Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Almost Put Down But Didn't

I've decided to jump on board with Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week the topic is: Top Ten Books I Almost Put Down But Didn't.

I have a hard time abandoning books - oftentimes, when I do, I tell myself I'll come back to it (and I have a stack of those!). Here are some I kind of had to force myself to stick through and was so glad that I did:

1. London Falling by Paul Cornell - I'd been really looking forward to this one so it was fortunate that I came across a review by another blogger who'd made some of the same observances I did in the beginning of the book and promised that readers who stuck it out would be rewarded. It was true, the book was spectacular and I'm so glad I didn't give up on it!

2. The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison - this one came with a lot of buzz but I just wasn't loving it - at least not until the very end!

3. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson - I wasn't necessarily going to give up on this one but I did have a few false starts. It started to seem as though I'd never make it through. It is such a wonderful series, though, and one that I highly recommend to anyone looking for clever mysteries with great characters.

4. Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin - the first time I tried to read this I swore it just wasn't for me. It took me over five years to come back to it and now I'm a HUGE fangirl. We'll just say the first try wasn't the right time for me to read it.

5. Jonathan Strange &  Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke - this is seriously one of my favorite books but I struggled with it for a while. My biggest issue was having enough downtime to get through the first part without feeling like I was getting nowhere. But oh, how the book moves after that!

And here are some that I did stick through to the end but would have been better off abandoning:

1. The Witching Hour by Anne Rice - I'd dropped this one with just 100 pages to go. When I finally went back to it I realized I didn't particularly like the way it actually ended. 

2. The Pillow Friend by Lisa Tuttle - I'm almost ashamed at how much I disliked this book because I've read other works by Tuttle and really enjoyed them. 

3. Violets are Blue by James Patterson - I've liked some Patterson and been underwhelmed by others, but this was the one that made me decide not to read him anymore. I know he has a massive, massive following but he's just not my thing.

4. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin - when I read this, it was because the movie was due out and a coworker raved about this author. I really did not like this book or the movie one bit. 

5. In the Dark of Night by John Saul - sadly I've outgrown Saul. I just don't enjoy his work the same way I did when I was a teen.