Oh, how I laughed when I read the topic for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday – Ten Books That Have Been On Your Shelf (Or TBR) From Before You Started Blogging That You STILL Haven’t Read Yet. Jamie at The Broke and the Bookish notes that it’s sad that she’s had some books for six years and still hasn’t read them…. Six years? Pfft. One of the books on my list has been sitting next to my bed for fourteen years.
01. The Zookeeper’s War by Steven Conte – bought as a new release in 2008.
02. The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman – yeah, I pre-ordered this in 2012.
03. Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks – bought for book group in 2013, missed that meeting, haven’t got to it yet.
04. 11/22/63 by Stephen King – winter holidays in 2013, had a Kindle shopping spree. This was one of the books.
05. The Light of Day by Graham Swift – took this paperback to hospital when I had a baby in 2005. Never read a page.
06. Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison – feel like it’s always been on my shelf…
07. Bright Lights Dark Shadows by Carl Palm – 2001. seems I like listening to them more than reading about them.
08. Little Children by Tom Perrotta – couldn’t stomach the book after seeing the movie.
09. A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz – 2012? Hasn’t even had time to gather dust yet.
10. The Mitford Girls by Mary Lovell – this is the one I’ve had for 14 years. Bought at Borders. Borders doesn’t exist in Australia anymore.
You’ve done well to skip Caleb’s Crossing, bogus history.
It seems even fans of Brooks aren’t keen on this one!
I can totally relate – six years is nothing! I’m sure there’s some that have been with me since the last century :-0 I also have The Street Sweeper on the TBR mountain….
I loved Perlman’s first book and rushed out for this so… How does that happen?! Added to it is the fact that some of my trusted reading friends RAVE about this book.
Same here – I loved Three Dollars, I don’t know why this has languished unread for so long. Maybe this is the year…
There are several here that I started and gave up or read and wished I hadn’t bothered: The Street Sweeper, Caleb’s Crossing, A Fraction of the Whole and Bastard Out of Carolina. Love the comment about unread books in the TBR since the last century!
You may have just saved me a LOT of time 😉
Fourteen years, bah, I’ve had some for twenty or more! Well, probably…
I own hundreds and couldn’t begin to list them, save I know I haven’t read Stegner’s ‘Angle of Repose’ and it’s driving me mad. It’s one that’s really aggravating me. Why can I NOT get to it, nor anything by Toni Morrison!
Did finally get to Cormac McCarthy last week, so there’s that…
I only read my first Stegner this year (Crossing to Safety) and now I wonder what took me so long. Angle is on my wish list.
LOL at your 14 year TBR. there have been a few books in my house – my dads library -for years that I said I wanted to read and didn’t.
I talk about that in my post too https://runwright.net/2016/08/23/11364/
I have books that I purchased in the 1970s still sitting on my shelves. They’ve been with me through a dozen address changes. I was going to post on this Top Ten but had no idea how to cut the list down to10.
I could have filled a top 100 with books to be honest! (instead of sorting through all of my books I just looked at the stack under my bedside table… which makes me wonder how many times I’ve moved them to vacuum and dust over the last 14 years!).
I didn’t particularly like Caleb’s Crossing either — I felt that the actual plot didn’t match the book description (which made it sound much more interesting), and as a whole, it was a letdown. I love 11/22/63! I think I had a copy of Bastard Out of Carolina for years and years as well, but it disappeared in one of my moves… and since I never got around to it despite owning it for a long time, I guess I didn’t miss it much.
The general consensus seems to be ‘no’ to Caleb and ‘yes’ to 11/22/63. I think what has held me back on the King is that it is a long book and I figure I need some solid time to get into it.
I flew through 11/22/63 when it came out and only recently started watching the miniseries – although I’ve only gotten through episode 1. Hope you get to it soon, it really is a great read.
Yes, the book is much better than the tv series. We stopped watching after Ep 1 it was too awful!
I will certainly read the book before I watch the series! 🙂
11/22/63 has been sitting on my shelf for a while now also. It’s so thick and I think that’s why I haven’t read it yet… too much time commitment! But yeah, it sounds good!
That’s my excuse too!
I had that copy of Bastards Out of Carolina, but I don’t know what happened to it! :\ Hopefully you get to read it soon! 😀 My Top Ten Tuesday!
Bastard Out of Carolina is wonderful, very worth reading, but very violent and quite possibly not one you’ll return to once you’ve read it the first time…
I’m sure I have it because it’s on a list somewhere that says it’s a ‘classic’. Perhaps I should set myself the task of reading the ten books I’ve listed here by the end of the year?!
Another challenge!
You took a book with you when you were in labour??? I bet the nursing staff rolled their eyes at the innocence of new mothers 🙂
Ha ha! No, it was my fourth c-section so I knew I’d have lots of lying around for a week. I thought I was being clever because for the first three babies I had funny books in hospital and I couldn’t laugh because of my stitches!
I think I’ve read THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE, but I’m not sure … if I have, it must not have been very memorable! Ha ha.
I have no idea why I have this book, particularly given that most reviews are lack-lustre! I probably picked it up because of the Berlin setting but I’m not a dedicated fan of historical fiction (or stories about animals) so needless to say I’m not busting to read it.
11/22/63 is a favorite of mine – hope you like it!
Check out my TTT.
I feel like you can never read The Mitford Girls. Fourteen years is a long time, but imagine being able to say ‘This book has been on my shelf for 20 years and I’ve never read it’. It just wouldn’t seem right to read it now; all that hard work procrastinating on it would go to waste.
Ha ha! But truly, it looks REALLY good! I guess another six years won’t matter…
Fourteen years!?! That’s incredible! Do you think that you’re going to read it soon? Or are you going to let it keep it’s reign for a little longer? I haven’t read any of these, so I’ll check them out on Goodreads. Nice list! 🙂
I love that you thought you were going to read a book In hospital when you had a baby 😊 Fraction of a Whole is worth it when you get the chance & I’ve had my eyes on the Mitfords for a long time too.
I’m one of the few who enjoyed caleb’s crossing, but I read it as fiction not history, so simply enjoyed the story.
It was my fourth baby 🙂 I actually read a few books in hospital with the other babies, knowing that I wouldn’t get that quiet time for a while!
Reading this prompted me to have my first attempt at top 10 Tuesday. I found one I hadn’t read in 30 years. Oh dear
30 years – impressive! Are you going to read it?
I haven’t hear of any of these (embarrasing), but the cover of Bright Lights, Dark Shadows looks promising!
I used to love Borders coffee. The store totally folded everywhere. I don’t typically read the meme/list posts because there are so many, but your title caught my attention, and I’m glad I stopped by! This list was funny 🙂
Have you got any books in your stack that have been there for years?
Oh, yes. I went to a conference in 2011 and bought back quite a few. I almost always buy a book when I go to a reading (and I go to about a dozen per year), so some of those date back to 2008. I always think, “I’m SO EXCITED about this book; I shall read it IMMEDIATELY.” Pfff. At least when I buy e-books and don’t read them I can’t see them taunting me!
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