Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the lovelies at The Broke and the Bookish.
This week’s Top Ten theme is: Top Ten Books You'd Hand To Someone Who Says They Don't Like To Read
I've decided to break this down into male and female categories as, particularly as earlier on in our reading lives, gender really can matter. However, saying that I've read every book on this list, I'm a girl and I loved them all! Otherwise, why would I recommend them to others? Still, I'm not a reluctant reader, I'm more reluctant to put down the book and get back to the real world! So! Here are the lists. I'm keeping it simple this week, so just click on the Title of the book to link right over to Goodreads if you want their info after reading my comments.
For The Boys
The list begins with recommendations for younger readers and moves up the age-groups.
By Roald Dahl
This is a book I read when I was little and I loved it. My brother and I used to laugh at the pictures of food trapped in Mr Twit's beard. So gross, it's a winner for any little monster!
By J K Rowling
Face it: this was always going on the list. Surely it'll be on almost all the lists linked to the meme! These books are wonderful and I grew up with them in lots of ways. I read the first when I was meant to be doing science homework, and the final one while I was a growed up.
By Peter Lerangis
I was a huge fan of the Point Horror series when I was in primary school and this is one of the ones I remember most fondly. I keep meaning to find myself an old copy as I gave mine to a real-life reluctant reader and he loved it so much I let him keep it. Face-palming myself for my charitable nature!
By Charlie Higson
A book where all adults are "sickos" and the kids have to survive in the London that was. This book and its sequels are like a more vicious Lord of the Flies. Oo... I should've put that on the list too!
By Michael Grant
Another book where all the adults disappear. I'm sensing a theme here. In Gone, everyone over the age of fifteen suddenly vanishes, leaving all the kids to pick up the pieces. The spanner in the works is that some of these remaining kids have developed bizarre mutations... This is Lord of the Flies (damn it, there it is again! It's an unofficial part of the list now!) meet X-Men.
By J R R Tolkien
I must have read this at least twenty times and probably many more than that. It might seem a little hard going for reluctant readers, but my brother and I both read it when we were kids and we both did so in one sitting. I swallow books whole but my big bro didn't so that's quite an accolade for this one.
By Christopher Pike
My Christopher Pike phase took over from my Point Horror Phase when I started in Comprehensive School. This is one that my brother loved and he literally made me read it after him just so he could talk to me about it. It kicked off a love for Pike's work which has followed me through my reading life.
By Richard Laymon
Laymon is good at mixing scary and sexy. So no doubt teenage boys might get into this. I loved it when I was a teenager and my sister has recently read and loved it. There's a lot of bloodlust so for older teens definitely. [Note: I read this when it was released in 2000, so I was fifteen when I read it. I'm relatively sane...]
By Richard Laymon
This book follows a seventeen year old drifter who can see the demons that are hiding in human skin all around us. Adventure, violence, a wee bit of nudity and a compelling narrative. Another great one for the lads.
By Wilbur Smith
I love nature and I don't agree with hunting for sport... except for when I pick up books by Wilbur Smith. He makes me want to hunt lions and elephants; he makes me want to sail the seas with only maggoty fare to eat; he makes me want to learn how to fire a musket! He captures his audience and brings them into his world. To this day I don't know whether I want to be Sean Courtney, or to be his good woman! I know!
For The Girls
The list begins with recommendations for younger readers and moves up the age-groups.
By Alice Sheff
I read this when I was really little and oh God how I loved Ramona! She was always getting into mischief and always coming out the other end as a good and clever girl. And she used to write notes to her mum whenever she had something important to discuss, just like I did! If I ever have a daughter, this will be one of the first books on her shelf.
By Roald Dahl
I wanted to be Matilda when I was little. Hell, I kind if want to be her now! I was an avid reader but, gosh darn it, my parents were lovely and attentive. If they'd been horrible maybe I could've developed the cool telekinesis!
By Enid Blyton
My mother made the mistake of buying me the first of these one day while we were out shopping one day. We went home, I read the book without looking away from the pages once, and I had to drag her back to the shops to buy me the next...and the next...and so on. I'm sure real British boarding schools house girls who experience the awkwardness of puberty, but I liked Blyton's shiny imaginings just fine!
By Suzanne Collins
I think this could easily be on a list of reading for guys too, as it's not typically "girly" at all. It simply has a female protagonist who kicks ass in a Battle Royal sort of scenario. I loved these books! I have these on audiobook and have listened to the series twice!
By Stephenie Meyer
Since the books were adapted into film, it's become popular to slam them. But I read these books in one sitting each and loved them. Maybe when anything gets big enough people try to topple it... Say what you will, I've taught many a teenage girl who was converted into a reader because of these books.
By Alice Sebold
This book was absolutely beautiful It's unpredictable and dark and it drags you under. It's almost poetry in places!
By Stephen King
Not every girl has a mother who's so devout that making a hot-dog is sinful; not every girl has powers of telekinesis; not every girl is brutally bullied. And yet, every girl will feel for Carrie. You'll hate her and pity her all while wishing fervently that she'll manage to get out from under everything that holds her down. King's first published work is a must!
By Christopher Pike
Christopher Pike should be more lauded than he is. He did some of the best vampire books years ago, before Buffy started the wheels spinning on making them popular. He did the Greek god thing, the reincarnation thing, the homicidal maniac thing. Seriously, he's bloody brilliant and I'm glad he's having a bit of a reprint at the mo. I'm going to collect up all those books I loved as a teenager! Anyhow, he also did the "everyone's vanished how are we going to survive?" thing in this book. I gave my copy of this book to one of the most difficult pupils I ever taught and she loved it. I'd heard her curse my name a dozen times, but the one thank you she said when she read and loved the book cancelled all that out.
By Jenny Downham
You'll cry. A lot. You'll cry so much that you won't be able to read the words any more. And you'll rub mascara into your sleeve without hesitation just so those words become clear again and you can keep reading. No book before or since has ever made me cry so bitterly or so beautifully.
So! There are the lists. Two for the price of one just because I suck at being selective. I hope you get ideas for your own reluctant readers from this! Let me know your thoughts as always, especially if you have more to add!
Lx
Harry Potter and Roald Dahl! You can't go wrong with those books :)
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