Memes: Unread Books, Unhappy Movies

[ltmurnau]

Yoinked from happiestsadist and sabotabby.

"These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users. Bold what you have read, italicize those you started but couldn't/didn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand. Add an asterisk to those you've read more than once. Underline those on your to-read list."

Comments

[infanttyrone]

Of course Gravity's Rainbow is on there. I'm surprised Infinite Jest isn't. Even though it was on the NYT bestseller list for like a year, I've only ever met like two people who've actually read it.

[ltmurnau]

A Brief History of Time is supposed to be hands-down the most-bought, least-read book of recent years. I'm not sure what kind of criteria LibraryThing uses.

[ilna]

Cryptonomicon [I was getting pretty tired by the end - this was the last Neal Stephenson I read. I did enjoy Snow Crash.]

I can relate to all that. Didn't even try cryptnomicon, although it's standing somewhere..

But i liked Catcher in the Rye !

(and i think i read most of them, not the same as you, though.. could be some atlantic divide of sorts ?)

[ltmurnau]

I know Catcher in the Rye is significant to many young ones - reading it is supposed to be some kind of rite of adolescent passage - but I just didn't see the appeal in it.

A lot of the books on this list are both recent and bestsellers. Two strikes against my reading them, for a start.

[ilna]

The Iliad a recent bestseller ? The Tales of Canterbury ? Don Quixote ? Crime and Punishment ?

I think your timescale of "recent" doesn't count exactly the same as mine here ;)

And you're right, the ones i haven't read are mostly the really recent ones..

[ltmurnau]

No, of course I am excepting the classics. But I've never heard of titles like Persuasion or The Confusion, etc.. Some of them I recognize from best seller lists, but probably would never bother picking them up.

[flintultrasparc]

Poke.

[ltmurnau]

Tell me more about the Laibach book!

[flintultrasparc]

It's arty. I flip through it at random. I read a section here or there haphazardly. I haven't given it a through reading yet.