This Top Ten Tuesday topic (brought to you courtesy of The Broke and Bookish) is Ten Books I Feel Differently About After Time Has Passed. I feel like there’s definitely more than are on my list, but I just kept drawing blanks, so I went with the easy ones. Don’t hurt me for … the one I know you’re going to want to hurt me for, please.
Books that Don’t Stand the Test of Time (and those that do.)
**or at least my opinion of them does or doesn’t**
The Don’ts:
The Do’s:
1.) The Sigma Force series by James Rollins. I absolutely loved them when I first started reading them, then I got away from them for a couple years, and upon trying to pick up the series again, found myself yawning and completely indifferent to them. I guess once you pick up on the pattern, and the author gets stuck i a rut, even the original ones seem a bit boring.
2.) In contrast, Follow the River by James Alexander Thorn stands the test of time rather well.
3.) Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs – My initial thoughts after reading the book were excellent, but just a few weeks later? My impression of the book had lowered dramatically.
4.) But Knight of a Trillion Stars by Dara Joy – Yes, yes, yes. I enjoy this book as much today as I did when I first read it ten years ago. It’s full of well-done cheese, and just invokes a grin thinking about it.
5.) Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon series – I wasn’t a huge fan of all of the books, but I really cared for a couple of them. (Angels and Demons, Deception Point specifically.) However, with a couple years having passed since I read them, it would probably take a serious monetary bribe to get me to pick them up again. They’re good, but they’re not nearly as good as I thought they were when I first read them.
6.) Now, you wouldn’t think it, because of the whole non-religious thing, but I still really think positively of Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkin’s Left Behind series. It was a well-done, entertaining piece of speculative Christian fiction.
7.) The Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Grant – I still like this series, I’m just not as in like with it as I used to be. To be honest, my esteem for it went down in the third book, went Grant pulled some slightly disturbing crap. But, that first book? Still a masterpiece!
8.) Then there’s The Rho Agenda series – I have no clue why I read as many books in this series as I did. I think I was just desperate for reading material, because I didn’t really care for it then, and I certainly don’t care for it now.
9.) The Hunger Game Series by Suzanne Collins – Thought it was awesome at first, but with some years, and way too many YA dysto-fics under my belt, the series – the theme as a whole – has just went down dramatically in my opinion. Yeah, it was well-written, but look at what it started…. sigh.
10.) NOS4A2 by Joe Hill – A cross between a yawn and a gag then, a cross between a yawn and a gag now. I can see how people who love the epic King stories like this crap, but no matter how many times I hear people rave about it…I’m in the minority here. It had a cool idea, but it freaking dragged on forever. Still think the narrator did a great job though.
I’m sure I’ll have people ready to yell at me over the Hunger Games one. Stand by what I say, though! Leave your links. 🙂
I need to read ‘Left Behind’ I have heard good things.Miss Peregrine is on my June TBR too.I get what you mean about The Dan Brown.I felt that way with Da Vinci Code which at first I thought was brilliant.
PS:I hope you get this comment.Couldn’t comment using WordPress but I have now changed to googleplus
For some reason your comments were going straight to my spam folder. I just saw them and approved them 🙂
Oh great you were able to figure it out.I should have told you earlier.I kept trying to comment on one of your T5w posts almost 2 weeks ago when I first noticed I was having an issue but I assumed it was on my side.Glad its sorted though,WordPress does that at times 🙂
I just wish I could figure out why *your* comments get consistently spammed. Generally once someone goes to spam once or twice, and I approve them, they don’t go to spam again… yours go almost every time!
I think even my last one went to spam folder.I couldn’t find it and this was after you approved the other ones.I used to be able to comment on your posts before because we have interacted through comments before so not sure what changed or why this is happening.
I love the set up of this post. I wish I would have thought of doing the dos and don’ts, LOL. I’ve seen the Left Behind movies, but I definitely need to give the books a try.
I was pretty happy with the (original – not this nicholas cage crap) left behind movies. The last book in the series is a tear-jerker.
I get you about Dan Brown, although it happens to me BEFORE I even finish the book. I always thing he has great ideas, great plot, great rush… and then the finishing is just… meh. Lost Symbol was the last one I’ve read, I felt so let down at the end.
I only read first book on the Hunger Games trilogy for that reason. Loved the concept, but it took me a while to get my hands on book #2 and by that time the market was flooded with YA Dystopian with MC fighting the system. Which is sad, because Suzanne Collins is a darn good writer.
I feel like the only two stand-outs he really had were Angels and Demons and Deception Point. Those books are in a style that only works well once or twice, then he needs to just staaaaahhhp.
Haha, I love your thoughts about The Hunger Games series. I can’t say I don’t love it, because I do, and I thought it was brilliant, yet, hm, yes…just look at what it started, this whole phenomenon never, ever stops ahah. Great list 🙂
I was just talking with someone a few days ago about how we can’t wait for the YA Dysto-fic bubble to pop so something else can emerge.
Well…I can’t wait either :p
Hi, fellow Dan Brown and Left Behind lister. Angels and Demons and Deception are my favorite of the Dan Brown books too.
Haha, this whole YA dystopia thing is going for a while now, I wonder what will replace it. I’m thinking straight out adult fantasy. (But I might be bias though).
I’m thinking Steampunk is going to continue to rise.
I wouldn’t object to that. Would love to see more steampunk.
Same here about THG! It’s was what got me into reading dystopian novels. I still like the genre but my love has dropped a lot after the wave of copycat books that came after.
Be fun to go back and (try) to re-read some of these YA dystos in several years.
Oh my, seeing Dan Brown on your list made me realise how much my opinion on all of the books of his I’ve read have gone down. They really don’t stand the test of tiem :/ Great list 😀
Yeah. He was kind of a one hit wonder that accidentally got drug into a series
I’ve only read three books from your list, and they’re all under ‘Don’t’! Haha. Most YA I think probably don’t stand the test of time, though, just because there’s so many of them and they all are kind of… similar? Like I agree that THG started a whole dystopian trend, and many books since then have similar elements to it.
Yeah, it’ll be fun to look back in several years just to see what remains listed in the general consensus as a good book.
The Newsflesh Trilogy is still one of my favorites, I love all of Grant’s books. Great list, and I have the Joe Hill book on audio and look forward to listening to it.
The end of the third one didn’t make you squick a little? (Newsflesh). Have you read her Parasitology series?
I liked the Newsflesh series, but I haven’t read it again, which is pretty much the test for me. Absolutely adore her urban fantasy stuff, though.
Haven’t read her urban fantasy
I only read first Incryptid book, but everybody swears for her October Day series. Plus I have on good source that the Indexing series is awesome!
She writes under Seanan McGuire, about a changeling woman named October Daye. I love the books. 🙂
I have the same thought and feeling about Hunger Games. Thankfully I never really got on the bandwagon 😀
Same here. The Last books I flipped over were Harry Potter
I agree with 100% on the Hunger Games. Especially after reading the last book. That and I’m a little over YA.
Yeahhh. *sigh*
Oh seeing The Hunger Games on here makes me sad! Though it has been quite a few years since I’ve picked it up…so I could end up agreeing with you maybe. I LOVED the Left Behind series when they first came out, but I’ve never re-read them. I think I need to put that on my TBR again!