Top Ten Tuesday ★ 8

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to The Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

How it works: 

I assign each Tuesday a topic and then post my top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join me and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information. You’ll find the schedule of upcoming TTT topics below so you can plan ahead. I’ll post a Linky here on the blog each week so you can link up your post (if you want). If you don’t have a blog, post your picks in the comment section below! Have tons of fun talking books and getting to know your fellow bloggers!

NOTE: If a weekly topic is listed as a “freebie”, you are invited to come up with your own topic. Sometimes I will give your topic a theme, such as “love”, a season, or an upcoming holiday. That just means that you can come up with any topic you want that fits under that umbrella.

 - Jana of The Artsy Reader Girl

Books That I Refuse to Let Anyone Touch

In this Top Ten Tuesday, I'll be sharing the books that I turn into Gollum over. When I told my mum the topic for this week's TTT, she had a good laugh and told me to start the list off with Cat in a Hat and Peter Pan. The story is that I was violently possessive of my books even before I was out of diapers. As soon as I started teaching myself to read, nobody was allowed to touch my books. Since I lost most of my books in the House from Hell, *shudder*, I'm more than a bit Smaug-like concerning all of my books now. But I still have some favourites.

Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

I fell in love with La Divina Commedia, originally titled Commedia when I was a small child. My mum would take me to her college for classes and, if Jess didn't come with us, I either went to class with her or I got to go to the library! The librarian was so nice about it and taught me the Dewey Decimal System and showed me how to reshelf books because I wanted to help. And then I found this book and I still have no idea why it fascinated me so much but it did. It launched a decades-long obsession. Anyways, I had a leatherette edition from Harvard once but it was lost to the House from Hell. But I got this one for a birthday gift when we didn't have any money to speak of and I kept it at my friend's house so it was safe. It's an illustrated copy of one of my lifelong favourites and I adore it ever so much.

Goong by Park So-Hee

궁  작성자 : 박소희

My friend, Tammy, went to Japan on a second honeymoon with her husband and she found a little bookstore and bought this for me because I was learning Japanese at the time. It's been ten years since then and I still haven't had the heart to tell her that it's a Korean manhwa and not a Japanese manga. It's actually one of the deciding factors that prompted me to start learning Korean.

The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber

I love this book. I read it when I first started knitting after Quinton died and I had the brilliant idea to take on the knitting of Alix's Shawl as one of my first projects ever. Y'all. I had no idea what I was doing but I did it and I was dying. But I did it. So this book is precious to me because it gave me a pattern that I wanted to make so badly even though it challenged my humble beginner skills. I had to buy a new copy of the book because of the House from Hell, but it's still precious and nobody is allowed to touch it.

Bloodleaf by Crystal Smith

If you follow my Instagram, you know that I received an ARC of Bloodleaf in a giveaway (yes, it's on the schedule) and it is gorgeous! That cover kills me. And I bought the ebook so I can be as notetaking as I please without worrying about keeping the book safe. And this shiny gorgeous book is off-limits to my bibliophile family members. No touchy, tis mine.

Okay, that's all for me, y'all. It's not ten, but whatever. I'm working on some extra posts so who knows what's coming up, not me. I should, but I don't. Until next time, have a happily ever after, readers!