Top Ten Tuesday: Books I'd Play Hooky With

I realize that it's Thursday.  But due to a downpour of homework, I had to be semi-responsible and postpone thinking about books.  It was a horrible feeling.  Now I'm just tempted to do what this list from the Broke and the Bookish is asking me to do: play hooky with books.

I've done this before.  Some people play hooky to go the beach, go to a theme park, wreak havok, etc. Me? I stay in bed and read books.  Or do homework.  But mostly books.

Top Ten Books I'd Play Hooky With

1. Harry Potter series 4-7. 
Honestly, I'd play hooky for any of the seven books, but the last four are just so damn heavy that it's too much of a hassle to cart them into work every day to read on the train.  Once I get going, I can read them in a day, so really it just makes sense to take a day off and read them.  Of course, once I read one, I need to read the next one which just sets off a reading frenzy until I finish Deathly Hallows and that awful feeling like I've been punched in the stomach because that's the end of the road.

2 + 3. Wishful Drinking and Shockaholic, Carrie Fisher
After I read Wishful Drinking a few weeks ago, I could not stop telling people how Christopher Walken was on the list of actors to play Han Solo.  Think of how that movie would have turned out.  But I digress. The real doozy came from my realization that Debbie Reynolds was Carrie's mother.  I'm still digressing.  I read both of these books in one sitting and refused to do anything else until I was finished.  She's hysterical and ridiculously honest.  I usually only read memoirs once, but they were so fascinating and funny that I would consider taking a day off to read through them again if I needed a day to cheer up.

4. The Eight, Katherine Neville
This is one of the best historical fiction books I've ever encountered. It goes back and forth between present day and the French Revolution.  It's definitely worth skipping work to read.  DO IT.

5. The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Szelznik
Now that I have historical fiction on my mind, and also because I just glanced over at a shelf full of graphic novels, this book can be read in one sitting, so it's not really something you'd have to skip work to finish.  But it wouldn't hurt.

6. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
I was going to try to refrain from mentioning this one, but I actually know many people who have skipped class or work to finish reading this book.  I didn't even like it when I first started reading it - that first chapter is a snoozefest until you understand what's going on - but I constantly found myself wishing I didn't need the money my work so graciously gives me so I could stay home and read.



7. Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin
I've never read these books. If I had time to, I would in a heartbeat.  One, to get everyone off of my back for having not read them yet; and two, I'll never be able to stomach watching the HBO series, but I like knowing what people are talking about and reading would obviously help. 

8. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
I've recently felt a desire to read everything Neil Gaiman has written, I think this is thanks to Twitter, so taking a day...or twenty, to devote to this project would be wonderous.

9. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Seriously.  I've read about half of the book already, but then grad school started up, and coupled with work, it just became too much of a struggle to read.

10. Ender's Shadow, Orson Scott Card
This is the last book I read that I hated having to put down to go do real work.  I ended up staying up until about 3AM one night to finish, which made work a bit of a struggle the following day.  Calling in sick clearly would have been the wise decision.  And then I could have started on the next one...