Top 5 Tuesday: Books I’ve Read because of Blogging

Ahhh it has been a while since I have done a Top 5 Tuesday! This was a really fun topic, and I’m glad I got a chance to do it today. Even though I’ve been a bit quieter on my blog this year, the blogging world continues to inspire me to try books I never would have. These are just a few of them! I tried to pick books that I most likely would never would have picked up on my own.

Top 5 Tuesday is a meme by the fantastic Bionic Book Worm, and it explores a different bookish topic each week. See her top 5 here!

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

This is one of my favorite books – and series – ever, but I probably wouldn’t have picked it up if I hadn’t seen it so raved about when I first started blogging. Simply because the cover isn’t exactly my style or something that would have attracted me on it’s own (though I love it now). I’m glad I gave it a chance, though, because I love this series and its characters with all my heart.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Okay, so this book series is what got me started in book blogging, and I’d been aware of this series for a longtime before that, yet – I must have something against birds?? – I had absolutely no interest in it. But it counts if I saw it on Tumblr, right? That’s a bloging platform???  Anyway, I’d seen many people rave about it but it wasn’t until a mutual who’s taste I trusted started saying how good it was that I was like…hm….maybe it’s worth a shot. Needless to say, it was.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

I never, in a million years, would have read this book if I hadn’t finally grown curious what all the hype was about from some of the blogs I follow. I’m not particularly into fairytails or retellings, and I was really turned off by the cover. But…as always…curiosity won over and I found myself looking at it in a bookstore one day. And then I proceeded to read it in two days. The Lunar Chronicles are one of my favorite series now, so thanks, blogging!

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

This is not completely out of the realm of my taste, but I don’t think the synopsis would have interested me enough to pick up on my own. I saw a few bloggers talking about what a lovely book this is, and when it came up as a choice for Book of the Month, I figured I’d give it a chance because of that. And I really enjoyed it! I thought it was hilarious and I’m glad I ended up reading it.

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

I don’t even think I read the summary of this book before buying it because I’d seen people say such nice things about it. Which is to say, by the time I got around to reading it, I wasn’t even sure if I was interested. But I persevered because I remembered those 5 star ratings- and it was very worth it! This book was sad and beautiful, and great, great storytelling using magical realism. I loved it.