Top Ten Tuesday is an awesome weekly theme post written by Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl, even though I am super mad at her right now because this week’s topic is a “freebie,” and that is way too much leeway for me to work productively – I don’t do well under pressure, as a natural-born procrastinator.

I figured I’d remedy this by looking at other people’s posts, but then I just felt like everyone else in the world was more brilliant than I was, so I had a small pity party, drank some coffee, and put on my big girl panties.

ANYWAY. All this to say, this week’s theme for me is:

Top Ten Books That I Think Would Make Excellent Video Games

I love video games, and if I am not reading I am probably on my PC, playing Overwatch or watching a friend’s Twitch stream. So it felt only natural to combine two of my greatest, lifelong loves into one TTT post. There are a lot of books that I read and think, “wow, this would make a great movie/TV series,” but I also tend to think of books as more interactive! So without further ado, here are ten books that I think would be amazing to play out in real-time as a video game:

• – I am not putting Harry Potter here because it’s too obvious! Assume I have that as number 11 on this list, because duh. We all want that Harry Potter MMORPG and I am no exception.

1. Matilda. Can you just imagine running around a school, using your powers to manipulate time and space and also to beat up your evil principal? Smuggling books into your house so you can increase your knowledge stat without your parents finding out?
2. Gone Girl. I know! But wait. Hear me out. You play as Amy, and your job is to plant as much doubt in your husband’s mind as you can. It is a game of psychological manipulation, and in order to win you must fly under the radar while planting seeds of distrust, all the while still acting normal.
3. Truly Devious. Maureen Johnson’s latest book would make a perfect mystery video game, and I am certain that as the series goes on, my opinion on this will just grow stronger. You couldn’t possibly go wrong with an open-world murder mystery game that takes place in a boarding school.
4. Redwall. I think this has been done before, but I mean done right. A World of Warcraft-level MMORPG where you choose a certain animal faction and train up to conquer your enemies, big raids on a certain fox den or mouse’s abbey … it’s perfect.
5. Red Rising. Is it cheating if I haven’t read this yet? Probably. But do I know enough about the plot to know that it would make a damn good space video game? Yes, yes I do. If you won’t accept it, then pretend I said Ender’s Game, because it would also be a good one.
6. The Martian. Outer space, Mars simulation survival RPG where you have to plant crops, watch your oxygen supply and try not to die as your peers come to try to rescue you. You know you want it. I’d sneak in Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century references somewhere, too.
7. Ready Player One, if done in a certain way, would make a super fun MMORPG. I think this would only work if two criteria are met: it has to be a live Easter egg search, and the topic that you must master in order to find them will rotate. So sometimes it’s for Chemistry nerds, sometimes it’s for people who know too much about Harry Potter. But even if you don’t know the subject, you’ll still learn a lot by playing along. Take that, modern American education system.
8. Cinder, and all the other Lunar Chronicles books. I am thinking a Skyrim-esque game here, not an MMO but just an RPG. You select your character’s species and explore space, trying to overthrow the bad guys while still worrying about stuff like your cyborg self being noticed or staving off your wolf tendencies.
9. Percy Jackson. Preferably the entire universe. An MMORPG where you can select your parentage and then play as a demigod, running around with your bunk mates, exploring the world, killing the bad guys and winning contests for Camp Half Blood.
10. Call of the Wild, or any other “animal must get through (issue) to save (place/person)” story. I know this is kind of a wildcard, and I haven’t read it since I was in elementary school. But my favorite part of the Zelda game where you could turn into a wolf was being a wolf and just running around town, doing wolf stuff like chasing cats and terrorizing old ladies. I think it would be a ton of fun to play as a wolf and lead a team of sled dogs through Alaska or something.

So there you have it! What do you think of my list? Is it missing something? What books would you include? Let’s talk down below!

I will admit that when I first saw the subject line for this week’s TTT, I assumed it would be like that episode of Friends where Joey puts his copy of The Shining in the refrigerator, and we’d have to name ten books we were afraid to re-read because they scared us.

This is, however, not the case this week. Maybe I will suggest “top ten freezer books” to Jana, though, who runs Top Ten Tuesdays over at her blog, That Artsy Reader Girl. What this week’s topic actually is about is the top ten books you read once, loved, and are afraid to re-read now because they won’t be as loved the second time around, for whatever reason. I haven’t actually been able to name ten books for the last few weeks, so I am pumped that I can actually name ten this time!

1. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
   This pretty much goes for all of the Sookie Stackhouse books. My childhood best friend brought the first one of these books into class one day – a recent acquisition from the “new releases” library shelf – and told me I had to read it. So I did. I know for a fact this book contained the first sexual imagery I’d ever read – something about Bill in the shower? – and I read that scene a few times over. We read these books as they came out until there were maybe six or so, then we stopped. I know now that if I went back and tried to pick these up again, it would be an abysmal failure – these books are not written well.
2. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
   I read these first books by Cassie Clare before I knew about the drama concerning plagiarism, and the fact that it was a weird, uncomfortable fanfiction gone wrong. I actually enjoyed them – and I was too old for them really, 20 years old or so in college – but I know if I looked back at them now, I’d be appalled that I’d given money to this franchise. I just can’t do it.
3. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
   This should really speak for itself, but I used to love these books. I remember going to the library to get my release-day copy of New Moon. But at some point between books 2 and 3, I realized that Edward Cullen was a weird dude. Then I learned about the Harry Potter fanfiction and the thinly veiled Mormon agenda underlying the plot and I just … no.
4. Storm Front by Jim Butcher
   I loved and adored the Dresden Files for years, having read over half of the series. But at some point I went back to pick up the first book in the series and get reacquainted with Harry Dresden, and I was appalled to discover that my memories were pretty rose-colored, because this guy was a grade-A misogynist, who rationalized every move he made and thought of most women as objects that were either beautiful or ugly (or had weirdly dainty hands?). I just couldn’t do it again, and I am sorry because I know he gets better at writing as the series goes on … but nothing will fix this one for me.
5. White Oleander by Janet Fitch
   I am not a big re-reader, if I am being honest. But in high school, I read this book like it was my Bible. Tragically, 11 years removed from the high school setting, I remember almost nothing from this book. Yet when I recall it, I have a warm, effervescent emotion bubbling up inside of me – this is a nostalgic book for me, one that reminds me of a time in my life when I was confused, but so were my peers. I think if I picked it back up again today, I wouldn’t get that magical nostalgia back – so I don’t want to even try.
6. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
   I enjoyed this book well enough when I first read it, right when it came out. But once people started pointing out the problems with it – how the main love interest is pretty problematic, how people cheat with an alarming regularity in Perkins’ world and everyone seems to be OK with it for some reason – I couldn’t ever get back into the mindset that this was a sweet book. It’s sweet … if you like cheating on your partner.
7. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
   The biggest appeal of this book to me was the “whodunit” aspect – we had no idea who had killed and who had been killed. I absolutely adored this book and would recommend it to anyone looking for a little light reading material, but I have no impetus to reread it now that I know the story between the covers, even if it is excellent.
8. We Were Liars by e. lockheart
   I want my money and hours I wasted on this book back. This is one of the worst “twists” I’ve ever read and I will take that opinion to my grave. Sorry to everyone who loved this one but I just … no.
9. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
   I read this when it was a new release, and loved it. But like several others on this list, I realized how problematic it was long after I’d finished it. It has an awesome premise, but the world really don’t need any more egocentric white men telling us how they are the best at life, you know?
10. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
    This book messed me up in a way I can’t even explain. I mean, seriously. But I can really only get that total “whaaat?!” once out of a book, and unless we invent some sort of mind-erasure tool that lets us re-read books like we’ve never read them before, I’d never get the same enjoyment out of Gone Girl the second time that I did the first.

I’m just glad that I was actually able to name ten books this week! A promising start to the week.