Midnight Voltage

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April 16: Top Ten Tuesday REWIND -- pick a past topic you missed or one you want to revisit!

As such, I've chosen: "Top Ten Books I Want to Reread"

• A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness. This is probably my favorite book. I've read it twice, and I'm definitely eager to do so again.
• The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. An amazing book that I've only read once--would definitely look forward to reading it again.
• A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin. Because this series was/is amazing. I still need to read A Dance with Dragons (I've been waiting for the paperback, because I'm slightly OCD in wanting the same edition for the whole series, but I might give in and buy the hardback--especially since the paperback release date has been pushed back once again <_<), but I'll look forward to reading them all again. 
• Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling. These books were really fun to read, and I only read them for the first time last August. 
• Holes, by Louis Sachar. Just read this book last Friday for the first time. I know, I'm probably the only person who hasn't. Needless to say, it was amazing. 
• The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster. And I just read this book on Saturday--same thing. Amazing book that I'd love to re-read. 
• American Assassin, by Vince Flynn. Another of my favorite books. I've already read this two or three times--wouldn't mind doing it again.
• The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher. A fantastic urban fantasy series, with one of the greatest narrators of any book or series I've read. 
• The Four Loves, by C.S. Lewis. Because it's amazing.
• The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis. Because I don't remember the books at all, except small glimpses of The Magician's Nephew, because I read them so long ago. 

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March 26: Top Ten  Books I Recommend The Most

• A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness. Quite possibly my favorite book. 
• The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. An extremely moving and well-written book, something for everyone. Really gives you an appreciation for reading/books. 
• The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Obvious choice is obvious. Tolkien is the master, and the Hobbit is an amazing book. 
• The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher. Harry Dresden is perhaps my favorite fictional character. Definitely one of my favorites, at least--his wit and humor are extremely enjoyable. 
• A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin. This really is a fantastic series. There are, unfortunately, a few things that cause me to not recommend it as much as other things, but I did really enjoy this series. 
• Mitch Rapp books, by Vince Flynn. American Assassin would be the book I recommend most, as it is my favorite--the beginning of Mitch Rapp and how he became who he is. Another character favorite of mine, and Vince Flynn is one of the authors that got me hooked on reading.  
• And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie. Also the Hercule Poirot books. Agatha Christie is a classic, and every one of her books that I've read have been amazing. Obviously some are better than others, but she's still a fantastic author.
• Anything by Michael Connelly. Or specifically, his Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller and Jack McEvoy series--he has a few other books, but I haven't read those. Really enjoyed all of these, though. 
• Skin, by Ted Dekker. Just an amazing thriller that captures your attention from the start and never lets go.
• The Four Loves, by C.S. Lewis. This book just gives you a greater appreciation and understanding of what love is and what it means. 

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March 19: Top Ten Books I HAD To Buy...But Are Still Sitting On My Shelf Unread

• The Presidential Agent series, by W.E.B. Griffin. I actually bought this whole series, but I haven't read any yet--I'm somewhat of a completionist, so when I bought the first one, thought it sounded interesting, and found out that there weren't that many in the series...I just wanted to buy them all before I started reading them. I have read other things by Griffin, though. 
• Coup d'état, by Ben Coes. I was looking for this for a long time, every time I'd go to a bookstore. Then I finally got it almost a year ago, but still haven't read it. 
• The Bob Lee Swagger series, by Stephen Hunter. I read the first book before buying the others, but have only read the second book since having bought them all. I definitely plan to, I just haven't gotten around to it. 
• The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. Way back when I first started collecting books, this was one of the first that I "had" to have. 
• The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Same as Kite Runner. 
• The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, by J.R.R. Tolkien. I mean, come on, it's Tolkien. So every time I'd go to a used bookstore I'd keep an eye out for this. Still haven't read it, though. 
• The BIONICLE Adventures series. Again, I'm a completionist, so when I had read all of the Legends, I just had to get the Adventures and read them. Still haven't done that yet, but I do now have every book. 
• Open Season, by C.J. Box. There was a time when I was actively hunting this down for a while, but it's been sitting on my shelf for over a year. 
• Tom Clancy books. I've only read Dead or Alive and later (as well as Patriot Games), but I just had to get all of the old Jack Ryan books too. And I had meant to read them a lot sooner, but...I haven't. 
• The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas. Just another of those books that I had to have, but it's just been sitting on my shelf for a while. I do hope to read it this year, though. 

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March 12: Top Ten Books At The TOP Of My Spring 2013 TBR list!

• The Floating Admiral, by the Detection Club (including Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, G.K. Chesterton, and others). I'm definitely reading this next. I love the idea, first of all, of so many classic detective novelists writing a story together. Plus the three aforementioned authors are all very great writers, and I'll really enjoy reading what they came up with.
• Coup d'Etat, by Ben Coes. Been meaning to read this for a while--loved Coes's first book. 
• Killing Floor, by Lee Child. I've been meaning to start the Jack Reacher books for a while, and with the new film that's just more motivation to. 
• The Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling. Or several other books, really. I mean, sure, I want to read this book, but I'm not sure I'd consider it top on my list. Still, i'm very interested to see how this compares to Harry Potter, and decide for myself whether it's amazing or horrible or just "okay" (it seems like I've seen those three comments a lot in the reviews). 
• Robopocalypse, by Daniel H. Wilson. I'm currently reading this, actually. I need to have most of it read by Wednesday for my Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Literature class, but I'll probably end up reading it all tomorrow, as it's really good so far. I'll be making a blog entry on Science Fiction soon, actually, because I haven't ever read anything until this class.
• The Night Circus, by Emily Morgenstern. Also for my SF/F/H class, but it does sound really interesting, and I look forward to reading it. Plus I need to read more fantasy. 
• The Last Werewolf, by Glen Duncan. For my SF/F/H class. I'm not going to lie, I was disappointed to find out that this was the book we were reading to cover "horror." But oh well.
• Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow. For my SF/F/H class. Sounds pretty good. 
• Human Chain, by Seamus Heaney. I'm really excited for this one. I have to read a poetry book for my poetry creative writing class, and Heaney was recommended to me by BZP Member Tolkien. I've really, really enjoyed reading every poem that I've read so far by him. 
• Masterpieces: The Best Sciecne Fiction of the Twentieth Century, by Orson Scott Card. This is also for my SF/F/H class, but we won't be reading every single story. I hope, to, though. 

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Top Ten Series I'd Like To Start But Haven't Yet

• Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. I'm reading it this year, over the summer. I'm not letting myself go another year without doing so. Reasons are obvious. Although technically I guess I've started this, but that was years ago.
• Jack Reacher, by Lee Child. I love Vince Flynn and Tom Clancy and Alex Berenson and Ben Coes and Stephen Hunter. As another master of thrillers, I've always wanted to read Lee Child's books. Not to mention the new movie looks fantastic, but I'm waiting to watch it until I read the book.
• Alphabet Mysteries, by Sue Grafton. I love mysteries and I've heard Grafton is good. Plus I love the idea of the books named after a letter of the alphabet.
• Wheel of Time, by Robert Jordan. After reading A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin, I've been craving to read more epic fantasy stories. After LOTR, this is the second fantasy series I want to read most as I've heard it's amazing.
• The Dark Tower, by Stephen King. Really just anything by Stephen King, but I've heard this series is good. 
• Star Wars, by Various Authors. A lot of people seem to like them, so I want to give them a try. 
• Hannibal Lecter, by Thomas Harris. Seems like an awesome(ly dark) character. And also so I can finally see the movie Silence of the Lambs, because I've been waiting to read the book.
• Chaos Walking, by Patrick Ness. A Monster Calls is one of my all-time favorite books. It'll be fun to read some of his other work. 
• Lord Peter Wimsey, by Dorothy Sayers. I love classic detective fiction, and Dorothy Sayers is one of the masters. I'm really excited to get all of her books (I only have three, and two short story anthologies, unfortunately) and read them. 
• The Presidential Agent, by W.E.B. Griffin. I've had this whole series for a while now, so it's about time I started it. 

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Haven't done one of these in a while, but I didn't really have anything to put for the last few except one or two, plus I was busy with other projects so I figured I just wouldn't do anything. But this one I liked. 

February 5: Top Ten Best Bookish Memories (waiting in line for a new release, meeting an author, or some sort of great experience with a particular book that was unlike others)
 

• Vince Flynn Booksigning in 2010. Definitely my favorite bookish experience, as he was really one of the writers that got me interested in reading, and is still one of my favorites. So when he was speaking/having a book signing at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, of course I had to go. Unfortunately I missed the book signing (but I did pick up a signed copy), but I got to hear all of his talk which was really enjoyable. Plus, it was my first time going to the RR Library, even though it's only ~an hour from my house, so that was a fun experience. 
   
• Meeting Michael Connelly. Much more recently, only last December 2012. One of my favorite authors, I was extremely excited that he was speaking/signing at a Barnes & Noble only ~20 minutes from my house. And this time I got there in time for everything, and got to meet him (I wrote an entry about it a few below this one, with a picture). His talk was awesome as well, and just an awesome experience. 
   
• Discovering A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness, and how it's a picture book. When I first heard that I was a little put-off. What, a children's book? But no, it's definitely not, and it was amazing. Definitely one of my favorite books, and discovering this book was an awesome memory. 
   
• Pre-ordering books (I only do it for my favorite authors). Yes, this one's a little lame, but it's true. Whenever I pre-order books for my favorite authors, I'm just super excited and can't wait for them to come. 
   
• Watching the Hobbit. This may sound weird, I know, but it's true. This is only the second movie I've seen just after reading the book. The other was The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly. But this was different. I mean, it was Peter Jackson's The Hobbit for crying out loud, and it was just an amazing, amazing experience. Saying lines with the movie that are from the book, seeing the similarities, the differences, etc. 
   
• Receiving The Last Man, by Vince Flynn, in the afternoon, starting it, and finishing it that night. Again, he's one of my favorite authors, and becoming so caught up with his book to read it in a single evening was just really fun. 
   
• Reading The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, and telling everyone about it. Similar to AMC, I was extremely (and pleasantly) surprised at how amazing this book was, and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. 
   
• Finishing the Harry Potter Series. Simply just the feeling of "I finally read it" after reading it for the first time last August (2012). A great series and extremely enjoyable. 
   
• Reading A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin. This was the first book series that I've read that was high fantasy. This is the first book series that I've just gotten completely captivated by, and immersed myself in the world of ASoIaF. Reading these books was like living in a different time as I allowed myself to just become completely caught up in it.
   
• Michael Connelly marathon. Late last December I read 9 books in 13 days of his Harry Bosch series. Really an amazing experience and some amazing novels.

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Top Ten Bookish Goals For 2013

• Read at least 52 books -- a book a week. I've been doing it the past two years, I don't plan on stopping now.
• Read 12 books that have been on my shelf for over a year. I have over 500 books on my shelves, and I've probably only read half of those, if not even less.
• Read the Lord of the Rings. I still can't believe I haven't read these yet, but I will this year. 
• Read the rest of A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin. On Monday I picked up A Clash of Kings again after having put it down last September at 300 pages (not that it was bad -- it was amazing -- but it was hard to focus during school, and unfortunately I needed a faster-paced book). I'm now over page 850, and should finish it tomorrow. 
• Read more Sherlock Holmes. I've actually only read a few of his short stories, so I plan to read more, if not all, this year.
• Finally read a book by Stephen King. Another author that I surprisingly haven't read anything by yet. 
• Finally read Without Remorse, by Tom Clancy. And perhaps his other early Jack Ryan books, as I've only read Dead or Alive and later.
• Read at least two Science Fiction books from my shelves. I don't read Sci-Fi much. In fact, I could probably count on one hand how many Sci-Fi books I've read. So I hope to read at least a couple this year.
• Finish collecting some book series that I am in the middle of collecting. I have a small obsession where I like to have every book in a series if I enjoyed the first book (or even if I haven't read a book yet =P).
• Stop buying so many new series until I've read the ones I have. Because I can get so many books for so cheaply at my local used books store (both hardback and paperback for either $1 or $5), and mostly in good-to-new condition, I'll often go on book-buying sprees. While I love it, and I think there's anything wrong with it, I do think I should hold off buying entire new series until I've read the ones I have. =P

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(I'll be doing non-Top-Ten-Tuesdays soon hopefully, but for tonight I just wanted to post a quick entry rather than some other longer ones I have planned)

Top Ten Books I Resolve To Read In 2013

• The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien. Unfortunately, I have never read this yet. I've read The Hobbit thrice (at least), and the Children of Hurin once, but never LOTR. I may have read parts of it when I was younger, and I know that I had them read to me as a kid, but I've never read them, myself, all the way through. I'm going to do it this year.
• A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin. I loved A Game of Thrones, but unfortunately I had to take a break from A Clash of Kings. They're not light reading, and I wouldn't consider them page-turners. They are, however, fantastic, fantastic books, and if you allow yourself to be captivated with them, they will become, in a sense, page-turners. But that means a lot of free time and little distractions. So once college started, it just became hard to get through ACoK, even though I loved it. So I'll read these during either winter or summer break, hopefully. 
• The Circle Trilogy ("Quadrilogy"?), by Ted Dekker. Katie (Ezorov) just sent me this for Christmas, and I'm super, super excited to read it. After I finish my Michael Connelly run, I'll most likely read this next. I really can't wait, and she's awesome for getting it for me. 
• The first Jack Reacher book, by Lee Child. I've been interested in this series for a while, but for some reason I've never read one yet. So I want to start with the first, and eventually read them all. 
• The Firm, by John Grisham. I've thoroughly enjoyed the two legal-thriller authors I've read (Michael Connelly and Brian Haig), and I hear Grisham is the master, so I've been wanting to read this for a while. 
• By Order of the Presdient, by W.E.B. Griffin. This one isn't all that important, but I've had this whole series on my shelf for a while now, but I haven't read them so I want to, and I enjoy Griffin's writing. 
• The Bourne Identity, by Robert Ludlum. Loved the movie, he's the master -- why not?
• Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. Katie and several others have been telling me I need to read it, and I definitely want to before the movie comes out. 
• Open Season, by C. J. Box. I've had this sitting on my shelf forever now, and this author was recommended to me by Hugh Hewitt -- who was the first person to recommend Vince Flynn, who is now one of my favorite authors. As such, I assume this will be good, and I've been interested in reading this series for a while.
• Without Remorse, by Tom Clancy. I've read all of his latest novels (the ones after his nearly-a-decade-break), with the exception of Threat Vector (his latest, which I shall read very soon as it just came out a month ago), but never any of his older novels, with the exception of Patriot Games. I've been wanting to read the whole Jack Ryan series for a while, though.
• A is for Alibi, by Sue Grafton. I've heard her alphabet series is good, and this has been sitting on my shelf for a while.
• Have Spacesuit--Will Travel, by Robert A. Heinlein. 55555 sent me this for my birthday this past year, and he talks very highly of it. I've also been interested in reading it for a while, so hope to finally do so this year.
• The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. I've had this on my shelf for a while and have been really wanting to read it. I've just had other things I've wanted to read first. =P I hope to finally read it this year, though.
• Holes, by Louis Sachar. Yep. Surprisingly, I've never read this. Or at least not that I can remember. Katie (Ezorov) gave it to me for my birthday, and I've been wanting to read it for a while, so I hope to finally do so soon. 
• Coup D'Etat, by Ben Coes. I loved his first novel, but I just haven't gotten around to this one yet.

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(posting this about a week and a half late, because I had finals last week)
 
Top Ten Favorite New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2012

• George R. R. Martin. A Game of Thrones. Definitely an amazing book, and I look forward to reading the rest in the series and possible some of Martin's other works.
• Michael Connelly. His Mickey Haller, Harry Bosch, and Jack McEvoy series. One of my favorite authors already, and I am quickly making my way through all of his books, having started and finished one yesterday, and am over two-thirds done with Lost Light today -- only 7 more books to read in the Harry Bosch series (I have already finished the other two -- besides that, he has a couple standalone novels that I haven't read yet).
• Markus Zusak. The Book Thief. I've already talked about this enough, I think, but check out my review for more.
• Patrick Ness. A Monster Calls (read twice). Again, I've already praised this book a lot. An amazing, amazing book.
• J. K. Rowling. Her Harry Potter series. First time reading them, all in less than two weeks. Great series, and I look forward to reading them again sometime, as well as possibly reading her Casual Vacancy, though I know it's quite different.
• Ted Dekker. Skin. Again as I've mentioned before, great book.
• Suzanne Collins. The Hunger Games trilogy. An enjoyable series, to be sure. I'm not sure if I'll read anything else by her, though.
• Howard Gordon. Gideon's War. New to me, and new to writing novels, but it wasn't a disappointment. I'll probably read any other books he comes out with. 

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So I know I've already made an entry like this, but I wanted to keep up the Top Ten Tuesdays (even though I missed last week due to finals, unfortunately -- I'll probably post it tomorrow or later this week) anyway. So without further ado...

Top Ten Books I Read in 2012

• A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness. I think anything I could say about this I've already said. An amazing book.
• The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien. Should be self explanatory. It's Tolkien. It's the Hobbit. 
• The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. See my review for an in-depth reason, but in short: it's an amazing book that I think everyone should read. 
• Skin, by Ted Dekker. A great thriller that was extremely fun to read. I'm definitely going to be reading more Dekker after this.
• The Last Man and Kill Shot, by Vince Flynn. Vince Flynn is one of my favorite authors, and these books were nothing short of amazing. I read The Last Man in a single evening after receiving it in the mail. 
• Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin. I hope this is fairly self-explanatory, but Martin is an incredible author. I'm excited to read the rest of the series. 
• The Four Loves, by C. S. Lewis. I can't say enough about this book. I love it so, so much. I'll definitely be re-reading it sometime, and it's one of my favorite books. The first non-fiction book I have ever read for pleasure, too. C. S. Lewis really is an amazing man. 
• The Mickey Haller series and several books from the Harry Bosch series, by Michael Connelly. Another one of my favorite authors who I only started reading this year. I became hooked instantly, and every single one of his books are amazing. I can't wait to finish the series. 
• The Harry Potter Series. Read them for the first time this year. Gotta say, I loved them, reading all of them in less than two weeks. I'm definitely going to read them again sometime. 
• Cold Days, by Jim Butcher. Jim Butcher never disappoints, and I loved how this one was longer than usual. 

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