Top 5 Tuesday – Intimidating Books

It’s the last Tuesday of the month which means it’s time for the final Top 5 Tuesday of the month! I haven’t participated in T5T for a while so I’m so glad to be back. As usual, this is a weekly meme ran by Shanah @ Bionic Book Worm, so go check out her profile and hopefully you can join in next time too. The topic today is Intimidating Books! I know I certainly have a list of intimidating books, you know those ones that are on your ‘I’d like to read this in my lifetime but not right now because I’m kind of afraid’ books. Sometimes they’re terrifyingly long, extremely intellectual, renowned classics, or really time consuming. Some of these I already own but haven’t been brave enough to take the plunge yet and others I hope I’ll get round to at some point, even if it’s in the distant future.

 

1. IT – Stephen King

I love the thought of tackling this book but when I had a peak of it in a book shop I couldn’t believe how huge the book was. It is seriously a mountain and is probably one of King’s most known books (along with plenty of others) so it’s pretty intimidating. Despite having never seen the original screen adaptation, I did love the new film so I’m even more determined to read IT. I got my first Stephen King book for Christmas so I’m one step closer to tackling this intimidating book!

 

2. A Brief History of Time – Stephen Hawking

Sticking with the Stephen’s, another one of my intimidating reads is A Brief History of Time. I’ve always found Stephen Hawking so fascinating and I loved learning about his life in the film The Theory of Everything. I’m slightly afraid of this book as I don’t think I’ll have a clue what’s going on but I’d love to read it nonetheless!

 

3. Ulysses – James Joyce

Throughout my education I’ve heard Ulysses talked about lots, whether I was learning about the English language, literature, or drama, James Joyce’s novel seemed to pop up. This is such an iconic book that I just feel like I should read, but for some reason it seems really intimidating. I’m not sure whether it’s the links to Greek works of art, the poetic nature of the novel, or it’s link to the Modernist movement, but Ulysses is certainly on my list of intimidating books.

 

4. Lord of the Rings Trilogy – J.R.R. Tolkien

Despite having read The Fellowship of the Ring I still find this trilogy as a whole really intimidating. The first book in the series was my first ever attempt at reading a book I consider intimidating, and it’s safe to say it wasn’t easy and was very time consuming. I did enjoy the book but I won’t be picking up the huge second and third books for a while.

 

5. Les Misérables – Victor Hugo

As a drama student who used to be in an amateur dramatics company, Les Mis means a huge amount to me. It was the first amateur musical I watched that inspired me to join my company and it was the last show I did with them before I left university. I’d love to read the book that inspired the musical that changed my life, but it’s such a physically huge and therefore intimidating!

 

These are some really big, popular books that one day I’d love to read but for now they seem very intimidating. They are all influential in their own way and inspire me every day. I hope one day they can inspire some courage and determination because despite being intimidating they are not impossible! What intimidating reads would you like to pick up?

Happy reading!