#7BooksChallenge

I’ve just completed my run at the #7BooksChallenge. If you haven’t been aware of this on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, its quite a simple challenge to take part in. You simply post a picture of a book cover every day for seven days and nominate someone each day to take part. When you post, don’t add a comment or review of the book. Just post and let everyone draw their own conclusions.

Well, I’m about to break that last part because I’m going to share with you why I chose each of my seven books.

I was nominated on Saturday for this challenge by Sarah Jayne Tanner, and my first question to her was “How do I pick only seven?” There are so many amazing books that I have read over the years and that have meant something to me at different times.

I eventually narrowed my choices down the to the seven I ended up posting and here’s a rundown of my chosen seven.

Of these seven books, I have read five of them, am currently reading one, and have the last one on my To Read list.

Day 1: 1984 by George Orwell

This was one of the first Classic books that I read for my own pleasure. I wasn’t studying it at school or University. I just picked it up off the shelf to enjoy for myself.

Now, you mat be thinking that ‘enjoy’ is not necessarily a word you would associate with 1984, but I did. I enjoyed it in an utterly chilling and terrifying sort of way. To this day, I count it among my all-time favourite books.

Day 2: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis

In fairness, I could have spent all seven days posting each of the Narnia books. But I limited myself to one – my favourite of the seven. One of the main reasons this is my favourite of the Narnia books is Reepicheep. How many mice (or men for that matter) do you know of that would willingly offer to engage a dragon in single combat?

Day 3: Defiance by Sarah Jayne Tanner

Sarah nominated me for this challenge and, aside from being her best friend, I am a huge fan of her work. For anyone who hasn’t heard of or read Defiance, you should! The novel follows Noah, a street fighter from the slums of a dystopian city who is kidnapped and trafficked into a programme that uses his body to fulfil the whims of the rich and powerful. Defiance is available on Amazon Kindle. Go check it out!

Day 4: Cress by Merissa Meyer

Another book taken from the middle of a series, Cress is my favourite of Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles series, which takes well known fairy tales (Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Snow White), and translates them into a futuristic, cyberpunk setting. When I first discovered the series, I read the words ‘fairy tales’ and ‘cyberpunk’ in the description and was instantly drawn in. These are fun, well written, and very clever books that take the fairy tales as a jumping off point and take them to new heights. Cress (modelled after Rapunzel) is the brilliant third instalment. I highly recommend it.

Day 5: The Body by Richard Ben Sapir

So, this is the one I haven’t actually read yet, but am very much looking forward to devouring. The Body is based around an archaeological dig in Jerusalem that uncovers the body of a man who was crucified around the first century AD and whose circumstances in burial raise the question of whether he is in fact Jesus Christ, not risen from the dead as the Gospels proclaim.

If that premise seems familiar, it may be because the book was adapted into a film of the same name in 2001, starring Antonio Banderas as a priest sent by the Vatican to investigate the discovery. I absolutely love the film and can’t wait to see how it measures up to the book.

Day 6: Heartless by Marissa Meyer

I was in two minds about posting two books from the same author, but as I struggled to choose between this and Cress on Day 4, I thought it was worth featuring Meyer twice. Heartless is an origins story for the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland. I read this book last year and all the way through, I kept wondering (dreading) just how Meyer was going to reconcile her presentation of Catherine, the sweet, caring, and forward-thinking young woman, with Lewis Carroll’s original character of the Queen of Hearts – a ruthless, ill-tempered woman, prone to outbursts of “Off with his head!”

It is one of the few books I have read and felt utterly exhausted by the end.

Day 7: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

This is my current read. I only started it a few days ago, so I’m not far into it yet, but it is a book that was recommended to me by several friends and members of my family. Everyone I talked to about gave it rave reviews and commented it was ‘right up my street’, so it seemed like the right time to delve into its pages (or whatever the Kindle equivalent is). You never know, if I like it that much, I may be adding my own review into the mix soon.

So that was my week of the #7BooksChallenge. If you haven’t participated yet, please do. It was a lot of fun and undemanding time-wise. If nothing else, leave a comment below here with what your seven books would be. I’d love to hear about them!