Unread

I liked yesterday’s Booking Through Thursday topic, so I decided to play along:

So here today I present to you an Unread Books Challenge. Give me the list or take a picture of all the books you have stacked on your bedside table, hidden under the bed or standing in your shelf – the books you have not read, but keep meaning to. The books that begin to weigh on your mind. The books that make you cover your ears in conversation and say, ‘No! Don’t give me another book to read! I can’t finish the ones I have!’

This was an easy one. I have two main piles, one of books that are mine, and the other of borrowed books. They’d gotten a bit mixed, so if nothing else, taking these pictures forced me to take a moment to re-sort them. It also served to remind me that more of my furlough should have been spent reading.

This is the stack of my books, which lives on top of the desk in the living room. I’ve started several of these, but haven’t yet finished any of them. In reality, they aren’t the only books I own that I haven’t read, just the most recent acquisitions.

• Dreams from My Father, Barack Obama
• Lord John and the Hand of Devils, Diana Gabaldon
• The Enchantress of Florence, Salman Rushdie
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan
• The Book Thief, Marcus Zusak
• Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders, Neil Gaiman
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barberry
• Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris
• What is the What, Dave Eggers
• Moral Disorder and Other Stories, Margaret Atwood
• The Road, Cormac McCarthy
• The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick

And here’s the pile of other peoples’ books that I have. It lives on the side of the big bookcase in my bedroom. Some of these I requested to borrow, while others were passed along as recommendations. I’ve had a few of these for so long that I’m honestly not sure who loaned them to me. So… If perchance you see something of yours that you need back, let me know.

• Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It, Geoff Dyer
• The Lady and the Panda, Vicki Constantine Croke
• The Grass is Singing, Doris Lessing
• High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
• Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller
• The Widow of the South, Robert Hicks
• Fingersmith, Sarah Waters
• Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich
• The Child Garden, Geoff Ryman
• Thursday Next: First Among Sequels, Jasper Fforde
• Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadvers, Mary Roach
• The Pursuit of Alice Thrift, Elinor Lipman
• The Inn at Lake Devine, Elinor Lipman
• The Birth of Venus, Sarah Dunnant
• Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood

What about you? Anything on your shelf that needs your attention?

The Most Addictive Books Ever

A few years back, our friend Julia gave my then-roommate, Heidi, two of her favorite historical novels as a birthday present. One, Outlander, I had already read (and loved). The other, The Game of Kings, looked interesting, but I managed to resist the urge to abscond with Heidi’s gift. The book stayed in the back of my mind, though, and eventually I picked up a copy of my own, as Heidi’s had by then gone with her to grad school in Michigan.

The Game of Kings turned out to be one of the most challenging books I’d read in a long time; it’s unbelievably dense, layered with well-researched historical/political detail and literary/poetic allusions. The story — which begins in 16th century Scotland — and characters were interesting, to be sure, but reading it was work. Julia continually assured me that the payoff of the series (for yes, it is the first of a six-book series known as The Lymond Chronicles) was worth it. And so I continued on. I borrowed — and then bought — a copy of The Dorothy Dunnett Companion, the first of two reference books that explain the more obtuse details.

By about the midpoint of the second book, I was thoroughly hooked, and read obsessively from that point on. In the end, it took me about six months to read the entire series, but Julia was right — it was very much worth it; I actually had to stop myself from picking up The Game of Kings for an immediate re-read when I finished the last book, Checkmate. I knew I couldn’t do it, because  another half-year of non-stop reading just didn’t seem healthy.

This, of course, created another problem — what to do about the prequel series, The House of Niccolo, which consists of eight novels and begins in 15th-century Bruges. I knew I couldn’t jump into it right away; continuing the aforementioned obsessive reading for the better part of another year seemed daunting. And so, the books sat on my shelf for close to three years.

Until about a week ago, that is, when I finally dusted off Niccolo Rising and tucked it in my purse on the way to work. The pacing is a little faster in this series, so rather than taking a book and a half to thoroughly suck me in, it only took about a hundred pages.

And thus, I spent yesterday reading — all of it. I read in bed (pausing briefly to make myself coffee and toast) until mid-afternoon, when my book and I headed to the back porch. When it got dark, I moved to the couch (stopping only to heat up a veggie burger and grab some chips). I got back into bed at some point but kept reading until about 2:00 a.m.

I haven’t allowed myself to touch the book yet today. There are dishes to do and laundry to wash. Oh, and brunch. I’m eating with Julia, and you can bet she’s gonna get an earful about her damned addictive books.

***

Updated to fix some links and tweak the wording a bit. Brunch came up a bit more suddenly than I expected, so I published without much proofing. It think it’s a bit better now.

Sticky Books

It feels like been a while since I’ve done anything meme-y, and even longer, I think since I’ve done a Booking Through Thursday one, but this one looked fun and easy. And, Joanne tagged me on it on Facebook, which I thought was cool — I didn’t know it had made the jump to FB. But because sprite introduced me to it a million years ago as a blog meme, I am posting it here.

Booking through Thursday for June 4:

“This can be a quick one. Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.”

1. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
2. The Lymond Chronicles, Dorothy Dunnett
3. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
4. Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
5. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
6. The Diary of Anne Frank, Anne Frank
7. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
8. Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
9. Wuthering Heights -  Emily Brontë
10. Little House on the Prairie – Laura Ingalls Wilder
11. My Life in France, Julia Child
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
13. Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances Mayes
14. Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood
15. First they Killed my Father, Loung Ung

Funny enough, one of these books sticks with me because it’s a book beloved by most that I absolutely hate. Any guesses?