Ten Books I Own and Want to Read But Haven't Gotten To Yet
I have so many more than ten books I haven't read, so I'll try to pick ones that I've had a ridiculously long time, or otherwise have a vaguely interesting story.
- Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence -- I think I got this in college; I had it so long in the back row of a doubled-shelved bookcase that the top two inches of its spine are sun-faded. For a while I was trying to decide whether to read this or Jeremy Wilson's biography Lawrence of Arabia first, but I never read either.
- A Christmas Carol and Other Haunting Tales by Charles Dickens -- I've thought about reading this in December for the past five years or so, and haven't done it yet.
- Bitterroot by James Lee Burke -- the first of four Burkes stacked up on my mystery shelf (along with three Sara Paretskys, the US and UK versions of the same giant Lawrence Block collection, more Loren D. Estleman books than I can shake a stick at, and sundry other things).
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon -- I own it in hardcover, and it's been gathering dust for at least five years.
- The Civil War: A Narrative by Shelby Foote -- three big fat volumes, which I got when I joined Book-of-the-Month Club in about 1989. I don't think I've so much as cracked them open.
- An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears -- the book everybody was reading four or five years ago. I got it then...
- Patriots and Liberators by Simon Schama -- a decade ago, I was tearing through Schama's books; I think when I got this one it was the only book of his I hadn't read yet. Since then I've piled up three volumes of A History of Britain, Rembrandt's Eye, and probably one or two more I'm forgetting.
- The Year's Best Science Fiction, Twentieth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois -- I've read every other annual book in this series since the 8th collection, but I bought this one before reading it four years ago, and since learned that, in bookclubs, if you buy it before you read it, you'll never have time to go back and read it, since there are always books to buy you haven't read yet.
- Silverlock by John Myers Myers -- I've upgraded my copy once (meaning I've bought it twice), but never read it.
- Strange Travelers by Gene Wolfe -- and I'm now three story collections behind on Wolfe. If I manage to read Soldier of Sidon this fall I'll still be caught up on his novels, though.
2 comments:
Silverlock is a good book. I read it many years ago but remember enjoying it. You need to get right to reading Chabon. You seem to enjoy many of the same comics that I do and I must say this was one of the few literary books that has come out over the last few years that met my expectations.
You know, I always admire how much you do read (admire/envy). It's kind of disheartening that you don't have time to read everything you want to . . . because that means I'm much farther away than I ever thought. Sigh. But Charles Dickens at Christmas is very good. And very Victorian. Perhaps you could squeeze in a visit to Bedlam to look at the inmates and have a pinch of snuff while you're at it.
Di
Post a Comment