swiped from Euryale000

[my_rain_face]

. . . because I'm killing time, drinking tea before bed.

What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

Comments

[lostsailors]

I am kind of embarrassed by how many of these I have read. Others: A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present -- wut? I want to know WHO wants to read that outside of school.

[my_rain_face]

It's probably something everyone had to buy for school and then never read, which is why it's on this list?

Dunno. Theories.

[yesisaworld]

word on God of Small Things. what a novel to debut with. would you know if Arundhati Roy has written anything new recently?

The Fountainhead is good, for when you have the time. my friend didn't like the straightforwardness of it - she said the book felt dry and preachy. mostly, i was tickled by running across the bit with two characters in a boat and thinking to myself that the way the scene played out sounded familiar. then i remembered the Fountainhead was one of wallflower!Charlie's ontheside books. hee.

haven't read most of the books on this list, but I highly recommend The Unbearable Lightness of Being. gooooodddd stuff.

[my_rain_face]

Eeeeeh, the reason I haven't read The Fountainhead is because I hate Ayn Rand's "philosophy." I haven't actually read any of her books but I've had multiple conversations with contemporary disciples of her and they irritate me to no end. I should read it, though, to get a better understanding.

I think "The God of Small Things" is the only novel Roy has ever written. She's more of a journalist and an activist, generally, and I'm a bit ashamed to say I've never read any of her non-fiction work.

[circe_pleading]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance rubbed me the wrong way too. I ended up skipping the philosphizing and only reading the traveling parts.

[my_rain_face]

I wrote it off as wanky and decided I wasn't interested.

Used to be I would finish every book I started, just on principle. Nowadays, my precious fiction-reading time is so minimal that have absolutely zero qualms about chucking aside a book that hasn't engaged me properly in the first 50-100 pages.

[vientoeste]

Sarah, finish To The Lighthouse. Seriously. I'm in a Virginia Woolf class right now and I think that is my favorite so far, in terms of books that moved me. Mrs. Dalloway has this lovely rhythm to it that the prose of Lighthouse doesn't have, but the latter is so much fuller and in some ways completes the project she started with Jacob's Room. Orlando is also lovely - I couldn't put it down.

Also, The Time Traveler's Wife is a more contemporary novel on that list - devastating and wonderful. I recommend it.

[my_rain_face]

I know, I know! Actually, I'm sitting on my living room sofa and my roommate (hello circe_pleading!) has a copy of To The Lighthouse that's sitting right beside me. I really do want to read it. If I didn't finish it, it was because I didn't have time for some reason, not for lack of wanting to!

I really want to read Orlando, too. I saw the film rendition which was very good on its own, though I can't speak to how well it reflected the novel.

[wholesomelymid]

The Hobbit - never could get into Tolkien, though I've tried to read this, like, three times.

You could never get into Tolkien? Really? Me neither, and I feel like the only such person on the planet. I did read The Hobbit in full for a class in middle school, but I've never been able to get through any of the others.

[my_rain_face]

I have fortunately never had to read it for school. I've tried several times and have decided not to bother trying anymore because it's clearly just not for me. I just found it to be really, really slow, without enough payoff to make it worthwhile.