Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly book meme run by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme is simple yet fun, as all I had to do was grab 10 books randomly from my shelf. I have a lot of books scattered around, however, so some of them were taken from the back of my actual bookshelf and others were taken from the stacks of books on the table next to my desk. I can’t help but fret a little that my selection doesn’t feel as random as it should, but in the spirit of things I kept it as they were selected.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

I haven’t read this book yet, but I bought my copy because I really enjoyed the cover texture and binding of it when I came across it in the book section of a department store. I’ve read some Verne before, so there’s a better chance I’ll read this someday as I have a better idea of what I’ll be getting into.

Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule

This book I read back in 2021, and it kicked off the new era in Star Wars fiction known as The High Republic. Sadly, I haven’t read nearly as much from this series since then, but this book introduced some great new characters, both heroes and villains alike, that have me excited to finally continue these books.

The Acolyte by Nick Cutter

Another that I haven’t read before, I picked this up a while ago from a thrift store. I’ve read a couple of Cutter’s books now and really enjoyed them—they have a bit of a Stephen King feel, though no King book has matched the effective gross-out horror of The Troop—so I was happy to add this to the collection. There’s another I’ll probably check out before this one, though.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

This book I read back in university for a class on dystopian visions in literature. It didn’t leave a massive impression on me except for, oddly, a moment that has since left me questioning whether or not the author made something up/guessed about female anatomy. I don’t remember it verbatim, so maybe I misunderstood something. Other than that questionable detail, it’s a fine science fiction novel with a compelling mystery regarding what is really going on.

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

Yet another book I’ve read before, I didn’t think this novel was as good as the film adaptation that came out back in the 1990s. I found Heinlein way too focused on the idea that this political system so centred around military service is the ideal way to run a society; it was far too idealized. Still, it was interesting as a seminal work in science fiction. My review of this book was also the one and only time a commenter took it upon themselves to berate me for my opinion. It was then I knew, in a small way, that I’d made it.

Sarah Court by Craig Davidson

I have and have read a good number of Davidson’s novels now, and I actually think this is my least favourite one. That’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with it, it just left the weakest impression on me compared to his other books, some of which I read a few years before this one. All the same, it was a good collection of stories of different people/families living at a particular building.

Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden

This book is a favourite of mine from the syllabus of a Native North American literature course I took in university, following two Indigenous Canadians during and after the First World War. It includes one of the rare instances where a line from a book has stuck out in my mind, even many years later. I’m certain this isn’t exact, but it goes “So many dead men lay there that if the forest ever returns, the trees will have skulls in their branches.”

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

Yet another book I’ve read before, I picked this up for school but actually skipped reading it until doing so on my own terms years later (it was optional to skip some books, and I elected to with this one). I’m not sure what exactly made me a fan of DeWitt, as this isn’t the first book of his I ever read, but it definitely helped. It’s a Western about two bounty hunter brothers that become caught up in a scheme to use chemicals to find gold more easily than anybody else, with disastrous results.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Though I’m not sure I’d actually rank this among my most favourite Gaiman books, it is one of his most well known for a reason. Even though it’s been many years since I read it, a lot of it has stuck with me all these years later and is an easy go-to recommendation.

Paradise Lost by John Milton

This, I have not read. It is part of a pair of epic poems I own books of that I swear I’ll read someday, but I find them so intimidating that I have a hard time committing to actually starting them. I have read The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid though, so there’s precedent for me being able to do it, at least. I feel like I’ll be saying I’m going to read this one for a while yet, and I’ve already owned it for while as is.

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Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own list down below.