Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature once hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, but has now moved to That Artsy Reader Girl! Each week, a new topic is put into place and bloggers share their top ten (or your own amount) accordingly.
This week’s topic is First Ten Books I Review. I initially wanted to make this a booktube video, but the timing was a real struggle. One day, inshaAllah. I tried to use this week to reflect on my older reviews, and what do I remember about said book and what do I think about it today.
Okay, wow, I completely forgot that this was the book that kickstarted my blog. I remember angrily typing this review at 12 am. I was slightly disappointed when I discovered that Zoella used a ghostwriter to help with her book. I don’t think I mentioned it in my review, but I actually have no issue with celebrities using ghostwriters but when you fail to mention it is where I found problems with. I have to admit this book has completely fallen off my radar so rereading my review made me laugh so much.
Honestly, this is probably the only book on this list that I still reread to this day. Iconic, beautiful and amazing.
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
WHY DO I HAVE NO MEMORY OF WRITING THIS? But it looks like I didn’t enjoy it at all.
Okay, this one made me laugh a lot. I read this in college as a part of a buddy read with a friend. I believe we found this on BookBub.com where we randomly chose books of the emails we received and reviewed. I do not have any fond memories of this, and I’d instead not reread it.
When I started my book blog, and I really started it with the intention that I was reading for me. During my teens, everything I “enjoyed” was because my friends introduced me to it. And TFiOS was one of them. To be honest, I have no issue with John Green, but I honestly don’t like his books and I kind of regret forcing myself to enjoy them because my friends did. I actually had a more positive review on my old Goodreads account, but I replaced it with this one because I couldn’t in good faith keep recommending it when I didn’t actually enjoy it.
Duncan MacCrae, the only man I trust in this book. I kind of want to pick this back up just so I can see if he got a good ending. But everything else in this book disinterested me so much which makes me hesitant.
I love that I keep saying in these reviews that I would read the next one and Not Do That.
The same friend from #4 recommended me this book and I still remember the buzz of staying up all night long to read this. I LOVED IT SO MUCH.
I really sped through this series despite having exams at the same time huh. College me did not know how to prioritise. Current university me doesn’t know either but STILL. Still sort of disappointed with how this series kind of ended, but it’s a good memory.
WOW, my first ever accepted NetGalley request. I remember being so giddy and happy when I got accepted. NetGalley has been such an excellent resource for me to receive arcs since I struggle to email publishers. I vaguely remember the books, but I do remember enjoying this a lot more.
Reflection
From this set of reviews, I can really see a shift in my review style. If I started my blog in 2019, I definitely wouldn’t have read most of the books on this list. I was a slightly negative reviewer in my early days, reviewing books I should’ve known I wouldn’t have liked. Now, I’m more set in what I like and dislike and I do follow a lot of reviewers whose opinions I really trust to decide what book is for me. As I mentioned, looking back on myself, I was so negative and annoying all the time. There’s no issue with a negative review but I personally found myself so eager to start arguments over books I didn’t like. I started off so negatively, it’s funny to see how I’ve changed. Now, if I found myself writing a negative review, I usually keep it within the space of the review and leave it at that.
What’s on your TTT this week? Leave me a link or let me know in the comments!
as told by zaheerah 
Definitely some blasts from the pasts with these books. I agree, it’s really interesting to look back and see how we’ve all changed and grown from when we first started reviewing. I think I’m much less dramatic than I used to be lol
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Same! I remember everything being so new and different and I used to post so randomly! I’ve definitely toned down a lot since the start as well.
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Angelfall was amazing and I just heard today that the author has a new book on the way!
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Omg no way! Thanks for telling me! I definitely need to check it out!
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I have the same reaction to ghostwriters who are hidden!
My TTT.
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