# Books You've Been Meaning to Read But Never Get Around To



## Guest (Feb 23, 2011)

I'm not even talking about books you've bought that you'd like to read, I mean the books that are staring you in the face every day just shouting at you to read them, but it just never happens. What books do you just feel terrible about not reading?

The Percy Jackson series. _What am I waiting for?!_
Northanger Abbey. _Still the only Jane Austen book I haven't read. Why_

I also have a strong inclination to read Matched because it seems so much like The Hunger Games, but it doesn't burn in my gut like the others.

et vous?


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## Hailey Edwards (Apr 17, 2010)

For me, I'd have to say the Night Huntress books by Jeaniene Frost. I've been told how fabulous they are over and over, but still haven't bought the first book.


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## mima (Jul 16, 2009)

Oh, a confessional! Let me add my mea culpa. 

Nalini Singh's new angel series. she's one of my fav authors. i have a hard time reading anything with religious overtones, and despite people telling me this is not religious, haven't been able to open it. yet. i DO SO believe in ms. singh. i'll get to it.


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## KRCox (Feb 18, 2011)

I keep meaning to finish Le Count de Monte Cristo, but I just never seem to get around to it. I've managed to get about 30% through, twice, but that's all. It's a good story too, just keep dragging my feet.

I really enjoyed reading Paolo Bacigalupi's _The Windup Girl_. That was good.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, that's another one I keep managing to miss out on.


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## Christine Kersey (Feb 13, 2011)

I've actually never read the Harry Potter books. I wish J. K. Rowling would allow them to be available in eBook format.


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## Steven L. Hawk (Jul 10, 2010)

I downloaded _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ a few months back. Still in the TBR list. It never quite bubbles all the way to the top.


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

Christine Kersey said:


> I've actually never read the Harry Potter books. I wish J. K. Rowling would allow them to be available in eBook format.


That's exactly what I was going to say. I've never read them and everyone says they're so much better than the movies. Now I have a Kindle though, it'll be as an ebook or not at all. I think it'll happen eventually.


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## Daphne (May 27, 2010)

Bram Stoker's "Dracula" - I've had it on my Kindle for nearly a year. I tried reading it recently, but I think I have been spoilt by watching too much Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Jonathan Harker seems painfully slow spotting the facts as a houseguest at Dracula's Castle - and Mina spends her time fretting that she accidentally pricked her friend's throat with a safety pin leaving two little wounds. Honestly, anyone would think they hadn't watched a single episode of Buffy* - one week in Sunnydale would have taught them all they need to know! I can see that this is a classic piece of writing, but I just can't get into the right frame of mind to read it all the way through.

*Yes, I know it was written in 1897, but that is no excuse.


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## coffeetx (Feb 12, 2011)

I second the Harry Potter books.  I have seen all the movies and love them.  I keep intending to read the books but it just hasn't happened yet.  It's really frustrating to me because I have this "thing" about reading the book before the movie.  I always tell people you have to read the book before you see the movie so you can understand the author's true intention first before you see a movie adaptation.  Yet I've done the exact opposite in this case!


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## Guest (Feb 23, 2011)

KRCox said:


> I really enjoyed reading Paolo Bacigalupi's _The Windup Girl_. That was good.


I read and enjoyed this recently too!



coffeetx said:


> I second the Harry Potter books. I have seen all the movies and love them. I keep intending to read the books but it just hasn't happened yet. It's really frustrating to me because I have this "thing" about reading the book before the movie. I always tell people you have to read the book before you see the movie so you can understand the author's true intention first before you see a movie adaptation. Yet I've done the exact opposite in this case!


I like reading the book first and then watching the movie also. My recommendation to you is to do your best to forget the movies in this case.


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## ADCole (Jan 31, 2011)

foreverjuly said:


> Northanger Abbey. _Still the only Jane Austen book I haven't read. Why_


Why? Because it's not very good. I mean, it's not bad, it's just...meh. If you've read the rest of them I'd say you're good to go. Still, I understand the compulsive need to say you've read all of Jane Austen's works. That's why I read Mansfield Park...which I'm glad I did because it is my favorite.

The book that's been staring me in the face begging to be read is _Atlas Shruggled_ by Ayn Rand. I read way more than any of my family or friends and yet most of them have read this book and manage to hold it over my head like they're smarter than me or something. Same with _Catcher in the Rye_. I definitely need to get on those. I want to. It's just time and the fact that my TBR pile is HUGE.

Abby


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## EllenR (Mar 31, 2009)

Hailey Edwards said:


> For me, I'd have to say the Night Huntress books by Jeaniene Frost. I've been told how fabulous they are over and over, but still haven't bought the first book.


Dive in! I'm reading them now. I don't know what took me so darn long.


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## maryannaevans (Apr 10, 2010)

Faulkner's _The Sound and the Fury_

Something, anything, by Hemingway. I know he's a master and all that, but the topics don't sound interesting to me. The Spanish Civil War? Meh.

LeGuin's _The Left Hand of Darkness_. I loved _The Dispossessed_, but she's known for _Left Hand_. I've gotta get around to reading it.

Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, the Agatha Christie's I've missed, and the Nero Wolfe books. I really need to read the classics in my field.


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## maryannaevans (Apr 10, 2010)

maryannaevans said:


> Faulkner's _The Sound and the Fury_. I'm from Mississippi, yet I've only read a little bit of the work of the man who put our culture on paper.
> 
> Something, anything, by Hemingway. I know he's a master and all that, but the topics don't sound interesting to me. The Spanish Civil War? Meh.
> 
> ...


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## deckard (Jan 13, 2011)

maryannaevans said:


> LeGuin's _The Left Hand of Darkness_. I loved _The Dispossessed_, but she's known for _Left Hand_. I've gotta get around to reading it.


_The Left Hand of Darkness_ is, IMO, one of the best science fiction books ever. Please find time to read it if you enjoy science fiction.


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## LauraB (Nov 23, 2008)

maryannaevans said:


> ... anything, by Hemingway. I know he's a master and all that, but the topics don't sound interesting to me. The Spanish Civil War? Meh.


Hemingway's Across the River and into the Trees is very good. It isn't in the Spainsh civil war, and it is on kindle


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## Guest (Feb 23, 2011)

ADCole said:


> Why? Because it's not very good. I mean, it's not bad, it's just...meh. If you've read the rest of them I'd say you're good to go. Still, I understand the compulsive need to say you've read all of Jane Austen's works. That's why I read Mansfield Park...which I'm glad I did because it is my favorite.
> 
> Abby


I loved Mansfield Park too! It was my first Jane Austen book. Good thing it was assigned to me in class or I may not have ever been exposed to her.


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## James Everington (Dec 25, 2010)

foreverjuly said:


> It was my first Jane Austen book. Good thing it was assigned to me in class or I may not have ever been exposed to her.


That must have been an embarrassing moment.

Anyway, The Scarlett Letter for me. Keep meaning to, keep reading something else instead.


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## anguabell (Jan 9, 2011)

Lawrence Durrell. Perhaps when his books are on Kindle...
_The Raj Quartet _ by Paul Scott. Ditto.
And I need to read _The Quiet American _ by Graham Greene one of these days.


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## Cliff Ball (Apr 10, 2010)

The Lord of the Rings and probably The Chronicles of Narnia, since I've never read the series.


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## ajhunter (Aug 23, 2010)

Cliff Ball said:


> The Lord of the Rings and probably The Chronicles of Narnia, since I've never read the series.


For me it's The Lord of the Rings. My brother bought me the dtb version probably 7 or 8 years ago. I actually JUST started reading it this week.

I bought my wife The Chronicles of Narnia boxed set for her birthday this past December. She is currently on the 6th book.


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

Not a single Harry Potter novel, and we own five of the suckers. Beginning to think I'll never get around to them, either.


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## 13893 (Apr 29, 2010)

deckard said:


> _The Left Hand of Darkness_ is, IMO, one of the best science fiction books ever. Please find time to read it if you enjoy science fiction.


I adopt this comment!

I haven't read _Starship Troopers_ yet. And I've wanted to for a long time. I'll probably re-read _Middlemarch _and _The Way We Live Now_ before I get to ST, sheesh!


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## Kevis Hendrickson (Feb 28, 2009)

deckard said:


> _The Left Hand of Darkness_ is, IMO, one of the best science fiction books ever. Please find time to read it if you enjoy science fiction.


I own The Left Hand of Darkness and have tried to read it at least a dozen times. But I keep getting sidetracked with other books. The opening chapter just doesn't hold my attention. But I'm definitely going to have to buckle down and read it.


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## RhondaRN (Dec 27, 2009)

ADCole said:


> The book that's been staring me in the face begging to be read is _Atlas Shrugged_ by Ayn Rand. I read way more than any of my family or friends and yet most of them have read this book and manage to hold it over my head like they're smarter than me or something. Same with _Catcher in the Rye_. I definitely need to get on those. I want to. It's just time and the fact that my TBR pile is HUGE.
> 
> Abby


I LOVED Atlas Shrugged! One of my top 2 books of all time. It's better than her The Fountainhead to me, though it was also very good. My daughter told me about the book, and having similar interests, I read it and loved it. Some people don't though and some base this on Ayn Rand's belief system, which is the basis of the story of the book, though a fictional book. But those that love it, REALLY love it.


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## tim290280 (Jan 11, 2011)

The Odyssey and The Illiad by Homer.

I've read and seen various abridged and adapted versions of these works, but I've never read the originals. Well originals as far as I could manage without learning ancient Greek, I'll stick to an English adaptation.


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## RachelHowzell (Nov 4, 2010)

Anything by Phillip Roth.


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## Liv James (Feb 16, 2011)

The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman.  I bought a hard cover four years ago and there it sits, waiting to be cracked open.


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## theraven (Dec 30, 2009)

The Book Thief and The Poisonwood Bible.


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## M.S. Verish (Feb 26, 2010)

_The Death Gate Cycle _ by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman has been staring at me for 12 years! I have no idea why I haven't read it. Too many good books, so little time.


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## KMA (Mar 11, 2009)

I've never read Lonesome Dove. I probably should.


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## Jeremy C. Shipp (Feb 23, 2011)

I hate to admit this, but I've never read BRAVE NEW WORLD.


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## Steve Silkin (Sep 15, 2010)

oh were to begin. someone said 'quiet american.' yeah, me too. i love graham greene, one of my biggest influences. but i haven't read a lot of his books! and someone said huxley, and i like him, too, but i haven't read 'ape and essence' and i want to.

i've had 'zeno's conscience' by 'svevo' on my nightstand for more than a year. i try to start but i just can't get into it, even though i know it's great. i'll just have to wait until i'm ready.

and how about this: i've never read 'to kill a mockingbird.' i've read all about it, though. and i've avoided seeing the movie until i read the book, although i have seen clips.

i still want to read ulysses and finnegan's wake but i'll have to read them with a companion guide in my left hand - i know this because i've tried before. and there are so many other books that require so much less effort.

oh, and i've read 'crying of lot 49' but i want to read 'v' and 'gravity's rainbow,' too - even 'vineland' and 'mason & dixon.'

i could go on, but i'll stop now.


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## billie hinton (Jan 30, 2011)

I've never read Reynolds Price and I have always "meant to." He died recently and I know so many people who loved his work.


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## Kevis Hendrickson (Feb 28, 2009)

tim290280 said:


> The Odyssey and The Illiad by Homer.
> 
> I've read and seen various abridged and adapted versions of these works, but I've never read the originals. Well originals as far as I could manage without learning ancient Greek, I'll stick to an English adaptation.


Both of those epics are my among my all-time favorite books. I'd kill to be able to read them in Ancient Greek!


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## Steve Silkin (Sep 15, 2010)

maryannaevans said:


> Faulkner's _The Sound and the Fury_
> 
> Something, anything, by Hemingway. I know he's a master and all that, but the topics don't sound interesting to me. The Spanish Civil War? Meh.


Sound and the Fury is good. Do set aside your lack of interest in the Spanish Civil War and read For Whom the Bell Tolls. I'm not even sure I knew what the Spanish Civil War was about when I read the book at 17. It's just a great book. You will love the characters, the dialog, the action.


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## LauraB (Nov 23, 2008)

Steve Silkin said:


> i still want to read Ulysses and Finnegan's wake but I'll have to read them with a companion guide in my left hand - i know this because I've tried before. and there are so many other books that require so much less effort.


One way to make an easier time of  Finnegan's Wake is to read the first 2 pages, then the last two pages and then immediately go back and read the 1st page. I know that sounds weird, but I learned it in a lit. class and after struggling with it several times before, it worked. I mean, as far as Joyce can work for me.


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## KMA (Mar 11, 2009)

LauraB said:


> One way to make an easier time of  Finnegan's Wake is to read the first 2 pages, then the last two pages and then immediately go back and read the 1st page. I know that sounds weird, but I learned it in a lit. class and after struggling with it several times before, it worked. I mean, as far as Joyce can work for me.


It really does help. Joyce works, we just wish he didn't, sometimes.


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## Victorine (Apr 23, 2010)

Hunger Games.  I've heard good things about it.  It's sitting right here.  I gotta get around to reading it.  

Vicki


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## Alexis-Shore (Feb 20, 2011)

Catcher In The Rye, and Of Mice and Men.

I can't believe I haven't read them. I went in to a bookshop last year to get them, and came out with To Kill A Mocking Bird instead. Which I had read a few times anyway.

Facepalm.


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## Beatriz (Feb 22, 2011)

foreverjuly said:


> I'm not even talking about books you've bought that you'd like to read, I mean the books that are staring you in the face every day just shouting at you to read them, but it just never happens. What books do you just feel terrible about not reading?
> 
> The Percy Jackson series. _What am I waiting for?!_
> Northanger Abbey. _Still the only Jane Austen book I haven't read. Why_
> ...


Moi, War and Peace. Tolstoy is one of my favorites and I've read a lot of his work but War and Peace is sitting in my library looking at me and I haven't tackled it yet.


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

Christine Kersey said:


> I've actually never read the Harry Potter books. I wish J. K. Rowling would allow them to be available in eBook format.


Me too. I might read them then if they were reasonably priced.


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## Guest (Feb 26, 2011)

Victorine said:


> Hunger Games. I've heard good things about it. It's sitting right here. I gotta get around to reading it.
> 
> Vicki


You really should. So good!


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## Jason G. Anderson (Sep 29, 2010)

I've got way too many books I want to read 

I'm another one for the Harry Potter series. I've been meaning to read them since book 3 came out (that was the first time my wife and I ever found out about them), and I've never managed to organise myself.

I keep meaning to finish reading the Dresden Files series. I finished book (six? seven?), and then just stopped reading them for some reason.

Indie author wise, I keep meaning to read Daniel Arenson's books. I've got all of them, just haven't made it to reading them yet 

And finally I have a re-read series. I want to re-read Asimov's Foundation series. It's been probably 20 years since I read them, and I want to revisit them. Hopefully I won't ruin my memories of them by doing so


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## Taborcarn (Dec 15, 2009)

I've had Neal Stephenson's Anathem on my shelf since I bought it as a new release.  I'm sure I'll enjoy and keep meaning to get to it, but it's quite big and daunting and other books keep taking priority.


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## BlondeStylus (Jan 28, 2011)

I'm sad to say I haven't read Hunger Games, nor Middlesex.  

Hanging head.
~Brit


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