What books do you want to get around to reading? Here are my picks: -The rest of the Fruits Basket series - Natsuki Tayaka -The Jungle-Upton Sinclair -Uncle Tom's Cabin- Harriet Beecher Stowe -The Toradora! translated novels
I have way, way, way too many to list. My TBR pile is actually TBR piles, and they're so high they fall over, so I made them all as high as my nightstand. Then I have some on my nightstand. And a few actually made it into the bookcase. And then I have a pile by my reading corner, which my husband is now bitching about. One classic, however, that I do really want to read now is Dracula. I've never read it, and a guy in my writing critique group is writing a diary-type novel from Dracula's perspective. So I really would like to get the background of the original story. I also want to read a book called Journal of a Novel, which Steinbeck wrote while writing East of Eden, which of course entails me probably also then needing to read East of Eden. Then I also want to read David Foster Wallace's books, which were discussed in another thread. I read a bio of him, and I'd like to tackle his books, but I'm kind of apprehensive. And, as I said, there are a lot of books in line already.
I'm envisioning your house now. I have at least 3 bookcases full of books. And I go to the library every week to borrow more. My dad read Dracula, he said it was pretty good.
Ha! How many books am I planning to read? I'll list just a few that I have in the house... The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Anne Frank's Diary, 1Q84, The Girl on the Landing, and Animal Farm (I never studied it in school). Seriously, there are way too many, and that's not including non-fiction. One of my tiny bookshelves has 38 books, all of which need to be read. Yes, I enjoy buying books as much as reading them. Personally I didn't like Dracula, and Frankenstein was even worse. If you want to read 'horror' in the form of poetry, then these are the books for you. But then again, I hate reading books pre twentieth century. Take that how you will.
I don't particularly like books that are pre 20th C either. The only reason I really want to read Dracula is because I'm kind of forced to read this guy's in-progress novel as part of my critique group. We started at the beginning and he brings in 15 pages each month. So, I'm already committed to reading his, and I've read over 100 pages so far. I feel like I have this big knowledge gap, and that's part of the reason I really want to read the original. I also have a lot more non-fiction, rather than fiction. A few that I've wanted to read for a long while, and I'm trying to get to are one about Leopold and Loeb, some infamous child killers from the 1920s, and one on a professor who goes into the Chicago gang community and kind of becomes one of them. (It's by one of the co-authors of Freakonomics, and is called Gang Leader for a Day.) I just finished a book on zoonotic diseases and I'm just starting one now that's about the AIDS virus. I try to alternate fiction with nonfiction, although recently, I've been doing 2 fiction, 2 nonfiction. I was eager to read this one on AIDS, having just finished the one on emerging zoonotic infectious diseases. And prior to that, my book club was hosting an author, and I wanted to read both of his published novels before the meeting.
I think it's worth reading the once, as it is a classic. I have so many non-fiction books, but I seem to be drawn to fiction only. I'm planning to change that. Good on you for having such a good spread.
My bookcases collapsed from the weight of all the books I had on them. We are going to have built in bookcases put in our office, but it's going to be quite a bit of money, so right now a big chunk of my books are all over the floor, in huge stacks in our home office. It looks like a disaster. Tattoo is awesome. You are so going to want to read the other two after that one, so make room.
My to-read list is very long. For one, I want to read more poetry. I'm reading some Stephen Crane right now and thoroughly enjoying it. In terms of fiction, I'd like to read more foreign writers (preferably from regions I have little or no experience with (i.e., Africa, Asia, and South America)). In terms of nonfiction, there is a collection of philosophy essays I want to get to.
I bought the trilogy in a charity shop for about £3. I have to read a lot of poetry, and study it in depth, for my Creative Writing degree. Some I like, others I don't. One of the poets we're studying at the moment is Edgar Allan Poe. Obviously I'd heard of him, but I'd never read any of his stuff. But when we studied him, boy is he amazing! Both his short stories and his poems are exceptional; my personal favourites are the story 'The Black Cat', and 'The Raven', which is now joint-first on my favourite poems list. Poe is one of the only writers I love from the nineteenth century, so I stand corrected, @chicagoliz! If anyone's wondering, my other all-time favourite poem is 'Porphyria's Lover' by Robert Browning.
I have a lot on my kindle, almost all classics. I do have some instructional books for storycraft and screenwriting on there too, but mostly classic lit. I'll be busy.
Wow, way too many to list here! I'll just name the books I plan on reading next: -I really want to read more Greek drama, especally the Oresteia by Aeschylus (not sure which translation yet as I can't read Ancient Greek ... yet) -The poems of Catullus, and the odes of Horace, this time in Latin as I have been teaching myself the language, I feel I could use the challenge. -1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. Actually I'm slowly going through Murakami's stuff. I like the man a lot. -I always feel like I could do with reading more modern poets, but I also want to better antiquated with the Romantic poets, like Lord Byron and Percy Shelley. -I'm really interested in reading more Japanese poetry and drama, I especally want to explore Japanese Noh plays, which I've been told are eerily like Greek drama, and Japanese poetry has more than a few admirers at my university. And it's not just Basho either, who I have read. -I want to read more Chinese poetry too as a good friend on these very forums has introduced me to some, and I must say - they have really impressed me so far! Everyone: this is the problem with having your academic specialization as Roman poetry and middle English poetry. There are entire worlds still to explore!
You're welcome! Here's a good short one I came across recently: Remembering my Brothers on a Moonlight Night by Du Fu A wanderer hears drums portending battle. By the first call of autumn from a wildgoose at the border, He knows that the dews tonight will be frost. ...How much brighter the moonlight is at home! O my brothers, lost and scattered, What is life to me without you? Yet if missives in time of peace go wrong – What can I hope for during war?
I may have to try it again. In theory, it's the kind of book I'd like. I liked the Swedish films. I tried to read the book and was bored stiff, so I ended up setting it aside and never got back to it.
Oh.... geez. I'm currently in the middle of reading a book for work on Executive Assistants, The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Soul of the Fire by Terry Goodkind. Sitting at home waiting for me (in no particular order) is The Regulators by Stephen King, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan, The Strain by Guillermo del Toro, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin, and The Magician King by Lev Grossman. This doesn't include my kindle books either. I also have about 168 'to-read' on my Goodreads wishlist. I wish we have a book exchange program on here. I need a lot of money for these books. lol
The Omnivore's Dilemma is awesome -- I think everyone should read it. It changed the way I shop. I read it years ago and still think of it.
Writers should always have a million books to read even if they may never get around to reading them! That's where inspiration and ideas come from..for me anyways. I have been picking at the Need series by Carrie Jones...Haven't finished the 2nd book yet. I also want to read the Forest of Hands and teeth Series as well. There are also a million other YA books I want to pick at but can't name them all. I read YA because I write YA. It's also a guilty pleasure...along with Stephen King...which also reminds me... HA!
I have the habit of sometimes buying books, and then not getting round to reading them for ages. Just some of the ones on my shelves waiting to be read: - Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck - The mystery of Edwin Drood - Dickens - Daisy Miller - Henry James - The Return of the Native - Hardy - Player Piano - Vonnegut - Police - Jo Nesbo - We need to talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver - The house of stairs - Barbara Vine - A death in Tuscany - Michele Giuttari -- There are more; including books that were gifts and I'll get to those at some point, hopefully. I'd like to get a few more by Henry James. In that kind of mood lately.
