Roof Beam Reader
Adam Burgess
Book Bloggers Made Me Do It #BBAW
It’s the third day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week and we’ve got a new blog topic to discuss! Here’s what the fearless leaders came up with: Day 3 Have you ever read a book because of a book blogger? Be it a good book or bad, bloggers recommend books every day of the year. Sometimes we take their advice and it’s great! Hello every graphic novel I’ve ever read! Sometimes, it’s not so great. Damn you Like Water for Chocolate (ducks). Today, tell us all about the book or books you’ve read because of a book blogger and be sure to sure to spread the blame around.
Okay. I think I can handle this. There must be many, many books that I’ve read based solely on the recommendation (urging, pleading, threatening) of book blogger friends. But I’ll stick to just the first five that come to min.
1. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
II am fairly certain that I would have read this book sooner or later, but a few years ago Jillian and I and a few others started The Classics Club. I learned then (and have been reminded many times throughout the years) that Jill adores Gone With the Wind. So, I put it on my club list and got to it a year or so later. I don’t regret it! I hadn’t seen the movie, either, but after reading the book I had to compare. Anyway, here are my thoughts on the book!
2. The Saga series by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
As a kid, I was a pretty big fan of comic books. I loved the X-Men, Adam Warlock, the Avengers, and more. I got really into the Death of Superman storyline, and all the new supermen to follow. As well as the darker Batman stories, like A Death in the Family. After my teenage years, though, and after discovering “real” books, I kind of let my love of comics fall by the wayside. I think the only comics I read between the age of, oh, fourteen and twenty, was probably Marvel’s Civil War series. About a year ago, I was in the mood to revisit. I sent out a tweet about how to get back into comics/graphic novels, and the overwhelming response was to try SAGA. I did. I’m in love. I’m obsessed! I even gave the first few volumes to my comic-book-reading brother-in-law for Christmas last year.
3. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
Years ago, I read Plath’s The Bell Jar and really enjoyed it. Or, well, “enjoy” is probably the wrong word for a book like that. But I responded to it, appreciated it. I hadn’t visited Plath again because I have never been much of a poetry reader (this has changed in the last year or so). It was my friend Amy’s love of Plath, though, coupled with my preparing for doctoral field exams in American Literature, which lead me to read Ariel. And oh my goodness. I’ve written my thoughts on it, and I’ll leave it there. I’m not sure what else to say. Thanks, Amy!
4. Germinal by Emile Zola
Zola is someone who I had heard of but never knew anyone who had actually read him (or at least not recently or extensively). But then I met O from Behold the Stars who just raves about Zola. I took a chance and read this masterpiece, and it is just that, a masterpiece! Zola reminds me quite a bit of one of my favorite American writers, John Steinbeck, so of course I enjoyed the book. I’m looking forward to reading more (I’ve got a couple of his others on my shelves… it’ll happen).
5. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
This one, like Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus is one of those books where I just caved into the overwhelming book blogger pressure. Yes, peer pressure exists in the book blogging world! In both cases (and, honestly, I just went with Station Eleven because it was the most recent) the book actually lived up to the hype. I recall seeing this one plastered all over Twitter and a number of blogs, to rave reviews. I’m glad I trusted my book blogging pals and took the chance, it was a super cool read. I think the next one I’ll be “pressured” into reading is The Library at Mount Char, which I bought during the hype but haven’t read, yet. Here’s my review for Station Eleven.
Roof Beam Reader 
YOU MENTIONED ME! 🙂 I owe you for Walden, sir. And shall owe you for Melville and Huck Finn and War & Peace and a great many others, once I read them. x
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Oh, gosh, you’ll be so indebted! 😉
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Hello Jillian! Was just saying…I owe you for Gone with the Wind too.:D
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Hello, Risa! I’ve missed you! I owe you for Sense & Sensibility! xox
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The Classics Club got me to read Gone With the Wind, too. What a book!
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Yes, it is! Really took me by surprise.
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I’ve loved Gone With the Wind for years, but Jillian widened my knowledge and appreciation of it for sure! I adored Station Eleven and The Night Circus (which I got from you). Germinal has been on my TBR for years. I have got to read it!
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Germinal is SO good! You’ll love it.
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Oh, Saga and Station Eleven are definitely two of mine as well. Saga in particular is SO beloved around the blogosphere, and I am thrilled I got the recommendation to pick it up early in its run. It’s been so fun following the story as it develops.
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Agreed! It’s a wild ride – I love it. Can’t wait for the next volume. 😀
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I bought the first volume of Saga last month and I’m excited since everybody seems to love it. I also have Ariel on my TBR but I shy away from it because I’m not that big a reader of poetry. Plath intimidates me, although I really enjoyed The Bell Jar.
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Ariel is wonderful! I’ve never been much of a poetry person, either, but I read Ariel along with Robert Lowell’s Life Studies, both of which are confessional collections, and the experience really changed my mindset. I still don’t read much poetry, but definitely quite a bit more than I used to (I’m nearly finished with another collection, actually – a 60 year anthology of Beat poetry published by City Lights).
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Oh! I owe Jillian for Gone with the Wind too! It is such a beautiful book, I couldn’t put it down at all. Read it in four days (and that’s with two little boys hanging round my neck!).:D Oh memories…
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Germinal is one of my favorites and yay for Plath!
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I’ve been meaning to start Saga and I loved Station Eleven!
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YES to Zola!!! Germinal is just amazing. I also highly recommend La Bete Humaine, which has a jaw-dropping ending, and Pot-Bouille, which is completely different, kind of a satire about the bourgeois residents of an apartment building. I think one of the residents is actually supposed to be Zola himself.
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Station Eleven is definitely one I read because of bloggers! And, I loved it, so yay!
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Station Eleven, Night Circus, and Saga. I read them all because I heard of them so much. I loved the Night Circus and Saga was fun. Unfortunately, I didn’t like Station Eleven as much as I thought I would but I enjoyed reading it.
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You know, I had a kind of weird reaction to Station Eleven, too. I really did like it, but I also had some strange feelings about it. I’m not sure how to explain it.
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Yea, it was strange. I couldn’t quite pinpoint why exactly I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would but it is a good book to read. I love how the author makes today’s society seem like a fairy tale to the kids born after the pandemic. That effect was wonderful.
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