I’m finally participating in one of The Broke and the Bookish’s Top Ten Tuesday’s! This Tuesday is as the title: Top Ten Books I was ‘Forced’ to Read!

1. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Three times I’ve had to read this, and it’s NEVER grown on me. I can appreciate it for it’s literary significance, but I still hate this book and will forever! 80 pages of NOTHING!

2. The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George

Love, love, loved it! A great forced read from my boss who definitely knows her stuff!

3. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

This book was from my senior seminar at Uni, and it was one of the first books I read in college that was science fiction for credit. I never expected to read science fiction at uni, but it was one of the best classes (modules) I ever took! The seminar was all about American Literature. 

4. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Have to be honest, this was for my Russian literature class and I wasn’t able to finish it. The next book explains why. 

5. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Yup, I read both Anna Karenina and War and Peace in the same quarter for my Russian literature class. I was able to finish Anna Karenina though and loved it. 

6. Greywalker by Kat Richardson

This recommendation was from a sorority sister. SO glad I listened! I was also able to finally meet the author a couple months back when her latest book was published! I was a total fangirl. 

7. The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain

I was requested to read this book during my fantastic internship with Harlequin Mills & Boon. As an editorial intern for the UK editorial department, my editor knew exactly which author from their long standing line of books that I would fall in love with. She’s my guilty pleasure author, everything Chamberlain writes is gold and I love zoning out with her latest novel. (I’m currently waiting for her latest from my local library).

8. Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

I was forced to read this book as joke from one of my publishing friends, and also because if I wanted to dislike it, I needed to read it to actually know if I hated it or not. I do not like it, because I am from Seattle. A senior in college who is an English major who never get by by BORROWING her roommates computer. An English major needs her own. And that’s only the beginning…but I also got to meet E. L. James too!

9. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

I lived in London for nearly four years so it was only natural when one of my mates from my original study abroad in London during 2006 would return and make me read this book. Bloody brilliant. 

10. The Long Walk by Stephen King

This was a forced read for my fiction module during my Master’s. I am so grateful to my professor because she reawakened my love for Stephen King. It’s like I had forgotten he’s written all these books I’ve yet to read and the following years whichever titles I could get my hands on in the London’s libraries I hungrily devoured. Now that I’m back in the US, King’s books are so my oyster. 

That’s my list! What’s on yours?