Let's all pretend I stole a Tardis and went back a week in time (Is that how things work? I've never watched Doctor Who). This is the present me taking over the past me who has no idea of the future me's plans to do something productive. I've always loved watching T5W videos and the topics were always unique and now that it's summer, I thought it would be a lovely idea to engage myself with this weekly meme. I am the last person you should come to if you seek any sort of commitment but I would love to challenge myself to be fully devoted to something that isn't food or sleep.
Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly book meme, each week we are given a certain topic and we basically give our top 5 picks for it. It was created by Lainey from Gingerreadslainy and currently hosted by Samantha from Thoughtsonthomes. You can look up for more informations on the Goodreads group, Top 5 Wednesday.
I wanted July to be my first month, unfortunately I'm a week behind so today I'll be posting two different topics: July 6th and July 13th. Let's jump right into it:
- July 6th, 2016 || Favourite Books Outside Your Comfort Zone:
My go-to genre is fantasy, sign me up on that any given day and I'll never complain. But devoting myself to non-stop fantasy won't get me anywhere as a reader, this is why I try to be as diverse as a girl with little time and an intimidating TBR list can be. I do love a good challenge and exploring genres I haven't gotten the chance to discover before is itself a fun adventure. Now one might think: if you read outside your comfort zone, you won't really find yourself enjoying the books you selected, it would feel like required readings. But that's wrong, sometimes you need to break that wall of yours because the outside could be far more interesting. Here are my top 5 picks for this week's topic:
5. Everything Leads To You by Nina LaCour:
I don't usually reach for LGBTQ+ books. I love when they're represented in YA but I have never picked something that focuses heavily on such a topic. I utterly enjoyed this book, yes the plot was lacking somehow but it was fluffy and fun and the main characters were well-written and I guess that's what makes a contemporary novel successful and entertaining. It made me want to pick up more LGBTQ+ books and I'm definitely doing that soon.
4. My True Love Gave To Me edited by Stephanie Perkins:
I was never interested in anthologies, the idea was intriguing but I never got around to read those kinds of books. A lot of people however were praising My True Love Gave To Me and you know what? I'm the kind of girl who loves rain in summers, sun in winters and Christmas all-year-round. To be honest, I still haven't finished reading it but I'm already in love. There are twelve short stories by 12 different authors and the ones I read so far were an absolute delight. They made want to drink hot chocolate, stay all day in bed, watch 90s Holiday movies and wish for it to snow.
3. Fortunately, The Milk by Neil Gaiman:
Of course there's Neil Gaiman in this post, there's always Neil Gaiman in my posts. Okay, I'm not a huge fan of children's books, I read them but they're definitely outside my comfort zone because I feel like I'm not giving them justice since I'm no way near a child (Who are we kidding? I'm five-feet tall, I swear people still mistake me for a sixth grader). I discovered this book while browsing on tumblr and the illustrations made me want to pick it up instantly. I was not disappointed! Fortunately, The Milk is my favourite children's book that I read as an adult of all time. It was quirky, compelling and easy to follow. You should consider listening to the audiobook, it's narrated by the author himself and it's perfect and I need to stop.
Look at these! That's what I call smart advertising, how adorable!
(photos by: the-book-ferret, via: tumblr)
2. Introductions (The Academy #1) by C. L. Stone:
So if someone came up to me and told me to read a book with 9 attractively perfect guys, an innocent naive girl, a love hexagon and not much of a plot. I would smack the book on that person's head and walk away. This book had all the tropes I disliked in a book and yet, I completely adored it. I always had this theory that if you mix all the things you hate in something, the result will be so much better than expected. For exemple I really dislike cream and butter gives me headaches and I'm not keen on sweets but have you ever tried butter and cream candy? They taste like heaven! The point is, I expected to hate this book but guess what? It got me out of my reading slump and now I want to finish a series that has more than twenty books. Don't judge a book by its plot or tropes and don't smack people on their heads, they only want to recommend books to you which is about the sweetest thing in the world.
1. The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes (The Sandman #1) by Neil Gaiman: 
Another Neil Gaiman book. Surprise. Surprise. The only comics I have ever read were the W.I.T.C.H ones. I don't remember involving myself with another series ever since . At some point, I thought I should try to read The Sandman comic books and I became hooked from the first volume. It was brilliant and everything I didn't know I needed. The character building, the characters themselves, the plot, the writing.. all was perfect. I never expected comic books to be anything more than pretty illustrations and a few irrelevant speech bubbles. The whole thing was a masterpiece and even though I'm dying to know what happens next, I'm holding back because something like that needs time to be fully comprehended. I picked the sequel at a wrong time and I felt like I didn't give it justice. I won't repeat the same mistake with the rest of the series.
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That's it for this topic, let me know your five favourite picks for books outside your comfort zone!
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