Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created over at The Broke and the Bookish. Today Top Ten Participants are given free rein to come up with any top then list they'd like. I'm going for Procrastination. I have tons of books on my TBR list. Hundreds. And a great many of them have been sitting on that list for-ev-er. Here are ten of the books that I've been meaning to read--I really do want to read--but somehow just keep getting put off and put off and.... Seriously, some of these books have been on the list since high school. And we won't talk about how long ago that was.1. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I've always been intrigued by the "It's a far, far better thing I do..." line. I really wanted to give Dickens another try after hating Great Expectations (yes, in high school). One of these days I'll do that.
2. The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov. Talked my parents into this set one year for Christmas. Loved Asimov (still do). Just had to have it. Never read it.
3. Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter. One of my literary loves. I adored everything I ever read by Porter. Went right out and found me a copy of this book. And let it gather dust on the shelves. Why? I ask you.
4. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. One of those classics I've told myself I ought to read. After all, I am an English major. How did I escape it?
5. The Delights of Detection by Jacques Barzun. You would think, me being a mystery-lover and all, that I wouldn't let mystery-related books sit and moulder on the TBR pile. Not so. I've got several (more than several) that have been hanging around longer than they should have.
6. Evidence of Things Seen by Elizabeth Daly. I love Daly's mysteries. How do I keep ignoring this one? And two others??
7. Death in Disguise by Caroline Graham. I think this one wins the award for mystery that has served longest as book-in-waiting. I'm quite certain I got this through my mystery book club like twenty years ago....
8. Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card. Card is a marvelous science fiction/fantasy writer. I've been waiting to read this because??
9. The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham. Another classic that's been hanging around for a very loooonnnng time.
10. The Rose Window & Other Verse From New Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke. Fell in love with Rilke's poetry in college. Bought this book and one other. Read the other one. Put this one on the shelf. Where it looks real pretty (it's a lovely rose-colored book). But it's not getting read.
I will say this, though. Since joining the blogging sphere and discovering challenges, there are several books that had been sitting on the TBR shelves that have finally gotten read. (To Kill a Mockingbird and Tristram Shandy, just to mention two). That's one reason I love the challenges--they get me to read books I should have been reading as well as get me to read books I might never have picked up at all.
There was a BLEAK HOUSE read-along I should have joined. Now I'll have to read it on my own.
ReplyDeleteThe point though, is not just to read these books as if they were a dose of medicine, but to enjoy them.
If I'm not enjoying any of the books on my 10 list, I'll stop reading it. No question.
I was forced to read TALE OF TWO CITIES in high school and really didn't like it except for Sidney (Is it Sidney?) Carton's last speech which made me cry.
Never read another Dickens book.
But I want to.
Yes, Yvette, I agree. I don't want these to be like medicine. I actually think I would like them--otherwise I never would have gotten them onto the shelves/piles. I just don't understand why I never seem to get around to reading them....
ReplyDeleteThe Scarlet Letter is short, and it is one of my favorites. I definitely understand procrastinating though. My list would include Wuthering Heights and Russian writers.
ReplyDeleteCome check ot my list for this week.
Good list idea! Do you think listing them out will help you get to them sooner? Or will any of them work for your challenges?
ReplyDelete@Red: I've already put a host TBR books on a couple of challenges... The Off the Shelf Challenge (50 books) and the TBR Challenge (12 books)...
ReplyDeleteRilke is one of my favorite poets. Love the idea of your list.
ReplyDeleteHere's mine: http://booksmemesmusings.blogspot.com/2011/08/top-ten-tuesday-my-favorite-reviews.html
I'm trying to read one big challenging book a year. This year it's War and Peace. Whew! I'm only up to 30% and it's August. Oh well!
ReplyDeleteBEV! Never read The Scarlet Letter? I think I was required to read it in junior high school. It was definitely long before I went to college. Barzun's anthology is OK. His intro, if I remember, was good for pointing me to other writers not yet sampled. Rilke is a favorite. Letters to a Young Poet was something I used to give as gifts to friends...until I found out it was as trendy as giving someone a copy of THE PROPHET was back in the 1970s. Ruined what I thought was an original idea. Doesn't make the book any less meaningful to me personally, though.
ReplyDeleteI have read five novels out of those! Go ahead...
ReplyDeleteHere is my Top Ten post!
In case The Delights of Detection is still in the unread pile, you might just sample "The Nine-Mile Walk" by Harry Kemelman. If you have gotten to it, you already know how good it is!
ReplyDelete