Top Ten Tuesday: Atmospheric Books

This week's TTT theme is a list of atmospheric books - and Jana gives us the following explanations of what we might understand by that term. The Novelryย explains this concept as: โ€œA novel feels atmospheric when the setting and the narrative are deeply involved with one another; when characters and plot are physically embedded in their surroundings, and a near-tangible mood lifts from the pages and wraps itself around the reader.โ€ย  Study.comย explains that, โ€œThe atmosphere is how a writer constructs their piece to conveyย feelings, emotions,ย andย moodย to the reader. The atmosphere in literature might be tense, fast-paced, mysterious, spooky, whimsical, or joyful and can be found in poetry, stories, novels, and series.โ€ Okay, yes I get those definitions... for me, a book is atmospheric when our feelings as a reader are brought to the fore - often by a genuine investment in setting and sense of place, where the setting is used to contribute to and enhance the experience. But it can also come across from characterisation, language and any other tool in the writer's toolkit. And the very real difficulty for me is narrowing this down to just ten... atmosphere is possibly

Top Ten Tuesday: Water

Water is such a potent symbol in writing: it is a setting that takes humanity literally out of its element, creating a vulnerability that we don't always feel on land; it remains largely unexplored and alien and home to utterly foreign and incomprehensible creatures; it is an image of chaos, calmed by the word of God in so many cultures and mythologies. What is one of the most iconic lines in film? "Release the kraken!" The ocean can be a metaphor of our minds and emotions and imaginations - look at the language we use for our interiority be it shallow or deep, turbulent or calm, we apply maritime language to it continually; it can be symbolic of female sexuality, birth and the creation of life. There are so many oceans to choose from that this is in no way an exhaustive list, nor could I limit it to ten!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved So Much I Had to Get a Copy for My Personal Library

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics 5th July: Most Anticipated Books Releasing In… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved So Much I Had to Get a Copy for My Personal Library

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Too Good To Review Properly

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics December 28: Best Books I Read In… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books Too Good To Review Properly

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Hope Santa Brings/Bookish Wishes

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics November 2: Books I Would Hand to… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Hope Santa Brings/Bookish Wishes

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Wishes

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics May 4: My Ten Most Recent ReadsMay… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Wishes

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Hope Santa Brings

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. PREVIOUS TOP TEN TUESDAY TOPICS: November 10: Non-Bookish HobbiesNovember 17: Characters I'd… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Hope Santa Brings

Top Five Saturday: Books from a Male Perspective

The Top 5 series is back! Top Five Saturday is a meme hosted by Devouring Books to discover and share books that all have a common theme. Previously on the blog I have focused on witches, werewolves, thrillers, faeries, fairy tale re-tellings, high fantasy and many more. I am going to try and bring this series back for… Continue reading Top Five Saturday: Books from a Male Perspective

The Quick Fire Fantasy Tag

Fantasy was my route into reading as a teenager and remains a staple genre - albeit one which I can find grows stale if I read too many too close together. A few years ago, I might have described fantasy as a guilty pleasure but now I am a proud fantasy reader: there are so… Continue reading The Quick Fire Fantasy Tag

Top Ten Tuesday: Genre Freebie

Top Ten Tuesday was created byย The Broke and the Bookishย in June of 2010 and was moved toย That Artsy Reader Girlย in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. PREVIOUS TOP TEN TUESDAY TOPICS: February 4: Books On My TBR I Predict… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Genre Freebie

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Hangovers

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics: January 21: The Ten Most Recent Additions to… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Book Hangovers

Top Ten Tuesdays: Book Cover Freebies

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Upcoming Top Ten Tuesday Topics: January 7: Most Anticipated Book Releases for the First… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesdays: Book Cover Freebies

Top Ten Tuesday: Recent Additions

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Upcoming Top Ten Tuesday Topics: January 7: Most Anticipated Book Releases for the First… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Recent Additions

2019 Book Survey

Love the idea of this Survey, from Jamieโ€™s End of Year Book Survey and having read a few, thought I'd (perhaps a little belatedly) upload my own. **2019 READING STATS** Number Of Books You Read: 40Number of Re-Reads: 0Genre You Read The Most From: Crime, Fantasy and Literary 1. Best Book You Read In 2019? The… Continue reading 2019 Book Survey

Top Ten Tuesdays: Favourite Books of 2019

I was going to say "In no particular order..." but as I wrote the words, I thought No! I shall give this list an order! So, listed by genre rather than by preference - because, how can you choose between yout favourites? - my top ten are Gothic Deliciously dark and creepy tales to chill… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesdays: Favourite Books of 2019