This week’s topic for Top Five Wednesday is: books you would save in a fire.
Chelsey and I are going to change it up a bit.
We like to talk about our favourite books ad nauseam to the point where you’re probably sick of hearing us mention Johannes Cabal, Passage Home, Lady of Horses and Lord of the Rings. We’re not going to talk about them. If you’re interested in those books go check out our other video. Instead, we decided for the sake of some diversity, we’d talk about the top five books we would save if our favourites were already burning.
GingerReadsLainey is the founder of the Top Five Wednesday Tag. Join the goodreads group to get each week’s topic and participate yourselves!
1. THE DISASTER ARTIST -GREG SESTERO & TOM BISSELL
The Disaster Artist chronicles Greg Sestero’s first encounters with Tommy Wiseau and the eventual filming of The Room. This book is everything we dreamed it being. The memoir is funny, heartfelt and makes you feel like you were there during the filming. This book has given us so many laughs and it relates to so many good memories for us that we would both have to save out copies.
If you haven’t seen The Room we recommend you go see it in theaters. Screenings of The Room are an event in themselves. The film is given the same treatment as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, people dress up, throw things at the screen and shout. It’s a great old time. Or get a group of friends together, make a few snacks and prepare to rip it to shreds. Don’t watch it alone, it’s a lot less tolerable that way.
We did a review of The Disaster Artist which you can watch here
2. ALEXANDRA’S ENTIRE NEIL GAIMAN SHELF
Am I allowed to do that?
Alright, I doubt I could grab my entire Neil Gaiman shelf, but if had to choose I would grab American Gods or Ocean at the End of the Lane. Both these books were signed and I have really good memories about that signing. Staying at the theater until past two in the morning just for the chance to meet one of my favourite authors ever. I wrote a blog post about it.
If you haven’t read anything but Neil Gaiman, we totally recommend you check his books out. The man is magician.
Also, American Gods is being made into a TV show with Brian Fuller as the show runner. We’re more than excited for this.
3. THE RAVEN CYCLE – MAGGIE STIEFVATER
There is just so much to love about these books. They’re beautifully written, the characters are memorable and the story is so much fun and keeps throwing turns at you. At the time of filming this video there is only one more novel in the series left. The Raven King is set to come out this October.
Check out our review of the first two books in The Raven Cycle here.
4. THE ANGEL SANCTUARY – KAORI YUKI
This is a collection of twenty manga, which would normally be a problem. Not for Chelsey. She keeps it all in a book just so if it ever comes to it she can just grab it and go. okay, that’s a lie. It’s more because she doesn’t have the shelf space but that seemed like a better excuse.
Angle Sanctuary is a story about the angel Alexiel who has been deposed and forced to be reincarnated into a series of torturous existences. The story brings in characters from heaven and hell and manages to turn Christian mythology on it’s head. It’s a lot of fun.
When we were at university Chelsey left for the summer and accidentally left the box of books behind with her. I, procrastinating my summer courses discovered the box and burned through all of them.
5. THE PRINCESS BRIDE – WILLIAM GOLDMAN
The Princess Bride is a book that shaped my sense of humour as a kid. This book is so tongue and cheek and critiquing the hell out of the genre. When you take a step back and look at the relationship of Wesley and Buttercup you realize just how sparce it is. These characters are going through the motions of what we expect from a fantasy romance, but we don’t care. We still root for them because they’re just so witty and clever.
If you haven’t read this book and have only seen the film, they’re both a little different. The Princess Bride novel is presented as an adaptation of a historical text where William Goldman has cut out all the boring bits and lists and focused on the main story. This format is a lot of fun because you get some of these amazingly clever footnotes poking at the story and what we might have missed because the reader hadn’t read Buttercup’s packing list.
That was our list of books we would save in a fire. What books would you save? Tell us about them in the comments below. Consider this list as a warning to not keep all your favourite books on one shelf.
Till next week and next Wednesday always remember:
