Top 10 Auto-Buy Authors

Hey, y'all! So, last week I started participating in Top 10 Tuesday, hosted on The Broke and the Bookish, and I decided to keep on participating. This week's topic is top 10 auto-buy authors. Now, like I said last week, I typically don't get incredibly attached to authors, because I tend to focus more on whether or not individual books interest me. I have a small number that I really love, and then a bunch that I barely pay attention to. So, I'll try to compose a full top 10, but I may end up running out. So, the first few are the most important, and I'll let you know if some of them are just kinda add-ons.

1. Cassandra Clare

I mean, this is the most obvious one here. She's one of my absolute favorite authors, I've read almost all of her books, and I plan on reading all of her Shadowhunter books and (possibly) beyond. And I also plan on purchasing (and reading) the first 2 books in her Magisterium series (co-written Holly Black!) very soon.

2. Agatha Christie

Now, this might be an odd statement, since Agatha Christie is not alive and has not been for nearly 40 years. However, what I mean by this is that even though I do not currently own all of her books, I do intend on purchasing all of her books, and don't care too much about the premise of each of them individually. I know what to expect from her books, and I know that there's a very high chance that I'll enjoy them. 

3. Brandon Sanderson

This is a recent addition! I've recently started reading Sanderson's books, and have enjoyed all of them. I don't own all of his published books, and I haven't read all of the books of his that I own, but I definitely plan to read all of his books, and plan on getting all of the ones I don't own. And, of course, fitting the criteria of this list, I intend to buy his books that come out in the future. 

4. Beth Revis

Unless I've missed any, I've read all of Beth Revis' published works. And I've really enjoyed all of them. She writes really cool sci-fi/dystopians and I really respect her world-building and writing style. I've devoured everything of hers that I've read so far, and I can't wait to devour whatever she comes out with next.

5. Ernest Cline

Ernest Cline just tends to write stuff that interests me. He writes books aimed towards geeks. I mean, Ready Player One was basically a geek's ideal novel, especially if they're a geek who loves the 80s (AKA me.)

6. Jay Asher

Jay Asher is one that I'm very torn on. I loved his first book, Thirteen Reasons Why, but I wasn't such a huge fan of his second book, The Future of Us. However, both of these books had really intriguing concepts and at least had really great starting points. 

7. Victoria Schwab

This is an extremely recent addition to this list, because I hadn't read any of her books at the beginning of August. However, now that I've read both Vicious and A Darker Shade of Magic, I think I'm going to be keeping up-to-date on her new releases and buying her books when they come out.

OK, so this is the point where I'm really running out of authors because I honestly don't have any other authors whose books I buy automatically, so I'm going to go for authors whose books I'm going to be buying immediately after their release because they're continuing an ongoing series that I'm invested in. So I'm not invested in all of their books, just in the series they're currently publishing. 

8. Libba Bray

   

Libba Bray was a no-brainer here. First, she's continuing a series (The Diviners) that I'm extremely invested in, and I want to read one of her other series (The Gemma Doyle trilogy), so I could see her becoming an auto-buy author if I enjoy the rest of her books as much as I enjoyed The Diviners.

9. Samantha Shannon

Right now, she's 2 books into a 7 book series that I really enjoy, so I'll obviously be buying all the books of that series as soon as they're released. So, until she finishes The Bone Season series, she'll basically be an auto-buy author.

10. McFly

You're probably wondering what my favorite band is doing on this list. Well, I was running out of people and they have published a book, so I figured they should go on the list, because I'm obviously going to buy any other books that they publish. 

So, that's it for my post on my top 10 auto-buy authors! Next week's topic is a really interesting one that I really want to do, but I'm not sure how I'm going to approach it... so we'll see!

Check out my links below!

YouTube Channel 

Facebook

Goodreads

   

Thanks for reading! If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe/follow so that I know you're enjoying what I'm posting! See y'all soon!

Top 10 Most Read Authors

Hey, y'all! So I recently (as in a few hours ago) discovered that this weekly series called "Top 10 Tuesday" exists. This is a weekly series created by The Broke and the Bookish (link here if you want to check it out!), where each Tuesday has a certain "top 10" topic attached to it. 

This week's topic is Top 10 Most Read Authors, which was actually kinda difficult for me. I'm not sure how this works for y'all, but I definitely get more attached to genres than I do to specific authors. While there are definitely some authors that I get attached to, in general, I tend to focus more upon the book descriptions that interest me or on the genres that interest me than upon certain authors. So, because of that, there are a very small handful of authors who I've read a lot of books from, but past that, my reads are stretched across a very wide range of authors. So because of that, you'll see some authors where I've read a lot of books by them, and a lot where I've only read a handful. That being said, let's jump into the list! 

10. Peg Kehret

# of books read: ???

OK, so I honestly have no idea how many Peg Kehret books I've read. On this list, I tried to exclude authors I read when I was a kid, because I read so many books, and I simply just can't remember all of the books I read. However, I was getting to the point where I'd only read 4 books by an author, and I didn't want to get to any smaller numbers, so I just decided to talk about Peg Kehret. She was one of my favorite authors, and I read a ton of her books. But I just can't remember how many. Oops. 

9. Stephenie Meyer

# of books read: 4

She's tied with the next person on the list, but I've only read one series by her (Twilight, obvi) so I decided to give her the lower spot. Plus, I don't like her books as much as I like the books by the next person. 

8. Brandon Sanderson

# of books read: 4

This is a recent addition to the list, because until June, I hadn't read any of his books. But I fell in love with his Mistborn trilogy and really enjoyed The Rithmatist, so I completely expect him to move up this list very rapidly. He'll probably be up in the top 5 by the end of the year! New favorite author, for sure. 

7. Beth Revis

# of books read: 5

I've read almost everything (if not everything) that Beth Revis has published: her Across the Universe trilogy, The Body Electric, and The Future Collection (a collection of her short stories). I may be missing a few short stories, but that's it! She's one of my favorite authors, and I can't wait to read whatever she publishes next! 

6. Joe Hill

# of books read: 6

I actually forgot about Joe Hill until I looked at my "most read authors" on Goodreads and saw him on there. The 6 books I've read by him are the 6 books in his Locke & Key graphic novel/comic series. Not sure I'm going to be reading any more books by him, but I did enjoy the series!

5. J.K. Rowling

# of books read: 8

The first seven books that I've read by J.K. Rowling should be pretty obvious: the Harry Potter series. Although I probably should've read Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them & Quidditch Through the Ages by this point, I haven't. The only other book I've actually read by her is The Tales of Beedle the Bard. I might read some of her Robert Galbraith books, but those are probably the only other books by her that I would actually read.

4. D.J. MacHale

# of books read: 10

The books I've read by him are the 10 books of the Pendragon series, which is one of my favorite series of all-time. I don't plan on reading any more of his books, mostly because they're middle grade and don't really interest me, but I do really enjoy the ones I have read by him.

3. Cassandra Clare

# of books read: 10

Cassie Clare is most definitely among my favorite authors. I love her Mortal Instruments series and Infernal Devices trilogy, and I also enjoyed The Bane Chronicles... or at least most of it. And I also plan on reading the rest of her books as well. I also plan on reading the first two books from her Magisterium series (cowritten by Holly Black) very soon, so she'll be moving up on this list really soon.

2. Agatha Christie

# of books read: 11

Once again, Agatha Christie is one of my favorite authors. My favorite stand-alone of all time is her book, And Then There Were None, and I've also enjoyed (almost) all of the 10 books that I've read from her Poirot series. And I do plan to read many, many more of her books in the future, so I expect her to stay up high on this list, if not all the way at the top.

1. Lemony Snicket

# of books read: 13

Lemony Snicket is, of course, the pen name of Daniel Handler, but I haven't read any Daniel Handler books, so I decided to name Lemony Snicket. I almost didn't include him in this list, because I consider these books as ones that I read when I was a kid (I think I read them mostly in elementary school). However, I was running low on people, so I decided to include him and he ended up at #1! Now, I'm sure there are authors that I've read more from than Lemony Snicket, but they're all among the authors I read when I was a kid and (as mentioned earlier) I'm not including those on this list. 

So, that's it for my post on my top 10 most read authors! I definitely plan to keep doing the Top 10 Tuesday series in the future, mostly on here, but possibly on my YouTube channel as well if I decide that the topic would work better in video form. My YouTube channel is linked below, so feel free to check that out if you want to!

Check out my links below!

YouTube Channel 

Facebook

Goodreads

   

Thanks for reading! If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe/follow so that I know you're enjoying what I'm posting! See y'all soon!

Best Songs and Albums of 2014!

Hey, y'all! So, last year, I did a post talking about my top 10 songs and CDs of 2013, and I decided that I should really continue the tradition this year  (link HERE if you want to check out my 2013 faves). This year, however, there are a couple slight changes. The first of those is that I don't have a top 10 this year, at least for CDS. There were only a handful of CDs and that I really, really enjoyed in 2014, so I'm not even going to bother with trying to come up with more just to fill in places.

Last year, I also gave the songs the stipulation that they had to be singles. I didn't do that this year. My favorite songs of the year tended to be the songs that artists didn't release as singles, and I didn't want to neglect them. Last year, I also gave the stipulation that there could only be one song/CD from each artist. That's not the case this year, because I'd be neglecting several amazing songs and CDs.

Best CDs of 2014

#6: Punk Goes Pop, Vol. 6

by Various Artists

These are always just so much fun. Sometimes my biggest problem that I have with a pop song is that I hate the singer or their voice. Punk Goes Pop never fails to take the fun of pop songs and make it just a bit grittier and more enjoyable. 

Best songs: Problem by Set It Off, Royals by Youth in Revolt, and Chocolate by KnucklePuck

#5: Oh, What A Life

by American Authors

For the first half of the year, this was the only CD on my favorites of 2014. I was actually starting to worry that there wouldn't be any others on the list. I really like the folk/pop blend that American Authors create throughout pretty much all of their music. It's really interesting and pretty unique and their songs are nice to just chill out to. Plus, I really love their band name and the album's cover art/ typogrphy. Everything about this CD is just a win.

Best Songs: Heart of Stone, Hit It, Best Day of My Life, Luck

#4: That's Christmas To Me

by Pentatonix

Pentatonix can do no wrong. They're flawless, as is this Christmas CD. I generally don't listen to a ton of Christmas music, but I've listened to this SO. MUCH. I love that they switch up the parts more on this than they usually do, so that everyone gets lead more often. This just got me completely in the holiday spirit. So much fun.

Best Songs: Let It Go, White Winter Hymnal, Sleigh Ride, and Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

#3: Don't Kill The Magic

by MAGIC!

I blasted this CD all summer long, and even into the fall. I listened to it over, and over, and over. It's just so good. I love almost all of the songs, and the ones I don't quite love are still pretty good. It's just so chill but so fun. I love the reggae-pop mix that they have going on.

Best Songs: Stupid Me, Paradise, Little Girl Big World, and Mama Didn't Raise No Fool

#2: McBusted

by McBusted

I was actually slightly disappointed that this CD didn't make #1 on my list, but the one at #1 has quickly become one of my all-time favorite albums ever. Anyway, McBusted is absolutely amazing. I still love my beloved McFly more and hope that they'll decide to continue on as just McFly and Busted at some point in the future, but I did really enjoy this CD, and love them as a superband.

Best Songs: Get Over It, Air Guitar, Sensitive Guy, and Hate Your Guts

#1: PTX, Vol. III

by Pentatonix

Yes, I'm fully aware that this is only a 7 song EP and not a full-length album, but I DON'T CARE. This is flawless. I absolutely love this EP. Every song is amazing. I can't accurately express how incredible this is. It was released in September, and I've had it on an almost constant repeat ever since and I'm nowhere near sick of it. I can't imagine how Pentatonix could ever top this. It's just so amazing.

Best Songs: All of them. But since I have to choose, I'll just least them from absolute favorite to less-absolute favorite.
On My Way Home. Problem. La La Latch. Rather Be. See Through. Standing By. Papaoutai.



Best Songs of 2014
I tried really hard to order them from least favorite to favorite, but this order is pretty interchangeable, especially when it comes to #2-7.

#10: Lemonade 
by SOPHIE

This song is so random for me, because I typically don't listen to anything like this at all. But one week on Superfruit (the YouTube channel that Mitch Grassi and Scott Hoying from PTX have together), this was Mitch's song of the week, and I was curious so I went and listened to it, and I've been listening to it ever since. It's so unique and weird but super cool and I love it. 

#9: Kick Me
by Sleeping With Sirens

This is the Sleeping With Sirens that I love. It's so aggressive and angry and I'll be 100% happy if their next album sounds a lot like this song. Love the message, love the music. LOVE.

#8: Here's To The Zeros
by Marianas Trench

Marianas Trench squeaked onto the list at pretty much the last second with this song. I've been listening to it on repeat since its release in the last week of the year, and I really love it. It's got me really excited for their new CD that's coming out in the spring. And the lyrics are great. 

#7: Rather Be
by Pentatonix

I've been obsessed with this song ever since I heard Mitch's first opening theme. I'm not a huge fan of the original song, but I love this one a lot. I also think that the music video is really great. It's fun to see them just wandering around Japan, and I especially love the little Scomiche (Scott+Mitch= Scomiche) moments that we get.

#6: Air Guitar
by McBusted

This was the first single that McFly and Busted released as a single entity, and I really enjoyed it. A lot of people thought that there was too much Busted and not enough McFly, but I didn't really feel that way. I thought that Air Guitar (more than most of the songs on the CD) was a really great mix of the two bands.

#5: La La Latch
by Pentatonix

I love how this song highlights all 3 of the main singers of Pentatonix and gives them all their little moments. The video pays homage to the way that they circle up to do their arrangements. And speaking of arrangements, this one is great. They never fail to combine songs in amazing ways.

#4: Pop 101
by Marianas Trench

This song has been on repeat ever since I found out that it existed. This song is basically just Marianas Trench using the medium of a pop song and sampling pop songs to make fun of pop songs and point out all of their flaws. It's hilarious and amazing and extremely accurate. I really love this song.

#3: Problem
by Pentatonix

When this came out, I didn't listen to anything but this song for about a week. Not kidding. Even though I do still wish that Mitch had gotten to sing the really high parts, that's literally the only complaint I could make about this. Mitch's rap is perfection and so sassy. All of the sass. Kevin's beatboxing and whispers are on point. I don't even know what to call Avi's throat thing, but it's incredible too. Everything about this song is just so awesome.

#2: Get Over It
by McBusted

This is McBusted's latest single, and it's definitely my favorite from their CD. It's just so much fun and I've been listening to it on repeat for quite a while now. I love these boys, and if they continue as a supergroup into the new year, I hope that their music continues to be this awesome.


#1: On My Way Home
by Pentatonix

I don't even have the words to say how much I love this song. The first time I listened to it, my jaw hit the ground. This is by far my new favorite original Pentatonix song, and is honestly probably my favorite Pentatonix song of all-time. It has such a cool world music vibe, and the harmonies are so amazing, and I love everything about this song. LOVE LOVE LOVE.

So, those were my favorite songs and CDs of 2014! This was definitely the year of Pentatonix. It was also definitely not the best year of releases. As much as I loved the ones that were on this list, I had to abandon my usual rules in order to have lists of music that I actually really, really enjoyed. I hope that this time next year, my lists are full of 10 CDs by 10 artists and 10 songs by 10 artists, and that I'm struggling to figure out what amazing music I'm going to have to cut from the list. Wishful thinking? Probably. But with releases from at least 3 of my 5 favorite bands coming out in 2015, I'm thinking that it's going to be a great year. 

I've started doing Booktube a little as well, so if you want to check that out, you can click HERE. I plan to post most of my videos to my blog, but just in case I miss one or decide not to post it on here, that will keep you up-to date. 

I've also created a Facebook page for my blog, so if you want to check that out and like it, you can click HERE. I'll try to keep that pretty up-to-date with new posts and such.

Thanks for reading! If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe/follow so that I know you're enjoying what I'm posting! See y'all soon!

Top 10 Most-Owned Authors!

Hey, y'all! I've seen several booktubers posting videos listing the 10 authors that they own the most books from. Originally, I didn't do this one because I didn't think that I had enough authors to make a full list. However, upon reflection, I realized that I had more repeat-authors than I originally thought, so I decided that this would be fun. Plus, I think it's really interesting to see who will end up on the list.

Before I get into this, some ground rules for counting of books:
- Each book counts once, even if I have duplicate copies.
- Novellas in bind-up form (ex: Unite Me by Tahereh Mafi) count as one single book.
- However, novels in bind-up form count as their own separate entities. (AKA, if I own a bind-up of two novels, that bind-up counts as two books.
- Ebooks will also be included, but not if it's a duplicate.

Although I didn't include duplicates in the official count, I did note underneath what the count would be if I did count duplicates as separate books. It's a bit ridiculous on a couple.

10) Lloyd Alexander- 5 books

Adjusted for duplicate copies: 5
Read: 0 

Right off the bat, we have a four-way tie. Lloyd Alexander gets the last spot between the four because I own the entire Chronicles of Prydain series by him, but I haven't read it yet. I bought it because I love the Disney movie, The Black Cauldron, that is based off of the series. I got halfway through The Book of Three, and couldn't really get into it, so I just put it down. I'll get through it eventually, I just wasn't feeling it in that moment. 

9) Stephanie Meyer- 5 books

Adjusted for duplicate copies: 5
Read: 4 

Of the four-way tie, Stephanie gets the third spot because I've read most of her books, but don't plan on reading any more. I haven't read The Host, and I'm not sure I want to anymore, but I have read the Twilight Saga. Several times. 

7) Scott Westerfeld- 5 books

Adjusted for duplicate copies: 5
Read: 4 

I totally forgot about Scott Westerfeld and didn't even consider the fact that he could make it onto this list, because the only books on my bookshelf by him are Pretties and Specials, books 2 & 3 from his Uglies trilogy. However, I forgot that I had Uglies, the 1st book in that trilogy, in e-book and books 1&3 from his Midnighters trilogy (The Secret Hour and Blue Noon, respectively) on my bookshelf at home. Of the 5 I own, the only one I haven't read is Specials. But it's been so long since I read the other 4 that I can't remember much about either series. I plan to change that soon!

7) Rick Riordan- 5 books

Adjusted for duplicate copies: 5
Read: 3 

Finally, rounding out the 4-way tie, Rick gets the top spot because I plan on buying more of his books fairly soon. I've only read the first 3 Percy Jackson books, but I do plan on finishing the series and continuing on to The Heroes of Olympus. 

6) Stephen King- 6 books

Adjusted for duplicate copies: 6
Read: 1 

 

I'm laughing at the 666 action going on with this one, especially since it's Stephen King, the KING (LOL bad pun) of horror. As you see from the pictures above, I own Carrie, Under The Dome, and the first two books in The Dark Tower series. At home, I also have The Shining and Everything's Eventual, which is a compilation of short stories. But I've only read Carrie all the way through. I almost got through The Shining but put it down for some reason. 

5) J.K. Rowling- 8 books

Adjusted for duplicate copies: 20
Read: 8 

As an avid Harry Potter fan, I probably should own Quidditch Through The Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but I don't. Eventually. But I do, of course, have the entire series, as well as The Tales of Beedle the Bard. I re-read the series for the millionth time over the summer as part of my Summer Reading Challenge, and you can click here to check that out, if you'd like.

Explanation for duplicate copies: I have all the Harry Potter books in e-book form and in hardcover. When I first got the books, I got the first 5 in paperback. So 7 + 7 + 5+ Tales of Beedle the Bard= 20. I feel no guilt or shame for this.

4) D.J. MacHale- 10 books

Adjusted for duplicate copies: 16
Read: 10

We have another tie with 10 books apiece. DJ got the lower spot because the author at #3 has a new book coming out next month that I'm definitely, without a doubt, getting. Anyway, I love the Pendragon series. It was also part of my Summer Reading Challenge this summer, so you can click here to check that out. This series isn't super well-known, but it's one of my absolute favorite series of all-time. It's so beautiful.

Explanation for duplicate copies: I originally had books 1-6 in paperback, and re-purchased them in hardcover.

3) Cassandra Clare- 10 books (11th coming soon)

Adjusted for duplicate copies: 15
Read: 9 

Basically, I have all of Cassandra Clare's books. I would show pictures of my actual copies, but they're scattered between home and school. Like I said in DJ's explanation, he and Cassie are tied, but since The Bane Chronicles is coming out soon, and there is absolutely no way that I'm not buying that, I put her in the higher spot. Also, I read all of these except The Shadowhunter's Codex this summer, so if you wanna check out my Summer Reading Challenge, you can click here.

Explanation for duplicates: I originally had Clockwork Angel in paperback and found an inexpensive hardcover. I have e-books of City of Bones, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, and City of Lost Souls because my copies are at home. 

 

2) Lemony Snicket- 13 books
Adjusted for duplicate copies: 13

Read: 13

I have all 13 books in the Series of Unfortunate Events. I kinda want to re-read these sometime soon, but I don't want to end up changing my opinion on them, because I'm worried I won't like them as much now that I'm older. So, I dunno. Maybe they'll get re-read soon, maybe they won't.

1) Agatha Christie- 25 books
Adjusted for duplicate copies: 26

Read: 9

These are not all of my Agatha Christie books, but it's the majority of them. If you'd like a full run-down of the books in this picture and whether or not I've read them, you can click here to check out my home bookshelf tour. There are 20 books in the picture above, but one is a duplicate. I also have And Then There Were None, Evil Under The Sun, and a bind-up of Sleeping Murder and Murder at the Vicarage in physical form, as well as ebook copies of The Mysterious Affair at Styles and Secret Adversary. Of these 25, I have read 9. But since I paid like $1 for most of them, I don't feel too bad about them. I can afford to take a while with these. She has a lot of books.

Explanation for duplicates: A lot of her books have been re-named in the years since their release, so I accidentally picked up 2 copies of After The Funeral/ Funerals are Fatal.

So, there you go, those are my top 10 most owned authors! A couple of them actually surprised me! This list will probably be out of date fairly soon, so maybe I'll make another one sometime. Not in the near future. At least 6 months from now. 

I've also created a Facebook page for my blog, so if you want to check that out and like it, you can click HERE. I'll try to keep that pretty up-to-date with new posts and such.

Thanks for reading! If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe/follow so that I know you're enjoying what I'm posting! See y'all soon!