High School Classics I Never Had To Read

So this week's Top Ten Tuesday topic was about popular authors whom I've never read, and I automatically knew I would have no trouble completing that list. It started to get me thinking, though, on how many classic books I've also never read. When I think about my high school/college curriculum, I realized I managed to get away without reading a lot of the more popular classics. I don't mean those classics that were assigned to me and I skimmed through with the help of Sparknotes - that would be an entire list altogether. I mean the list of classics that none of my teachers ever required me to read.

1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
2. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
3. Animal Farm by George Orwell
4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
5. 1984 by George Orwell
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
8. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
9. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
10. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
11. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

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Moist Panties and Other Cringe-Inducing Words

A few days ago, my friends and I had a fun conversation about words like moist and panties. It's always amused me that certain words are so commonly hated. While most of my friends get a bit squeamish when they hear those two words, I never really had a problem with them. I actually like the word panties except on the rare occasions when it is preceded with the word moist, because no one wants to think about wet underwear.


The conversation made me wonder, however, if there were other words that had the same effect on me as moist and panties had on others. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that yes, there were a few words that give me the shivers and that I sometimes encountered them in my reading. It doesn't happen too often, but when these cringe-inducing words do pop up, it's still one time too many. You might not want to be eating anything when reading this list.

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Five Ways To Deal With Books That Don't Live Up To Its Hype

For the past few weeks, you've been hearing about this book over and over again in the blogging community with practically everyone giving it a four star rating or higher. Everyone's ranting and raving about just how great it is with a lot of CAPSLOCK and gifs and exclamation points! Every time you mention the series, everyone's practically screaming at you to "READ IT NOW!" When you finally do decide to pick it up and read that book, you end up with a barrage of strong emotions: Disappointment. Regret. Self-loathing. There's a little bit of guilt in there as well, but you have no idea why everyone loves this book.

I'm sure everyone's been in that situation before, or at least has been through something similar. It's not that all books that are hyped up are bad. There are legitimate reasons, after all, why a book would be popular, and the book blogging community practically thrives on word-of-mouth buzz. But what exactly am I supposed to say when I end up disapponted by a book that everyone loves? 

It's a bit of an awkward situation, but here are five common ways I talk about books that don't live up to its hype:

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