Top Ten Tuesday (TTT) brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish.
May 17: Ten Books I Picked Up On A Whim (however you decide to interpret that (bought or read or something else) — I know most people read based on recommendation but we want to know those books you picked up without really hearing about or knowing much about!)
I am notorious for walking into the library to pick up a book on hold and then walking out with an extra five books in my arms. I love to just browse and see what strikes my fancy. My little guy now asks me to pick out books for him. “I don’t know what I want to read. Pick out something I’d like, Mom.”
The Top Ten Books I Never Heard Of
I’m limiting this to ten books, but I could easily double or even triple the number.
Currently Reading
Just randomly picked this book up a few weeks ago:
- Nooks & Crannies – I was looking for something to listen to in the car with my 9 year old. We are both loving this children’s mystery.
Library and Bookstore Random Finds
These books I walked by and couldn’t pass up.
- The Girl on the Train – Honestly, I hadn’t heard of it when I picked this one up. It was new to me!
- The Outsmarting of Criminals – I loved the cover.
- The Yard – I can’t say no to a Scotland Yard thriller, and Alex Grecian proved an excellent choice.
- Landline – I hadn’t heard of Rainbow Rowell but this cover called out to me. I’m so glad it did. One of my favorite books I read last year.
- Death of a Village – I was looking for a new cozy mystery series to try and settled on this book. Hamish Macbeth is now my go-to series.
- Well Schooled in Murder – My first Inspector Lynley, I discovered this book about 20 years ago.
- Timebound – Technically, I didn’t find this one at a bookstore. It was offered as a Kindle First book and I’m so glad I decided to try it.
Fabulous ARC Requests
Sometimes you enter a giveaway for a book (and author) you’ve never heard of, and you just get lucky.
- The Mapping of Love and Death – It’s hard to believe but a few years ago I had never heard of Maisie Dobbs or Jacqueline Winspear. So glad I won this through Goodreads Giveaways!
- Three Martini Lunch – I just read this one, and I loved it.
What about you? What lucky book did you randomly happen upon? Let me know in the comments below, and link up to your own TTT if you’ve got one!
Hidden Staircase 
We read Nooks and Crannies recently – so cute!
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I love it! We are having so much fun guessing our own theories.
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I would defintely have picked up The Outsmarting of Criminals on that cover alone! I’m pretty sure The Yard is on my TBR just because of the cover! The majority of my whims come from the library because it’s so easy to convince myself to just pick it up!
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I know, I love the library. And they are so good at strategically placing great looking covers around. 🙂 I always walk out with a ton of books.
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Timebound was so awesome! I really need to continue with that series! If you haven’t read it, I bet you would also like All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill. 🙂
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I need to finish the series as well! If all three books (and novellas) would have been out when I read Timebound I would have devoured them. I’m actually listening to the audio book right now to get back into it before I dive into book 2. 🙂 Thanks for the recommendation. I am going to check that out!!
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I love the cover for Outsmarting Criminals too!! I loved Landline and The Girl on the Train last year. I am really excited for Three Martini Lunch after your review!!
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I hope you like it – Three Martini Lunch was a great period book. I thought it really captured the late 1950s and the different counter culture going on in NYC.
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Less than half a year until the Girl on the Train adaptation and I can finally seek answers to all these Gone Girl comparisons I hear everywhere. I should probably stop rewatching the trailer too — I feel as though it spoils a lot but I can’t help myself haha.
Cheers,
Joey via. thoughts and afterthoughts.
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I haven’t watched the trailer yet. I liked Girl on the Train better than Gone Girl myself. It will be interesting to see how they adapt the movie – GIllian Flynn wrote the script for the Gone Girl movie so it stayed *really* true to the book. I’ll def be checking it out when it comes to the theaters!
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I’m super surprised that you hadn’t heard of Girl on the Train prior to picking it up. I think everyone was talking about how it was the next Gone Girl or something like that before its release. And same for me with Rainbow Rowell, I honestly didn’t learn of her until I started blogging actually!
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I know, can you believe it? I randomly picked it up at the library before I had heard anything. I’m sure if I hadn’t seen it, I would have heard about it soon after. 🙂 Same with me on Rainbow Rowell, I read Landline and then realized she wrote YA fiction as well that everyone was raving about!
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I don’t go to the library much anymore but some of the best finds are at the library! (My weakness are those spotlighted shelves with the “librarians’ recommendations.” XD
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Oh my gosh yes. Those spotlights get me every time!
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