Books we bought but have never read

[Wavid]

Right everyone, we must all have bought books with the best of intentions, but which have lain dormant on the shelf since purchase. Books which we really wanted to read, but somehow have always managed not to get aorund to.

What do you have which falls into this category?

My number one choice in this field is definately Austerlitz by WG Sebald. There are others though....

[amner]

It's got to be The Satanic Verses. I wish I had the dedication to get through it.
.

[Wavid]

That one would fall into my category of "Pick it up every time I go into a bookshop, but never buy for fear that it will sit on the shelf forever".

Is that actually a category?

Another of mine: A bought Arthuer Miller's autobigraphy whilst at sixth form, about 8 years ago.

I have never got further than the introduction.

[amner]

Oh, I'll add another while I'm thinking about it: Fight & Kick & Bite the Dennis Potter biog.

And I've never got round to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas that skanky leant me months and months ago.

There, that's three.
.

[skanky]

Did you give that back?

There was The Business by Banks that I borrowed off you and never read.

I can't remember any novels that I bought and never read - though there were some I did have a clear-out recently for space saving reasons. The books I have that I haven't read (as apart from the pile I have recently bought and am working through) are:

"The Holographic Universe" - Michael Talbot
"What remains To Be Discovered" - John Maddox
"I Just Can't Help Believing" - Charlie Connelly
"The CEO Of The Sofa" - P.J.O'Rourke
"Wings & Warriors" - Donald E. Engel
"Football's Strangest Matches" - Andrew Ward (though I read the Lincoln & Cambridge entries).

These are all exclusively because I mainly read whilst travelling and they are all physically big books.

There are some I've started and not finished - not because they are bad but because I started them at the end of one of my reading rushes, just as I went through one of the lulls similar to what Notty mentioned he goes through and never picked up:

"Marriage" - H. G. Wells (found the book in a pub, it was being used as decoration after one of those irritating renovations that was very popular ten years ago).

"Cows" - Matthew Stokoe (I started it whilst on a very bumpy, early morning flight to Zurich so was feeling a bit queasy anyway and it's not one to read in that situation. It seemed pretty good though and I will get back round to it).

Some Science Fiction short story book. Read about half.

There you go, too much again.

[tigermum]

Anna Karenina. Loved the Garbo film when I was younger and have always wanted to read the book. God it's hard work! Still sitting there shouting at me now and again.

[John Self]

I can make up for Wavid and Amner by having read The Satanic Verses twice. However I still have numerous books unread on my shelves (or more accurately in stacks on the floor). I tried to reduce this number earlier this year by imposing an embargo on buying any more books. I got through about 16 previously-unreads in the following 10 weeks before giving in and starting to buy more. Among those I would never have got around to otherwise were The Bonfire of the Vanities, Don DeLillo's Libra, Wuthering Heights, Roth's The Dying Animal and Stewart Lee's The Perfect Fool. Two of these were actually worth it.

[Colyngbourne]

Umberto Eco's 'The Island of the Day Before' or whatever it's called, and Jane Smiley's 'A Thousand Acres' and Kate Atkinson's 'Behind the Scenes at the British Museum'. I can't bring myself to go near them.

Of course there's dozens more that are on my shelves that I've never read, that came with my husband fourteen years ago. All classics, never touched.

[joy]

:) Tigermum - do read Anna Karenina, its a really great book. I tend to read the classics when I'm travelling because I only have a few books with me so I can't wander off and get distracted by something else. But this one is well worth the concentration required.

Bonfire of the vanities is one of the ones sitting on my floor that I will probably never get round to.

[Clem Feeney]

Lots on my shelf. Here's a few that are probably there to make me look/ feel more intellectual-

Primo Levi - "If This is a Man. The Truce"
Tom Wolfe - "A Man In Full" (do read Bonfire of the Vanities anyone out there who's got it, it's a very easy, but very rewarding read).
Jung Chang - "Wild Swans"
Cervantes - "Don Quixote" (I've peeked-very long, old fashioned writing syle, very offputting)
Bruce Chatwin - "In Patagonia"

Most of them were picked up in charity shops, a great way to pad out a collection.

[Wavid]

And I've never got round to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas that skanky leant me months and months ago.

Likewise me with Amner's copy of Great Expectations. I keep meaning to pick it up and read it, but somehow I manage to get more excited about other things instead, like Chesterton for example.

[Nabokov]

Here are some I haven't read yet (going to do a backlog clearance soon - although thinking of picking up A Prayer for Owen Meany)

A.S. Byatt - Possession (it doesn't seem my cup of tea AT ALL, but I was given it as a gift, so I'll try...)

Michael Ondaatje - Anil's GhostSupposedly better than The English Patient? Can anyone confirm or deny?

Arundhati Roy - The God of Small Things One of these that I should have read by now, but pick it up and put it off, pick up something else and forget about it...

George Eliot - Middlemarch see reason for Roy!

[John Self]

I too have The God of Small Things without reading it, and have had for about 6 years. It was a gift, OK...

Other than that I don't have that many books that I have had for ages unread. This is for two reasons: (1) my book-buying embargo earlier this year which enabled me to get through about 20 old chestnuts including The Bonfire of the Vanities, and (2) my habit of including long-unread books in the pile that go to Cancer Research every six months or so. It's the only way I can get them to stop looking at me reproachfully...

[Nabokov]

. It was a gift, OK...

Mine too, as was Possession. I often find it strange; the kind of books people choose as gifts for me. They don't often 'fit' with me and my collection.

[pandop]

Clem,

if you ever get round to reading any of those 'intellectual' books make it Wild Swans - a truly great book (I have read it several times now)

Hazel

[joy]

Wild swans is in the bottom of my wardrobe unread. As I am packing to move house I was trying to decide which ones to give away and which ones to take - as a couple of you seem to think it worthwhile I will take it. Thanks. :D

[D-Bear]

...Umberto Eco's 'The Island of the Day Before' or whatever it's called, and Jane Smiley's 'A Thousand Acres' and Kate Atkinson's 'Behind the Scenes at the British Museum'. I can't bring myself to go near them.

Of course there's dozens more that are on my shelves that I've never read, that came with my husband fourteen years ago. All classics, never touched.

I haven't read the first two, but I enjoyed Behind the Scenes very much. For me, it was a refreshing read--there are numerous familiar (and family-er) themes related in a completely innovative way--and it made me homesick for ol' England. I loved the Ruby character, whom we meet as a fertilized ovum, and who states, practically from babyhood onward, "I am a precious jewel, I am a drop of Blood, I am Ruby..." Do give it a chance, Colyngbourne!

[Colyngbourne]

Thank you for the encouragement. I will get it off the shelf today as a step towards reading it (behind Good Omens and The God of Small Things for book groups).

[b3rtymark]

Lempriere's Dictionary (Lawrence Norfolk); Running in the Family (Michael Ondaatje); A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving), to name just a few.

Of course the last book I can blame someone else for. I was halfway through it (and had been for some time, I should add), when my wife lent it to someone... and that was about 18 months ago !

I must say I do like Smithers' idea of regularly clearing-off your shelves for a good cause. I have always meant to do this - but somehow end up buying/finding more bookspace instead. I must be more disciplined !

[D-Bear]

Thank you for the encouragement. I will get it off the shelf today as a step towards reading it (behind Good Omens and The God of Small Things for book groups).

Oh dear, The God of Small Things....that's one of my bought-but-haven't-read books. I did start it, but found it difficult to "get into". Then something came along that I couldn't wait to read (probably something by Amis or Atwood) and that was that. :roll:

Anyone out there read The God of Small Things? Would it be worth my perseverance (were I able to summon any)?

Another bought-not-read that's sitting on my nightstand, mocking me: Strong Motion by Jonathan Franzen. I adored The Corrections and couldn't wait to read more of Mr. Franzen's work. But thus far, I've made it to page ten or so before quitting it in lieu of something else.

[Colyngbourne]

I forgot to say, A A Prayer for Owen Meany is really worth reading. I've said it elsewhere here. It's just an inevitable story with moments of staggering and moving complexity, and moments of snorting hysteria too. (Or maybe that was just me :wink: )

[youjustmightlikeit]

For all you people feeling guilty about not reading The God of Small Things, don't worry, it's not worth the mental anguish - that starts when you actually start to read the bleedin thing. One word...OVERWRITTEN.

Nabokov - one of yours was Middlemarch - a slog, but worth it.
John Self - a book embargo, i know how you feel. Never works though. I try to wean myself off them by surreptitiously sniffing the pages in side street bookshops, but i just end up buying the one i get caught with.

My dreaded few are Vanity Fair, Don Quixote, Ulysses (which i will never read of course), The letters of Kingsley Amis (which i really want to read), and i'm working up to A Suitable Boy.

[bakunin_the_cat]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who struggled with Ulysses. I know it's
supposed to be one of the best books ever made, and I guess it was prepared to boldly go where no book had been before. But still. It's like strapping, two large buckets to your feet and then walking through wet concrete.

My apologies to the English lit. student in Kiel, I dumped it on, but I like to think I may have helped you on your quest to become more assertive. Next time saying no will be so much easier. I just hope it didn't put you off the English language to the extent that you ran away to become an automotive engineer like your daddy probably always wanted.

Shit. I'm feeling really guilty now. Maybe I'll just run in front of that big, slow truck trundling towards me. Can't quite make out what type it is. Is that a U, an L, a whole load of Esses...

[youjustmightlikeit]

Yes, i started to read it once a couple of years ago, but i developed a blinding headache, began having difficulty swallowing and had to close my eyes for a couple of hours to avoid being sick. As it turns out i was developing glandular fever. To this day i'm unsure as to whether i'd have developed the disease if i'd have been reading a light comedy instead.

It's like when you're a kid and eating something makes you sick; even the smell of the food makes you heave throughout the rest of your life. For me it's celery. So i'm afraid James Joyce is a steaming pile of celery.

Having said that, i did lend a copy of Dubliners to a hot Polish chick i was chatting up at the time. Up to that point it was going quite well, but a day after the book landed in her lap she buggered off back to Poland.....so what does that tell you?

I never realised how James Joyce had ruined my life before writing this. I've even been to Dublin....it rained! Bastard!

[bakunin_the_cat]

To be honest Dubliners isn't that bad, but maybe ironically that's what led to my downfall. If I hadn't liked the snapshot stories linked together by a
seven ages of man kind of theme, then I would never have felt moved to
tackle Ulysses, however worthy others said it was. Unfortunately I did and therein lay the seeds of my destruction. Perhaps your sweet young Pole suffered a similarly bitter end. How many more innocents must go this way? I know Ireland has suffered and wants blood, but I say enough is enough. You have your pound of flesh, and more besides. Enough.

[Nabokov]

I think that Ulysses should only be read in the normal fashion, i.e. cover to cover, if you're studying it.

I love [/i]Ulysses[/i], but I dip in and out of it, like a series of short stories or monologues almost. I kind of see it as a compendium of all the elements a novel should have, but fragmented and smashed to bits in the oh-so-Modernist fashion!

[Wavid]

Among those I would never have got around to otherwise were The Bonfire of the Vanities, Don DeLillo's Libra, Wuthering Heights, Roth's The Dying Animal and Stewart Lee's The Perfect Fool. Two of these were actually worth it.

Was just re-reading this thread, and came upon this: an obvious question was never asked. Which were the two? I can guess Wuthering Heights wasn't it...

My bet is that the two worth reading were Libra and The Bonfire of the Vanities.

Am I right?

[John Self]

Well done that man. Although The Dying Animal was pretty good too.

[amner]

Just having a trawl through the shelves last night and remembered this thread. It occurred to me that I have Bliss (Peter Carey, not Katherine Mansfield), Foucault's Pendulum and Man and Wife (Tony Parsons) nestling away in a dark corner. Any advice on whether I should just leave them there, or are they actually worth the effort?
.

[John Self]

I have never really enjoyed any Peter Carey apart from Oscar & Lucinda, and indeed I never even finished The Unusual Life of Tristam Smith, Jack Maggs and True History of the Kelly Gang. So don't ask me.

Foucault's Pendulum is an old favourite of mine, although I first read it partly to impress a girl (well stranger things have happened ... like youjustmightlikeit's application of Dubliners above). It has everything, from Knights Templar to vanity presses to the one hundred and twenty names of God scrolling down the screen. So at least you can let me know if it is actually any good or I just liked it because I wanted to.

Tony Parsons? Ghost writer of George Michael's autobiography Bare? What do you think?

[amner]

Tony Parsons? Ghost writer of George Michael's autobiography Bare? What do you think?

I think it was a makeweight on my QPD introductory pack.
.

[Anonymous]

Bought this for my degree studies - too many years ago now - and it stiill sits on my shelf gather ing dust. Funny thing though, I wrote an essay on the Dubliners and got a pretty good mark for it - irony.

[darnell]

For me the ones that have been sitting there the longest are:

The town that forgot how to breathe - Kenneth Harvey (though what a great title! - Probably worth leaving on the shelf for that alone)

The Forest of Hours - Kerstin Ekman (although this is more ill-fated than wilful neglect, as I have read the first 60-70 pages numerous times but I then seem to either buy or get given another book, immediately dive into it and completely forget the Forest...

[sara]

My book buying seems to be very of the moment, and if the moment passes the book loses its sparkly appeal and instead sits on my shelves looking dull and unloved. I work in a bookshop on Saturdays, and I often glimpse something that I feel I must have. If I read it in the next week or so it's ok, but otherwise it can be too late.

My most recent argh it's too late is "What is the what" by Dave Eggers, which I purchased on the day I went to see him in conversation with Valentino Achak Deng. I came home all fired up,but then days passed and became weeks, and still it sits fat on my bedside table, still not relegated to the dusty shelf, but still too tragic for me to want to read.

Other titles are "White teeth" and "A short history of tractors in the Ukraine" but there are many, many more. And they make me feel guilty!

Still, De Lillo's "Underworld" was there for years before I eventually picked it up and ploughed through, so there is hope for all.

[Oryx]

This thread depresses me a bit because it remiands me that my list is sooo long. But two notable on that list are:

Don Quixote, Cervantes and The Guermantes Way, Marcel Proust (that's not to suggest that I've bought a bunch of other Proust that I have read)

[amarie]

I know what you mean Oryx. Some titles that spring to mind as I'm sitting here are The Famished Road, On Green Dolphin Street, Herzog, The Naked and the Dead, Children of Men, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, just to mention a few. Mind you, as I've said elsewhere, the number of times I've started that Rushdie tome and then given up is a very large number indeed!

[Colyngbourne]

The Ground Beneath Her Feet and Children of Men are awaiting me right now, since I finished a book last night and have yet to choose a successor.

I would think The Famished Road might justifiably stay unread, amarie. It's one of the few books I've ever abandoned: too much magical realism at the price of an only vaguely interesting story.

[amarie]

Thanks for the advice Col. And if I might venture some myself - if I was you I'd definitely start with Children of Men. I don't know how you feel about Salman Rushdie but I'm beginning to think that TGBHF is unreadable.

[Colyngbourne]

I think I'm going to brave it nethertheless while the foolhardy mood is still with me :-D And before the autumn comes. I don't think I'd pick it up in the darker months of the year.

[John Self]

Yep, good luck with it Col! It's only fair to say that it remains, in my experience*, Rushdie's lowest point. But then you know more (ie anything) about the Orpheus story than I do, so are almost certain to get more out of it.

*ie I haven't read Fury