Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish!
Okay, this is going to be the loosest use of the definition of “intimidating” in all of time and space. I taught myself to read at 3 and read and can read 700 page books in a disturbingly short period of time, so “intimidating” isn’t usually what I apply to books–I tend to look at challenging books as a challenge of how long it’ll take me to finish them. But anyways. Here we go (in no particular order)!
1. Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer
This is one of the latest books that my book club, Bibliomancy for Beginners, has read, and it was intimidating because the pages were die-cut. It was a really crazy and clunky read that was just … weird, I guess.
2. Gameboard of the Gods (The Age of X #1) by Richelle Mead
With this one, I just really wanted to like it because I adore Mead’s Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series. I also hadn’t read an adult paranormal romance in a WHILE. I gave it 3 stars, so I guess it went fairly well.
3. Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
Another Bibliomancy for Beginners book, this one was a collection of short stories by a person that I’ve had hyped up in my head for years now. I’m just not a short story person, though.
4. Uses for Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt
Between the subject matter and the fact that this one is told in a verse-style, I should have known I wouldn’t like it. I just never expected to have such a dramatically bad reaction to it.
I signed up for the blog tour for this one, knowing that it was going to be a thriller and scared to death about it. I don’t do well with scary books. Thankfully, I made it out unscathed. Mostly. 😉
6. Defiance (Defiance #1) by C. J. Redwine
This one was only intimidating because it was the first book I ever received from Edelweiss and I really didn’t want to muck anything up.
7. City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments #4) by Cassandra Clare
The Mortal Instruments was only supposed to be a trilogy, and this book scared the crap out of me on a number of levels. It honestly confirmed a lot of those fears, but thankfully City of Lost Souls restored most of my faith.
8. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
I had heard so much about this book, but I didn’t think there was any way I was going to like it. I wasn’t even sure I should try, given the strangeness of the narration style. But I did, and I’m SO GLAD.
9. The Immortal Rules (The Blood of Eden #1) by Julie Kagawa
The first “big name” book I ever received for review. Nuff said.
10. The Unfailing Light (The Katerina Trilogy #2) by Robin Bridges
The amount of mythology in the first book was staggering. The second book was the first physical ARC a publisher had ever sent me. Much intimidation all over the place.
My Life is a Notebook 
The Mortal Instruments are on my TBR list. I just started reading Clockwork Angel so I hope to read the rest of the Infernal Devices series before TMI. 🙂
That’s an interesting way to read them! Stop back and tell me how that goes; I’m curious how that would read. I read TMI before TID!
Nice list! 🙂
Haven’t read some of these, but the ones I have are definitely challenging/intimidating! Not so much by the content but by the “OMG what if I don’t like this? What if I don’t review it correctly? What if, what if, what if…” I’m not so much intimidated by books because, like you, I’ve been reading since I was a little kid. But there are some books that I get nervous about starting, mostly because they’re so well-loved and I’m scared I won’t like them and will be that weird kid. haha
It seems like at this point I’m determined to dislike all the ones that get hyped up around me. I have no idea why – I certainly WANT to like them. But … I dunno. It’s weird. Like, Sweet Evil and The Collector were two that I saw EVERYWHERE and I was like “…eh.”
I bought Tree of Codes, simply because I love his other books and I thought the concept behind Tree of Codes was very interesting. But…. I haven’t read it. I started but like you, found it clunky – certainly not a ‘relaxing’ read!
I have “Gameboard” in my library bag right now! I may get to it before it is due back. 3 Stars is good. Great list.
Tsuki’s TTT