Since the spring began, my usual comment at 5-star reviews by bloggers I stalk follow was 'I am adding it to the list of books I am reading this summer on my vacation!' Well, the summer is here, and although I will be probably go on vacation at the end of August, list of books I plan to read is already a mile long. It seems that this definition of holiday will definitely turn out to be true for me:

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Today is freebie time for Top Ten Tuesday at The Broke and the Bookish. It means you can pick any topic you want. Since I am a libra and it's always tough to decide, I took the easy way out - I invited Karice Bolton to write a guest post and pick a topic.

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Pretty covers.... *sigh* You ogle them and you wish that the book is as good as that beautiful and shiny picture. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't but will it stop me from picking a book based on a pretty face alone? Probably not. Today, I scrolled through list of my read books and picked the prettiest covers to share with you.

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I usually pick books that have spirit of adventure, discovery and excitement or that promise to be fun reads. I read to relax myself and I almost always deliberately skip books dealing with abuse, grief or other subjects that will leave me troubled or sad. But nevertheless from time some tough subjects sneak up on me when I least expect them...

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Words or topics that instantly make me buy a book. I thought this would be an easy list to make but browsing through my read and own shelves made me realise some interesting things about my insta-buy preference if we ignore my insta-buy authors and focus on words in title or topic of book.

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This tuesday our task is to browse trough best and worst bookish memories and remember the books that surprised us by either exceeding or failing to reach our expectations.

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Today's topic is Top Ten Tuesday REWIND, in other words we can any past topic we want. Since I started my blog not so long ago, there is a lot of great topics that I missed so I had no trouble finding something fun to write about.

So, relax and giggle with me while we chat about some hilarious book titles:

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Not so long ago Marion Croslydon got her chance to list top ten heroes she would like to kiss under the mistletoe. Todays, it's my turn. :D Ok, so the topic actually is 'Top Ten Characters I Would Crush On If I Were Also A Fictional Character' but let's not fool ourselves, it's basically the same.

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Is then any better feeling then when I friend tells you that he/she liked the book you recomended and then you go on a lengthy conversation about that books, plot characters etc. For me, almost nothing beats that wonderful feeling - that I gave a couple of hours of enjoyment to a bookworm friend. :)

I usually can't just say: "This is good read it!" I have to know a little bit more about person's tastes and what do they like, so my recommendations are grouped into a couple of categories...

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I don't know about you, but this happens to me all the time:

I read a new series. I fall in love... I recommend it to all my friends... Can't wait until the next book will be published... Buy it right away and then... Nothing. The book mysteriously stays unread on my shelf. Why? I honestly don't know. I wow that I will read them soon but somehow newer books always attract my attention and these sequels to the series stay neglected and waiting...

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My to-be-read list or Mount TBR as I like to call it, keeps growing and growing. I try to clean it up and prioritize from time to time, but you and I both know I am never going to read all the books from there (mostly because I want to read all the books).

Last week I talked about top ten series I'd like to start but haven't yet and in January I listed top ten speculative fiction debuts in 2013 I am looking forward to. So of course I hope to read these books until the end of the year, maybe some of them I will even squeeze in this spring. Also, I challenged myself to read Nebula Awards finalists before May, so those books are on my top priority tbr too. (I told you my tbr is mile long.)

This time I'm going to pick some books from my to-review-asap pile that I am looking forward to reading this spring.

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Since my bookish appetites are insatiable and I have a sick need to read every book I see, making the list of series I'd like to read would take forever. Even if I would limit myself to books and authors I REALLY REALLY want to read soon it would still be too big.

So, I am adding two additional conditions to this list: the series must be either recommended to me multiple times by friends who already introduced me to some wonderful books or I really should have very strong reason why I should read it soon. Yes, stronger than: 'I want it!'. :)

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So who are top ten authors who are on my auto-buy list? Obviously all the authors I'm thankful for, but since some of them are dead, I'm going to limit this list only to authors that are still alive and publishing books.

So, whose new books I will always buy without checking out the summary, genre and turning the blind eye on high price or ugly cover?

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Topic for top ten list today is 'Top Ten Favorite Characters In X Genre' - and I picked Fantasy. This was a fun list to make, to think about all the books I loved and remember my favorite characters. The only downside is that I now have strong wish to re-read most of them again. :)

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Am I repeating myself if I say that this was another tough list to make? The problem is, I am from small south-eastern European country, so my favorite authors never visit, there are no big book fairs in my town, no book signings, blogger conventions or anything similar, new book releases are late by a year (time until publishers translate them etc.), so I could not think about a lot of life-changing events related to books that happened to me. Except learning to read of course. :D (And I wrote how that happened in the beginning of my review of Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version by Philip Pullman.)

But here is my attempt to assemble a couple of my favorite bookish memories:

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I found this guest post very interesting to write, as settings in YA are something I've thought about but never fully articulated. Normally, I speak more about characters, but a setting brings a character to life. I’m enchanted by rich worldbuilding.

It also sparked some interesting Twitter discussions when I put out a call for what other people want to see more of in YA when I was stuck on the 10th setting.

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This was the toughest Top Ten list for me to write so far. Why? Because, although I have rather long list of waiting-to-be-published books on Goodreads, they are mostly sequels to series I am reading or new books by authors I already read. When I had to filter down that list to debut authors, I had only two books left.

Desperate time need desperate measures, so I had to do my share of googling and scouring the catalogs of some of my favorite publishers until I found a list of books that I was some-what satisfied with. The list could probably be better and I bet there are some awesome books out there I didn't mention here.

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As each New Year starts we make some goals or so called New Year Resolutions. You know what I mean - this year you are finally going to lose that extra weight or clean up that messy store-room...

I am always ambitious with my plans, because, you know, this year I am going to fix & organise it all and by the end everything is going to be perfect. Of course, this never happens, I usually manage to complete just some of my goals but... As the smart little bunny in the picture below says: "If I gotta fail, I'm gonna fail big!"

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Today I have a special guest who gave me a wonderful present for the Holidays - Marion Croslydon wrote a Christmas themed Top Ten list. Yes I adore writing lists, but I always feel lazy when the holidays are near...

Topic for today was a freebie and I left Marion hard task of choosing it. I think I would not have picked a better one myself, actually I am sure that I would not have thought of this great theme for top ten list. So prepare to sigh and swoon as we contemplate mistletoe and kisses...

Guest Post by Marion Croslydon:

Thank you so much Dragana for inviting me on this VERY special day. I want to wish a merry Christmas to everyone visiting your blog today and send them all my love. I hope they have family and friends around them to celebrate.

So who are the Top Ten… Heroes I’d like to kiss under the Mistletoe?

Theme for this Top Ten Tuesday at The Broke and the Bookish is "Top Ten Books I Read In 2012". I tried to make a list but found out that I would only be repeating myself since I already listed all the my favorite books from 2012 last week in Top Ten Favorite New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2012.

Sorry for not participating this week, but if you leave a link in comments I will come and check your lists. :)