-read this a few times here on the blog but essentially my reasoning is that I didn't like it when I first read it several years ago but my siblings insist it is an exceptional book so I'm going to try to re-read it. I think part of the reason I disliked it is because it is one of the few books I read after watching the movie and I loved the movie and the book and the movie are just not the same. 
7. Emma by Jane Austen- This is the only novel of Jane Austen's that I'm not absolutely in love with. I love the Kate Beckinsdale movie but the book I just found somewhat tedious. Not saying at all that I didn't like it, I just did not enjoy it as much as Austen's other books. Mr. Knightley is almost my favorite of Austen's heroes. I have been assured by my brother though that it is better with a re-read so I am going to try that. 
8. Little Women and other in series by Louise May Alcott- Such as classic and one that I have always loved. I'm not re-reading this one because I'm trying to like it better but because I love it so much. :)
   
9. Howard Pyle's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood and The Story of King Arthur and His Knights and Roger Lancelyn Green's King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table and The Adventures of Robin Hood. These books are how I came to know of the legends of Robin hood and King Arthur as a kid. Watching The Adventures of Merlin has reminded me how little I recall. So I'd like to re-read them to refresh my memory. 
10. P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster novels- I don't think there are words to describe the wonders of Wodehouse's novels. Pretty much they are just classic, amazing british humor at its absolute best. It's been awhile since I've read his Jeeves and Woosters series so I would love to re-read those. 

There's so many more books I'm dying to re-read but these are my top ones.
Again, if you have a long list of re-reads you want to tackle next year be sure to go to THIS blog post to sign up for my re-reading challenge. 

I'm also hosting the 2015 Birthday Month Reading Challenge and you can check that out HERE.

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Top Ten Books for Readers who like Character Driven Novels

I don't normally pay attention to whether books are plot driven or character driven (or whatever other "driven" they are) so this prompt actually made me really think about that.

1. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling- The characters in my opinion are some of the best aspects of the novels. :)
2. Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card
3. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montgomery
4. Any Charles Dickens novels- Special thoughts towards Little Dorrit, Nicholas Nickelby and David Copperfield, as I remember them having especially interesting characters. 
5. All Jane Austen novels- My favorite obviously being Pride and Prejudice. :)
6. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
7. P.G. Wodehouse novels- Jeeves and Wooster... enough said. :)
8. Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens)
9. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
10. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

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Top Ten Book Characters that would be Sitting at my Lunch Table (back to school theme)

I've been back to school for two weeks now! This back to school thing is a lie! ;)
Anyways...
Here are my top ten book characters that I would be super duper happy to have sitting at my lunch table. Maybe not all of them at the same time though. :)

1. Elizabeth Bennett- From Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
2. Henry Tilney- From Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey
3. Mr. Knightley- From Jane Austen's Emma (I would be able to have a serious conversation with all three of these Austen characters listed here and above but they would still interject witty comments in occasionally to make me laugh.)
4. Bertie Wooster- From P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster novels (Who knows what Bertie will say!) 
5. Anne Shirley- From L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series 
6. Bilbo Baggins- From J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (His stories, songs and poetry will be one of my favorite parts of the table conversation)
7. Sherlock Holmes- From Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories (He'll annoy everyone at the table with making deductions about them.)
8. Mr. Collins- From Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (I know he's really annoying but he's also really funny because of that!)
9. Mr. Bennet- From Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (He'll mostly sit and listen but every once and a while he'll pop up with a witty comment that will make me laugh.)
10. Luna Lovegood- From J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series (I'm sure I'd hear about some interesting things from her.) 

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Top Ten Favorite Classic Books

Between not having Wifi during the week while I'm at work on the pig farm and going on my mission trip to Costa Rica I haven't really been churning out blog posts. Don't worry, this trend shouldn't continue once the summer is over. :) So for today I'm giving you a top ten tuesday and the theme is my favorite classic books. :)

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen- Duh!
2. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien- Again... duh!
3. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
4. Persuasion by Jane Austen
5. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
6. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
7. Leave it Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse
8. Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens
9. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
10. The Golf Omnibus by P.G. Wodehouse

Except the first two these books aren't in any specific order. I was kind of in a hurry making the list so don't sue me over the books I chose. These were just the favorites that first came to mind. :) I love most every classic work of literature these are just my favorites. 

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Top Ten "Gateway" Books/Authors in my Reading Journey

Quick note before I get this blog post rolling... I'm having a link up for monthly resolutions so be sure to check out this post and link up! It's just a fun but helpful way to make some goals for the month.

So... "gateway books/authors... difficult to think about. I never wasn't in any genre (except sci-fi I guess) I never fell out of reading and I really can't remember starting reading. However, I will attempt this.

1. Dune by Frank Herbert... I guess you can say it got me into the sci-fi genre as it was the first sic-fi book I read. 
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen... It got me into reading Jane Austen's novels and really into the more adult classic novels. I read it when I was ten I think. I and already seen the 1995 film version multiple times as well as other film versions of Austen's novels so I wasn't unfamiliar with her works. 
3. Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare... This was my first Shakespeare that I read that wasn't a children's or abridged version. Through it I began to ease myself into the world of Shakespeare. 
4. Hickory, Dickory Death by Agatha Christie... My first Agatha Christie book and the book that introduced me to mystery novels. I love her books and I've read almost all of them now. 
5. Redwall series by Brian Jaques... I remember reading a lot of those as a kid and I think they really got me going more into reading. They were also some of the earlier fantasy I read. 
6. All books by G.A. Henty... I think I read The Cat of Bupastes first but I don't remember. They're really great historical fiction with Christian tones. Those are what first really got me interested in history. There was a time when I wanted to be a history professor because of those books. :)
7. Jeeves and Wooster books by P.G. Wodehouse... Again I don't remember what the first one of those books I read was. They were the first books I read with British humor and I absolutely loved it! I can't recommend those quirky stories highly enough! 
8. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling... These were the first "modern" books I read. Before that I'd read pretty much exclusively classics. Those books will always have a special place in my reading world. They aren't perfect books, and I do have problems with them, but they're still good books. 
9. Bridge to Terebethia by by Katherine Paterson... As I mentioned in some previous post, this was the first book where a main character died. I'd never heard of such a thing! It is a good book though not despite of that but partially because of that. 
10. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens... First Dickens I ever read and let me tell you reading one of those I feel like I should have earned a medal. While his books are very good.... they are also very loooooong. I didn't even much care for Great Expectations, Mrs. Havishman just freaked me out. However, this was my "gateway" into longer novels. Quite the shock to the system I will admit. However, once you can get through one you can tackle the rest. :) 

Linking up with Broke and Bookish.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Book Quotes

Top Ten Tuesday and this week we can link up with any past themes. I was glancing through them and the obvious one that stuck out to me was "Top Ten Book Quotes". I couldn't resist. :) So here are ten of my favorite book quotes (I don't want to say favorite for fear I missed some).

1. "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in a want of a wife."- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat; it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
3. "Miss Morland, no one can think more highly of the understanding of women than I do. In my opinion, nature has given them so much that they never find it necessary to use more than half."- Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
4. "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
5. "Red hair, sir, in my opinion, is dangerous."- Very Good Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
6. "She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men."- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
7. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you may feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
8. "Arise, arise, riders of Théoden! Fell deeds awake, fire and slaughter! Spear shall be shaken, shield shall be splintered, a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!"- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
9. "Love has a lot of press-agenting from the oldest times; but there are higher, nobler things than love. A woman is only a woman, but a hefty drive is a slosh."- A Woman is only a Woman by P.G. Wodehouse
10. "If I loved you less I might be able to talk about it more."- Emma by Jane Austen

Somehow that came out as a bunch of Jane Austen and J.R.R. Tolkien quotes with a couple P.G. Wodehouse quotes. I guess it's easy to tell who my favorite authors are from that. :) There were conversations from their books that I wanted to use but they would be more difficult to include so I'll leave you with those. :)
Linking up with The Broke and the Bookish. 

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