Unread Books

[mabith]

Totally copying pax_athena, so here is my list of books I own but haven't read yet. I'm making a point this year to read at least two from my shelves, since my dad gave me SO many in the last year.

[38 Books of Varying Genres]They're basically in the order of my shelves (biography, fiction, YA/children's, non-fiction

Comments

[mabith]

If it weren't for my dad giving me books I'd only have 12 on my shelves that I'd never read before! (And really, old crumbly books shouldn't count, because I'm rescuing those from the stores.)

People over at LibraryThing have literally hundreds of books on their shelves that they've never read, and that blows my mind. Like for one, who has that much empty shelf space? Or money? Or house space in general?

[pax_athena]

The only two I've read on the list are "Madame Bovary" and "Neverwhere".

"Madame Bovary" was not an easy read, especially since none of the main characters are truly likeable - but it was very much worth it: because the characters are the way they are the book rings true and real. I keep comparing the book to the works of Theodor Fontane, his German contemporary whom I love, and end up thinking that I don't know enough about French society at this time to appreciate all the subtleties of the book. But it still made me go ahead and put more of Flaubert's work on my reading list - and to read/buy books by him.

"Neverwhere" is nice for in between. I did not think it to be as strong as some other of Gaiman works, particularly "American Gods" and "Anansi Boys" (and Sandman, but that's an other story), but it was a fun read. I also listened to it as an audiobook, read by the author himself, and in that way it was just perfect.

[mabith]

Ha, I went and looked up audio versions at my library for most of my fiction unreads. Definitely getting Neverwhere that way and probably Madam Bovary too.

Maybe with Flaubert I'll do a bit of background reading on that period in France. I do rather enjoy assigning myself books that I have to read in order to improve understanding of other books.

[decemberthirty]

I have Goodbye to All That sitting on my unread shelf too!

And I must say, I thought I had a lot of unread books, but the two of you are making me feel better! I only have 15 or 20, I'd guess. :)

[mabith]

Ha, well, you never know. Before I counted them I thought I only had about 30!

[cleodora]

Madame Bovary was so dull to read but somehow I really enjoyed writing about it. I ended up writing two essays and part of my exam on it because there was a lot there in terms of symbolism and themes etc.

Neverwhere is my favourite Neil Gaiman book, it's pretty fun. There's about to be a BBC radio dramatisation of it that I'm looking forward to.

[mabith]

Noted!

My library has Neverwhere on audio, so maybe I'll try to read it this month.

[mirazandar]

I need to copy this.
Once I get home from work.
I will

[mabith]

Yes! Can't wait to see your list!