Top Ten...Wednesday?

The Broke & The Bookish blog runs a weekly Top 10 tag relating to books. Usually, I don't really think to partake, as I don't think I really read enough books. But this weeks theme is Books You are Dying to Read. Which is something I can do (:

1. Posession: A Romance by AS Byatt
After reading The Children's Book, I need some more Byatt in my life. I tried reading Possession back in Year 10, when I was fifteen, and for some reason I found it kind of boring and gave up on it. It deals with both a love story and with the art of literature, and I think after studying English with more depth for a couple of years, I should be able to tackle this.

2. The Virgin in the Garden by AS Byatt
This novel begins a series of novels about Fredrica Barrett. The publisher notes in The Children's Book about this sound intriguing enough, and I really adore Byatt's prose style.

3. On Liberty by JS Mill
Granted, this is a little different to the first two, but as I hope to study Politics next year, I really want to get my teeth into Mill's essays. I have a collecton that also includes Utilitarianism (which I've studied at school) and Representative Government. I believe he also wrote an essay on the treatment of women, and came across as an early feminist-aided by his wife-which I think would also make interesting reading.

4. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
My mum has the massive World Without End but unfortunatly gave away Follett's original work in the series. Pillars of the Earth is to be made, I believe into a television series, and I would love to read this before watching that. I adore historical fiction so this seems up my street.

5. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
I've read both Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, but my copy of this book is still sat on my bookcase. I'm intrigued by reading it, as opposed to dying to read it, but as this is Woolf's most famous feminist writing, it would probably be good to read it. I'd also love to read her diaries, if they are still in print.

6. Looking for Alaska by John Green
So, I've recently been spending too much time procrastinating on YouTube, and have discovered the sheer love shown towards this novel by the American author John Green. It's Young Adult fiction, which I rarely have any interest in anymore-due to the fact its nearly always just about sex or getting drunk. Yet Green's novel appears to have a geuninly interesting plot-about a boy obsessed with 'last word's'. His others-Paper Towns and An Abudance of Katherines-seem equally good.

7. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
The idea of exploring the horrific 9/11 attacks, through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy seems incredibly interesting, especially as the novel also winds in the Allied attack on Dresden in the Second World War and the nuking of Hiroshima. It seems interesting to tie all these horrible incidents, which killed more innocents than anyone else, together.

8. The Season by William Goldman
This book follows a 'Season' (September-May) on Broadway in the 1960s. It is raved about online on theatre websites, and I'd love to read about the so-called 'Golden Era' of Broadway.

9. Solar by Ian McEwan
This has been on my 'I want to read this' list since it came out. I loved Atonement and quite enjoyed Saturday, and the set up of Solar, with a physisit suddently thrown out of joint in his personal life-he's on wife number five. I'd also really like to get to read McEwan's On Chesil Beach as well.

10. Finishing the Hat-Volume 1 by Stephen Sondheim
OK, so this isn't even out yet. But! It's a collection of the lyrics written by musical theatre's Shakespeare (no exaggeration) with his comments on them (these shows include West Side Story, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd) as well as autobiographical musings on his working with Leonard Bernstein, Oscar Hammerstein II and Angela Lansbury. I cannot *wait* for this to be released, even if it is kind of expensive.