Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke & The Bookish.
Today's Top 10 Tuesday had a freebie topic, so I thought I'd write a little about polarizing books--those books you either love or you hate with the fire of a thousand suns. Whether it was the book you picked up because everyone and their moms were talking about it (ew, Fifty Shades) or the one you had to read it in school and can't stop thinking about (for better or for worse), you know how you feel about it and you just can't go back.
For funsies, today I'm going to do my top 5 loves and my top 5 hates when it comes to these polarizing books.
You hate 'em? I love 'em!
I didn't read Catcher in the Rye until I was well into my 20s, and expected to hate it. Looking through my list of Goodreads friends who've read this, it's a fairly even mix of four or five stars and one. One friend said "I don't understand why everyone likes this." I was certain I'd hate the little shithead narrator, too, but man did I absolutely love this book.
So, Ulysses is one I took an entire course on in college. Without that class to guide me through all of the mess and mind-fuckery, I most likely would have had very different feelings about the book.
I honestly don't know anyone IRL who hates Pride and Prejudice. Or maybe I do, and they're just not my friends. Which would make total sense.
This one more related to my friend group, where you either love the weird historical sci-fi fantasy steamy romance that is Outlander (book and TV series) or think it's "boring and too sexy." I loved the first of the series so much, but I've been picking up and putting down Dragonfly in Amber for over a year.
This series is one of my favorite. I love to hate Tamlin, love to love Rhys, and love to be embarrassed by how much growling Fae males do.
You love 'em? I hate 'em (or love to hate 'em)!
I managed to avoid this book until my 20s, too, when I had to read it twice one summer when I taught summer school. I wish I'd managed to avoid it forever.
I love so much by Fitzgerald, but I can't stand The Great Gatsby. I don't care about any of the characters, they can all get lost.
Yes, I've read this entire series. After the first quarter or so of the first book, it was all hate reading. I feel the hundreds of ick factors and just plain awfulness of this Twilight fan fiction series have been laid out pretty well for a long time, so I won't write a thesis here on it.
I read Red Queen pretty recently. I wouldn't say that I absolutely hate it, but I definitely feel alone in a sea of five star ratings for it.
Ugh. Ugh, ugh, ugh. I honestly didn't even hate Divergent that much, but I will never forgive Veronica Roth for the piece of garbage she gave us called Allegiant.
What about you? What books top your lists of polarizing books?
Thanks again to The Broke & The Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.