The Bibliollama

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each week a new theme is suggested for bloggers to participate in. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to The Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.

This week's topic is Books I’d Like to Re-read

Anne Rice - Interview with the Vampire Gothic, brooding, and emotionally messy — and somehow more intense every time. The ultimate comfort reread if you're me.
CS Lewis - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Snowy woods, epic battles, and the thrill of discovering another world behind a wardrobe. Pure childhood wonder.
J.R.R. Tolkien - The Hobbit A quiet journey that somehow always feels huge. There and back again... and again, and again.
Dan Brown - Angels & Demons Conspiracy, chaos, and the kind of fast-paced drama that makes it perfect for rereading when your brain wants popcorn.
Matthew Reilly - Temple Utterly bananas in the best way. Ancient codes, nonstop action, and just enough heart to make me keep coming back.


Andy Weir - The Martian Smart, sweary, and surprisingly soothing. The kind of book that makes surviving Mars feel like a cozy weekend project.
Dan Jones - The Hollow Crown Epic royal drama, backstabbing nobles, and actual history written like a thriller. It’s like prestige TV in book form.
Stephen King - Firestarter One of my King favourites — full of fire (literally), father-daughter love, and government paranoia. Always hits the spot.
Poppy Z Brite - Lost Souls Queer vampires, Southern Gothic mood, and enough angst to drown in. I read it at just the right time and always return to it.
Clement C Moore - The Night Before Christmas A tradition: I reread it every Christmas Eve. It’s short, sweet, and carries a lifetime of memories in its verses.

Whether it’s queerness and chaos, ancient puzzles and explosions, or a quiet moment of snowy nostalgia, these are the books I come back to when I need comfort, distraction, or a reminder of why I love reading. Some have lived on my shelves for decades; others have earned their place with just one reread.

What about you? Are you a re-reader, or a one-and-done kind of reader? And if you are a fellow re-reader — what book do you always come back to?

Do you ever think you know what your reading year will look like, only to find it turns out to be completely different?

I honestly thought this year would be jam-packed with action/adventure thriller-type novels. I discovered and fell in love with Matthew Reilly's books last year - completely OTT action scenes and I was HERE for it! His book Temple was my surprise book of the year last year. And then there was Decipher by Stel Pavlou which was another action/adventure thriller with bonus added sci-fi - it was utterly batshit and I fell in love with it.

So yeah, I thought this year would be very much in that vibe. I started reading the Scarecrow series by Matthew Reilly...

But then I fell into memoirs. Out of the 50 books I've read so far this year, 14 have been memoirs (that's 28%) and 4 have been biographies.

There have been food-related ones (Grace Dent, Jay Rayner, Ed Gamble)
There have been mental health, health and neurodivergence-related ones.
There's been the latest Jeremy Clarkson/Diddly Squat one.
There's been best-selling celebrity memoirs (Jennette McCurdy, Britney Spears)

And over a third of them have been fostering memoirs by Cathy Glass!
How? Why?
I haven't a fucking clue but I am completely obsessed and just devouring them. I cannot get enough and have a whole bunch of them on my Borrowbox list

In the second half of the year though I want/need to pay more attention to the prompts in reading challenges. I'll be interested to see if the memoir pattern continues, if another one emerges or if, by focusing on more specific books there'll be no pattern at all.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each week a new theme is suggested for bloggers to participate in. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to The Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.

This week's topic is Books I Had VERY Strong Emotions About and this can be 'Any emotion! Did a book make you super happy or sad? Angry? Terrified? Surprised?' so I've tried to pick books that gave me a wide range of feels even though my first reaction was books that made me cry (because I've just finished Teashop on the Corner which made me BAWL)


Paul Cartledge - Ancient Greece (bored me to tears - how did he make ancient Greece as dull as dishwater?!)
Cathy Glass - Nobody's Son (broke my heart, I felt so bad for that little boy)
Alix E Harrow - Once and Future Witches (utterly spellbound - I completely fell in love with Harrow's writing style and the world she created)
EL James - Fifty Shades of Grey (hysterical laughter - apparently it's not supposed to be a comedy?)
Milly Johnson - The Teashop on the Corner (made me cry like a baby, completely filled with warm fuzzies)


Stephen King - Misery (chilled me to the core and the reason I will never use the phrase 'I'm your number one fan')
Jennette McCurdy - I'm Glad My Mom Died (I'm glad her mom died, I went from horrified by what her mother was doing to her, to so proud of her)
Stephenie Meyer - Twilight (disgust - I threw the book across the room)
Matthew Reilly - Temple (joy, wonder, amazement and many many WTAF but in a good way)
Rainbow Rowell - Fangirl (disappointment, I'd been looking forward to reading and didn't feel it lived up to the hype)

And this will be the first and last time Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey get mentioned here LMAO