Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books I Picked Up On A Whim

As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish


This week's topic is books we picked up on a whim, not because they were recommended to us, or we'd read a lot of reviews about them.

1) I was 9, and we were at my favorite bookstore. My parents told me I could pick out one book that they would buy for me. I was a big Nancy Drew fan who was just starting to explore other mystery books, and pulled this one off the shelf. It's been my favorite book ever since, for over 20 years, and I re read it at least once a year.

2) This was a recent whim. I was at Barnes and Noble using a holiday gift card I had gotten, and saw this in the mystery section. I actually didn't buy it then, but was intrigued enough by the idea that it was a cozy mystery surrounding the possibility of a new Agatha Christie play that I ordered it when I got home.

3) I saw this on the shelf of a great independent bookstore near where I used to live. A true crime book involving Edgar Allan Poe was a book I knew I had to read.

4) This was an ARC I picked up at ALA. I thought it looked really intriguing, and it ended up being a really great read.

5) This was another ALA ARC I picked up on a whim, and it ended up being one of my favorite reads of that year.

6) I remember being drawn to this book when I was browsing on Amazon because the product description made it sound like it might be reminiscent of one of my all-time favorite books, The Secret History. It ended up surprising me with just how good it really is.

7) This was another ALA ARC. I was immediately drawn to it because it was billed as a psychological thriller in a Hitchcockian vein. 

8) I had heard nothing about this when I picked it up at a used book sale-it honestly sounded way more science fiction than the books I am typically drawn to. But the description on the back was just intriguing enough to make it so I had to read it.

9) This was on the Mystery table at a recent book swap. I've loved psychological suspense books set on college campuses since I first read The Secret History, and even though I'd never heard of The Sixes before, it immediately became one of the books I brought home with me.

10) I remember this was on a display table at a bookstore in Michigan. As soon as I read the inside cover, I knew I had to read this book. I've since re read it multiple times, and even interviewed the author.

What are some books you picked up on a whim? Did you like them?