Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Have I Read You Yet?

Hey'a, everyone! I'm currently recovering from getting my wisdom teeth out, so weekend Sarah wrote and scheduled this post to save midweek Sarah a bit of stress. (Note from midweek Sarah: reports of wisdom-teeth-recovery-frustration were greatly exaggerated. The fact that I'm staying off any strong pain meds probably helps. But since weekend Sarah went to all the trouble . . . on with the post!)

So, four years ago (plus a few days), I wrote a Top Ten Tuesdays post about popular authors whose books I'd never read. Having recently rediscovered said post, I thought that revisiting it would be fun so I could see how many of those popular authors I've now read and how many I still haven't.

Have I Read You Yet?

1. The Author: J.K. Rowling
I said then: "Harry Potter is one of the few series that my parents have ever specifically said I'm not allowed to read. I'm ok with that."
Have I read her?: So, I seriously planned to go my entire life without reading Harry Potter . . . but then, one by one, friends who I knew and trusted read it and told me how awesome it was. And somehow, I ended up reading so many theories and headcanons and fanfics and "Friendly reminder that . . ." posts that I basically knew most of the in-jokes and a fair bit of the plot. And at that point, I was curious enough to say that, if I was going to know this much about the fandom and be this invested in it, I might as well just join it. So I'm currently reading the series, though I'm a bit stuck between books 3 and 4 because of schoolwork and reviews and travel. (So far, Lupin, Sirius, and the Weasleys are the best, though I'm not as in love with the novels as I would be had I read them earlier.)

2. The Author: Rick Riordan 
I said then: "The whole descendants-of-gods thing kind of turned me off. It's one thing when it's the actual mythology; it's another when it's set in modern day."
Have I read him? Again, I was planning to never actually read these . . . but then friends kept talking about how great they are, even more so than Harry Potter. And my roommate happens to be a huge fan of these, and these happened to be the most easily accessible urban fantasy, plus I was on a Greek kick last school year, and . . . yeah. They're pretty awesome, or the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series are. I haven't read the Trials of Apollo or Magnus Chase yet, and I'm not sure if I will.

3. The Author: Ally Carter
I said then: "I've said a few times that I'm going to try one of her books. It obviously hasn't happened yet."
Have I read her? Yep. Heist Society is pretty fun and I might eventually reread it one of these days. Gallagher Girls I wasn't as impressed with, but it was still fairly enjoyable.

4. The Author: John Green
I said then: "No, I haven't even read The Fault in Our Stars. I don't plan on changing that. There are other books that interest me much more."
Have I read him? Still haven't read The Fault in Our Stars, but I did read Turtles All the Way Down and really enjoyed it! Plus I'm an avid vlogbrothers watcher, so there's that. 

5. The Author: William Shakespeare
I said then: I've read several adaptations of his work, but never the actual plays. I will have by the end of this school year, though. Romeo and Juliet I'll be reading for literature, and I still want to read Hamlet at some point too."
Have I read him? Yes. I've read Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Much Ado About Nothing, plus I listened to a dramatization of A Midsummer Night's Dream. So far, Much Ado is my absolute favorite, mostly because the hate-to-love trope is so much fun and Beatrice and Benedict are magnificent snarkmasters. I still haven't read Hamlet, though. Shame on me for that. 

6. The Author: Brandon Sanderson
I said then: "I think he's popular? I know several people who really like his books. I haven't heard much about them, but I'm pretty sure they're fantasy and I'm considering looking into them over the summer. (Or whenever I run out of new books to read. Whichever happens first.)"
Have I read him? Well, one of his books has appeared near the top of my "Best of" lists every year for the last few years . . . and I've developed a whole AU combining Mistborn and Berstru . . . and I've made a Mistcloak . . . and I apparently yell about Sanderson's books so much that one of my friends associates me with him on the same level that Cait Grace is associated with Maggie Stiefvater, so . . . I think that answers the question.

7. The Author: Erin Hunter
I said then: "Are the Warriors books even still popular? Anyone know? I used to know several people who were into them. I even joined a roleplay or two based on the books. (I'm weird that way. I joined a Hunger Games based RP before I read THG.) But I never actually read them. "
Have I read her? Nope. Are these still even a thing? They can't possibly still be a thing, right?  

8. The Author: Cassandra Clare
I said then: "Her books sound interesting, but also very much  . . . not sure what the word is, but I don't want to get into it."
Have I read her? The word 2014-me was looking for was mature, or possibly sketchy, and due to those two descriptors, I still haven't read Mortal Instruments or whatever else she writes. I have been tempted once or twice, but then I look at what I know and I'm like, "y'know, no." 

9. The Author: Stephanie Morrill
I said then: "I'm a big fan of the Go Teen Writers blog, which she writes for. I have e-copies of two of her books. I think that her Ellie Sweet series sounds pretty cool, what with the main character being a writer and all. But I have yet to actually read any of her work."
Have I read her? Still no. I want to read Ellie Sweet eventually, but when there's so much epic fantasy and steampunk and so on, well, it's hard to find the motivation for contemporary, even writer-contemporary.  

10. The Author: Stephen R. Lawhead
I said then: "I thought about reading one of his series, I think the King Arthur ones, at one point. But I couldn't find them at the library, and I think I heard something about mature content, so I decided not to. "
Have I read him? No, but I really want to read the Bright Empires series because Deborah O'Carroll keeps raving about it. I actually got the first book out over Christmas break, but I ran out of time to read it. Oh well. Maybe this summer . . .  

How many of these authors have you read? Are thre any authors who you thought you'd avoid and then ended up reading and loving? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
 -Sarah (Leilani Sunblade) 
 
 

6 comments:

  1. OH FUN. I love seeing these listed out with what you said before and whether you've read them or not! :) A lot of these I haven't read either, but... yeah. I ASSOCIATE YOU WITH BRANDON SANDERSON. I am having a hard time imagining a past-Sarah-who-hasn't-read-him? O_O (Whispers: BrightEmpiiiires...) I seriously need to read more Lawhead, as those and his childrens books are the only ones I've read. I HAVE A HARD TIME FINDING MOTIVATION FOR CONTEMPORARY TOO. You put that so perfectly. :O I think there are still Warriors books coming out but I honestly don't know... I'm going to try Riordan and Sanderson at some point. ANYWAY. This was fun! :D

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    1. Heh, you're the friend I was referring to with that. And yeah, it's hard to imagine that there was ever a time when I wasn't hopelessly in love with his books. (*whispers back* I knowwww . . .) If you end up reading more Lawhead, let me know what you think. Same goes for when you try Riordan and Sanderson.
      Glad you enjoyed the post! I had fun writing it!

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  2. STEPHAN LAWHEAD
    He's my absolute favorite still-alive author (Tolkien takes first place but he's dead). They're definitely adult books, but they aren't too bad. And I'm 99% certain he's a Christian. The Song of Albion trilogy is my absolute favorite.

    Trials of Apollo (at leas the first book) is actually really good! It really captures the feel of the original series. From what I've seen around the internet, though, Magnus Chase has... issues. My brother loved the first book, but I'm just kinda meh on it.

    This was a really fun idea for a post!

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    1. Wow. That's pretty high praise. I'll definitely have to read his stuff now!

      Ok, good to know. Maybe I'll try Trials of Apollo, then, but probably not Magnus Chase.

      Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

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  3. Ah, the Warrior series...
    I remember reading them when I was, oh, thirteen-ish? Maybe younger? I got a good ways into them--because cats and magic--but stopped when the magic involvement got too, well, involved. It was one thing when it was a mysteriously cool blue cat giving instruction and having forebodings; another thing altogether when in that cat's POV and going step-by-step through rituals of darkness...
    I might be okay with it now (from what I remember, it was similar to some of Diana Wynne Jones' stuff), but it scared me so much when I was younger. Also, I think it deals with reincarnation, another touchy issue for young Christian readers.

    Bright Empires. Oh my goodness, I never finished reading the series!!! I read the first, like, three books, then had to take a break; lots of tricksy time travel and intense action.
    Same for his King Raven trilogy. Started reading, couldn't finish because a) library didn't have all the books b) more intense than I'm used to.
    I started reading the Pendragon cycle. I believe the reason I stopped that one was it was too historically detailed (lots of words I didn't recognize, had no context for)...but that was years ago.
    Oi, looks like I'm going to have to reread some things. :P *tries to find room on TBR shelf*

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  4. That's exactly how I started Harry Potter! (although my parents didn't specifically say no until after I'd read them, not knowing I'd already done so... still not sure how that's going to come out?) But the headcanons and friendly reminders and everything! (Pinterest, was it? Pinterest is responsible for 94% of my fandoms...)

    And I preferred Heist Society as well!

    Yet - despite seeing several blogger people raving - I haven't got my hands on a Brandon Sanderson book yet. Is there a particular one you'd recommend I start on, Sarah?

    (Oh, and I recommend Stephanie Morrill's The Lost Girl of Astor Street! It was not my usual genre, but I finished it and tried to return to my Alex Rider book and could not because the writing seemed so bad after Morrill's.)
    - Jem Jones

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