Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, this is a weekly feature that has quickly become one of my favorites. I love reminiscing about books I’ve read and I love talking about them even more. This week’s topic is a little more forward-looking:

Top 10 Most Intimidating Books

 (Gosh, just looking at these covers makes me cringe)

#1: The Lord of the Rings – I love the movies passion – they are my all-time favorites – and I wanted nothing more than to read the books that inspired them… I made it through the Fellowship (barely) but decided to stop reading because I was basically just going through the motions. My eyes were scanning the pages, but my attention was just not there. I have read a lot of dry fantasies over the years but this one takes the cake. If it hadn’t been for the epic action-packed movies, I might have been able to get into them more. I think I’ll stick with Viggo Mortensen on this one…

#2: The Book Thief – I have yet to talk to someone who’s read this who didn’t absolutely love it. To me, it looks boring. Now, I’m sure it’s an exceptional book and rewarding to anybody who picks it up, but everything from the cover to the summary puts me off.

#3 The Lord of Chaos – I’ve read the first in this series and am in no hurry to continue on. Everybody I’ve talked to about this series says it “gets boring between books 6 – 10” so I just need to “ride it out” because he “gets better” and “it’s worth it.” That’s like three or four thousand pages of “hang in there.” Does this sound appealing to anybody else? And you know what the stupid thing is? I’ll probably read them, anyway.

#4: Touched by Venom – for some reason, I’ve had these books on my shelf for at least ten years but have yet to open one. The longer I wait, the more afraid I am that they won’t be as good as I hope they’ll be.

#5: Hominids – I find the concept of this series highly fascinating. It explores an alternate reality where Neanderthal, rather than humans, inherited the world. I’ve tried to pick it up a couple of times, but it’s so darned scientific and cerebral that he loses me. I love learning things from books, but there’s a point where story needs to be just as important as the concept.

#6: The Dark Moom – I bought these books (at a rather expensive price) over ten years ago. They’ve been collecting dust on my shelf ever since. I have no idea what they are about and am a little afraid to find out – what if I invested all that money and space for nothing? Book hoarder problems 101.

#7: Beautiful Creatures – I bought the big expensive boxed set of these books after seeing a preview for the movie. I don’t even know if I’m going to like them, but they were pretty. That kind of attitude always gets me into trouble.

#8: Way of Kings – People rave about this book. I can’t imagine not liking it after all the incredible endorsements I’ve gotten for it, but the fear is still there. This is one of the few that actually intimidates me because of its size (I’ve been reading teen to long).

#9: Aurian – I actually swallowed my fear and am currently reading this one. This author’s other series (beginning with The Heart of Myrial) was my favorite for several years. I find this one intimidating because it’s only available as a mass-market paperback and holy snot-balls is the writing tiny!  It literally hurts my face to read, but so far the story is pretty good… please expect my review sometime in 2014.

#10: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – I’m really afraid I’m not going to like this series. You see, I’m positively NOT a fan of “punchy” humor in books (such as Piers Anthony and Terry Pratchett). As Adams is sometimes held in that same category, I fear the worst. Also, I think my husband might actually divorce me if I don’t like these books.

There you have it! Does anybody else find these as intimidating as I do?