Top Ten Tuesday: List of Shame

The Broke and the Bookish hosts Top Ten Tuesday and this week's topic that sent me running to scour my shelves is:  Top Ten Books that have been on the shelf the longest without being read.

Honestly, I had kind of a hard time figuring this out.  Most of the books that I saved from childhood have been read and I gave lots of books away in a pre-college clean out and with every move since then.  So, what I learned from this exercise is that I've really accumulated a ton of books in the last five years or so.

Here are 7 books I'm pretty sure I've had since college:
10. Richard Brautigan, An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey: I believe I was having a beat phase.
9.William Faulkner, Light in August: Purchased in the three book Oprah edition, but this is the only one I haven't read.

8. Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams: I may have even bought this one in high school, as a result of my obsessive love of The Bean Trees
7.Katherine Dunn, Geek Love: This I still very much want to read and I don't know why I haven't.
6. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Watchmen: I had a big graphic novels phase brought on by reading Gaiman. I never got to this one.

5. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina: This was another Oprah's book club purchase, embarrassingly enough. I started it and couldn't get past the names.
4.Don DeLillo, Underworld: This is the book that I've been reading the longest. I've given it two goes. What's strange is that I really like it, just can't finish it.


And three that I've had since childhood:
3.Austin Teppan Wright, Islandia: This is my parents' book, so it has likely been in this house since the late 80s. I'm not sure why I kept it and not any of the others that they left when they moved.
2.Louisa May Alcott, Little Women: I have had this copy since elementary school. I've read most, but not all of the book. I would love to replace it with the Penguin clothbound pictured.

1. Volumes 5-7 in C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia: I've had the same box set for as long as I can remember. I think I got it as a Christmas present when I was seven. My mom read me 1-4 before bed.

What books have been on your shelves the longest?  Do you still plan to read them?

Comments

  1. I have so many books on my shelf waiting to be read, most I just haven't got around to, but some (I've been putting off Anna Karenina too!) are waiting to be read because they're too daunting!

    My TTT

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  2. At least you've read 1-4 of Narnia. I've only read The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe! Eeek.

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  3. I had Anna Karenina for the longest time before I read it... I read it this year and I really enjoyed it though, if that persuades you to read it any! Also, I've had Animal Dreams for aaages too, mainly because I really liked The Poisonwood Bible but just... haven't got round to it!

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  4. Yeah those Russians and all their names! I had the same problem with Crime and Punishment last year. I wish the authors would provide a family tree at the back of the book or something like that. I haven't built up the nerve to tackle AK yet. Maybe 2012 will be the year?

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  5. Underworld made an appearance on my bookshelf for a while. Then I got real with myself and I gave it away because I knew that I wasn't going to read it. I read some DeLillo in college and thought I would continue, but no, that didn't happen.

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  6. Watchmen is pretty great!
    Here’s my Top Ten Tuesday post. :)

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  7. If you at all love weird books, then you need to read Geek Love sooner rather than later. It's fantastically demented.

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  8. Read Anna Karenina! Russian names are not scary. But then again, they have a weird way of doing nicknames that makes you wonder *who's that* when it is just the same old character you already know. But there is a web page to help you, so use le Google and all will be well;)

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