books

[meganursula]

These are 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, italicize the ones you own but have not read.  I choose to also make comments.

Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment - i've read a bit of this, but not all of it.
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote - i've read excerpts from this one, too.
Moby Dick - i hated this book.  I'm pretty sure i didn't actually finish it, despite my efforts.  It did cause me to stand up in the middle of english class one day and proclaim 'if we spend another day discussing this drivel i'm going to scream'.  I was forced to follow through.
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies - but Josh liked it.
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - i have tried to read this a number of times, but couldn't get into it.
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales - although i'm not sure i read quite all of it.
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces - i really really hated this book.  It is a complete waste of carbon.  or electrons.  or really anything.
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

for someone who reads as much as i do, i'm not very well read.  *sigh*

Comments

[cheesepuppet.livejournal.com]

I've only read fourteen. Although what's funny is that I have about ten more from the list on my shelf that I haven't read, because that's one of my big problems with bookstores: eyes bigger than reading pace. I should make an OGRES post about that.

[mh75.livejournal.com]

Josh and i each have a shelf of 'books to read'. But in the last year or so i've put myself on a book buying diet, and i try not to buy so many while there are still some on the shelf. It helps, although i still have a big stack.

[cheesepuppet.livejournal.com]

I've tried that a few times. It hasn't worked really well for me, and I finally figured out that I have some kind of priority list going in my head that these books just aren't on. They'll sit forever. I also discovered I have the same problem with books that I do in other areas of my life: shoulds.

"I should read that, I should know that."

"I should learn that."

"I should go do that sometime."

My friend Llyra (she's the one I brought to your house that time) dressed up like a Clue Fairy once year for Halloween, complete with a Clue Bat to give people a clue. I keep thinking I should dress up as the Should Fairy.

[(Anonymous)]

Read (35)

Crime and Punishment - I read this in school and really liked it.
Catch-22 - Loved it.
The Iliad - I <3 Homer.
The Odyssey - I <3 Homer.
The Tale of Two Cities - Had to read it in school. Thought it was
pretty good. Which led me to...
Oliver Twist - Loved it. Which led me to...
Great Expectations - OMG, talk about stabbing a guy in the back. SO
BORED BUT Y?
Emma - The first and last Jane Austen book I will ever read.
Honestly, I think the movie Clueless is the most brilliant adaptation
of this story, ever.
Quicksilver - I read all three of these, do I get a bonus point? I
can honestly say I loved this series.
The Confusion
Cryptonomicon - Loved it.
Neverwhere - Loved it.
Wicked - Loved it.
The Canterbury Tales - I took a class on Chaucer. I really liked it.
Brave New World - Loved it.
The Count of Monte Cristo - A bit dated, but I loved it. I liked The
Stars My Destination better, though.
Dracula - Eh, thought it was okay. As awesome as vampires are, I
wasn't captivated by the book. Maybe it was better in its time period.
A Clockwork Orange - I have mixed feelings about this one. I respect
it as a work, but it didn't really do it for me.
Frankenstein - Wonderful, short, fantastic read.
The Once and Future King - I've read this four or five times.
The Grapes of Wrath - There is no God. If there was, He in his
infinite wisdom would have burned every copy of this dull, depressing
book from the face of the earth.
1984 - Read it for school, and loved it.
The Inferno - I read this once for college, and wasn't really sure I
got it, so I read parts again, and decided that without digging into
the historical context, the book itself wasn't too useful. The
writing was pretty, though.
Gulliver's Travels - I mildly enjoyed it.
Les Misérables - It was good. Like, really good. Like, it was a
totally gripping page after page after page turner for me. But, the
huge digression about the war with Wellington was really quite odd.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - I am still amazed
at how adroitly he can write from an autistic character's point of
view.
Dune - Loved the first one and read it a dozen times. Read the second one once. Never made it
more than a few chapters into 3.
The Prince - Meh.
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Really enjoyed it.
Slaughterhouse-five - I <3 Vonnegut.
The Scarlet Letter - Meh. Rednecks burn sexually enlightened person
at stake. I read about it in the news every day.
Lolita - I enjoyed it, but it actually wasn't as racy as I had hoped.
The Catcher in the Rye - Great.
The Hobbit - Loved it.
The Three Musketeers - Good, but not as compelling as I had hoped.

On bookshelf (4)

Moby Dick - I read a few chapters and got bored.
Ulysses - I have tried to read it twice, but haven't been able to do it.
The Fountainhead - I'm not an Ayn Rand fan, so I haven't made it more
than half way through this one. Pretty much anyone who
makes it to prophet status loses out big in my book.
Foucault's Pendulum - George read it and liked it, but I haven't
gotten around to it.

[(Anonymous)]

Unread (66)

Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
Anna Karenina
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Madame Bovary
Pride and Prejudice - No. Just... no.
Jane Eyre
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies - Everyone I know has a copy of this from college.
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Middlemarch
Anansi Boys
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
Angels & Demons
The Satanic Verses - I'm kinda afraid it will suck after all the hype.
Sense and Sensibility
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - I really want to read this one.
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Sound and the Fury
Angela's Ashes
The God of Small Things
A People's History of the United States : 1492-present
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Eats, Shoots & Leaves - We were just talking about this at work. I'd like to read it.
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values -
I've heard it is good, but it might be too trendy for me. The same people said The Celestine Prophecy was good, and frankly, that book sucked major monkey ass. I'm surprised it isn't on this list, nonetheless.
The Aeneid - I really should read this one.
Watership Down
Gravity's Rainbow - I want to read this one.
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield - I read all the Dickens above, and was so disappointed and burnt out by Great Expectations that I didn't read this one. I've heard it is pretty good, but I need to work up some nerve before I start it.

[dgr.livejournal.com]

These are me. I'm not sure how I got logged off.