Tope Ten Tuesday! Top Ten Books I Read Before I was a Blogger

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists there at The Broke and the Bookish. They'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Well I've only been reviewing books for just over a year now and as you know, my own independent blog is brand new so basically, this discussion covers MOST of the books I've read. I have gone back and reviewed a few of them, but I tend to find it easier to review as I read so, here are my top ten books...

1.These have to be the shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella. As I have written before, it was actually my Dad who bought me the first one, something he would NEVER normally do and so I think that that makes them extra special for me. I am a complete shopaholic myself, especially when it comes to shoes (and books of course) and so I can so sympathise with some of the decisions that Becky has to make when it comes to shopping. All of these books make me laugh out loud and I totally love them all!

2. The I Heart Series by Lindsey Kelk. When i first read I Heart New York I absolutely devoured it. Its such a fabulous story and when this author decided to bring back the character of Angela, I was so pleased. I Heart London was the latest edition which I was lucky enough to have signed, and I am very VERY excited for I Heart Christmas coming out this year!

3. Matilda by Roald Dahl. I had to put a real childhood favourite in here and I don't think there is any harm in re-reading them again as adults. I re-read this when I was doing my teacher training as part of a project we had to do and read it in exactly the same way as I would do an adult book. I also recently lent this book to an adult friend, she was very grateful and loved it too! I always wanted to be Miss Honey and read as many books as Matilda did and I like to think that I am somewhere close now!

4. One Day, David Nicolls. I don't need to say much about this one, having blogged about it before. I bought this because it had been in the paperback charts for so long and it lay on my shelf until I had time to read it in the summer holidays and I thought it was just absolutely brilliant! Its the first book to make me cry quite so much. I always struggle when I lend it to friends not to give anything away. I think that's a shame that the film really didn't do it justice, has to be the book all the way for me!

5. Bridget Jones's Diaries by Helen Fielding. Both of these books were the first to make me properly laugh out loud and were the first kind of adult books I read as a teenager so they did mean a lot to me. I am very excited about the prospect of a third book, and hope it will be as funny as its predecessors.

6. Ralph's Party. I loved this novel by Lisa Jewell, again something that I read in my Teens. It was one of the first books that I lent out to my friends because I loved it so much and was a major recommendation to them. I thought the writing style was so different and the plot so engaging, it was one of thirteen books I read that summer.

7. Forever, Judy Blume. I read this in the height of my Judy Blume Phase, I read them all over the course of the summer, which i think is a great way to enjoy this author. This is another book which is designed for teens but which I think could quite easily be re-read as an adult. I lent this one to my friend and her mother phoned up my mother, cross that I had given her daughter such a scandalous book!

8. Bill Bryson's notes from a big country. Thought I would move on to some non-fiction now. I got this book from the library just by chance. I had no money to buy books and so joined the library in the town I had just moved to. Their selection of chick-lit/contemporary fiction was pretty poor since the population of the town was mainly retired so I turned to travel and found this little gem, I was so entertained by his story of 'rediscovering' America. His Notes from a Small island are equally as entertaining, if you haven't read anything by Bill Bryson, I recommend you give him a go!

9. Another non-fiction at number 9. How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran. I recently reviewed Moranthology, her second non-fiction book, but when i read this I was completely captured. I was reading out quotes to all my friends. She made me feel better about who I am and being who I am and still managed to make me laugh and cry all at the same time. The brilliant thing about this book is that I don't think you HAVE to be a woman to read it, men friends have found it equally entertaining!

10. This is the hardest because there are so many book that's I could put in this position, fighting it out...I'm going to stick with the non-fiction just to mix it up a bit and go with Girl With a One Track Mind by 'Abby Lee'. My boyfriend at the time picked this out for me, but I actually really enjoyed it. It was interesting hearing something truthfully from another woman's perspective, completely candid, completely uncensored. In the days before 50 Shades and yet not many people I've come across have read it...