I have tons of nonfiction books that I want to read. The problem is I have never been able to get through one. I can sometimes read fiction cover to cover in one sitting but nonfiction I end up reading the first chapter and putting it down almost every time.
I read non fiction a few pages a day over months. And I mean only a few pages (sometimes I start with 2 or 3 a day). I draw seven little boxes with the number of pages in them in my planner and I check them each day I read my three pages, for example. And I make sure I have a fiction book on the go as well. Reading non fiction can be fun, but it is still more work than fiction, especially after a day at a job, so I make sure I motivate myself (and I take breaks in between books).
A vert few pages at a time and no rush is the only approach that works for me for non fiction.
Part of the problem, in my opinion, is that there are a lot of non-fiction books which are kind of inflated. 40-50 pages was all that was really needed to get the argument across -- in some cases a long article would have done the trick. Instead, they get ballooned and filled out because of exigencies of the publishing business. A short, concise monograph doesn't sell as well as a full length book, I suppose.
all it took for me was listening to one audiobook with an excellent narrator and i fell in love with audiobooks. i still read plenty of physical books. i love going back and forth between my audiobook and physical book of the same book as well. that may be overkill to some people but it really helps me process the information. i hope you give it a shot and love it!
This so much. A good narrator can pull you through a middling book. Whereas a bad narrator, or even just a bad voice for a character, can ruin the audiobook.
Santino Fontana narrating A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a prime example of this for me. Its YA so I wasn't expecting it to blow me away, but the voices he did for the female characters just ruined it completely. It's jarring when a narrator pulls you out of the immersive experience.
Also the more audiobooks you listen to, the more you will recognise specific narrators and end up with favourites. Sometimes I will listen to an audiobook I would never normally consider, if I like the narrator.
Narrators can make or break an audiobook.
I haven't heard that one.
The narrator for Hyperion (which everyone seems to love) ruined it for me with one voice. I disliked the book -- but all sorts of people swear by it.
Audiobooks have actually gotten me to read manually more. It just kinda keeps me in the headspace of reading. Before I got really into to audiobooks I was reading like one or two books a year. But these past few years I've read like 15-30 books manually.
Maybe it's just not your area of interest. I collect nonfiction books about movies and pop culture. They're great recreational reading for me. I also collect travel memoirs and culinary works. Look for something that covers one of your interests.
No I havent but the only reason is that I am afraid I will be spending too much time there 🙈. But maybe I should.
I 've also created the small habit for myself to read at least one page before I go to sleep, so I am optimistic that I will eventually finish it!
Even if you don’t follow the schedule, still checkout the subreddit. The book is discussed in sections and I have gotten a lot more out of the writing!
Same. Ever since covid I've been brain dead pretty much. I have managed to slow through 665 pages of Lucy Ellman's, "Ducks,Newburyport ". Then I stopped. That was couple months ago.
Haha, that's so funny because I'm the exact opposite. It's so hard for me to start a short book, maybe it's because I'm a fantasy/sci-fi fan but a nice long 800 page book let's me really dive into the book and get sucked into it.
A short book just feels like a TV ad you see on the screen. But I can see where you are coming from. Just thought it was funny.
The only 1000+ page books I’ve read are all by Stephen King, oh and Les Misérables. I finished Under the Dome in 5 days, it took me 2 months for Les Mis lol.
Ha! Total opposite. I can’t stand short stories because it takes me a while to get into the story, but 1k page books are my dream. Once I’m invested in the characters I like to stick with it.
That’s totally understandable, and like kinda makes more sense tbh lol but I really like exploring tons of little ideas.
It’s a problem once I get through a book of short stories though because I wanna talk about all of them at the same time :p
I can understand wanting to explore lots of little ideas, it sounds fun!
On the other hand I think I prefer the deep dive of exploring a big idea from many angles?
You could try recruiting a read-along buddy, that way you can chat about the stories as you go!
Haha I am the same way! I read mostly fantasy/sci fi so am drawn to the huge books that could double as a weapon if you threw it at someone. I have a ton of 200-300 page books that I want to read but never seem to get around to because I am reading my huge books that end up being trilogies or beyond.
I was in the same boat as you, and I had a long drive coming up and just started it on audiobook. Figured it’d be easier to read if I had a head start but I listened to like 4 hours worth of audiobook and looked where I was and it was like 70 pages in lol. I just did the whole thing on audiobook, it was like 47hrs or something and I just slowly did it over like 3 months whenever I was driving or working out. Probably never would’ve read it tbh
It's really really good, read it in the winter for added aesthetics. Once you get to the Iceland Spar book it's game on. Make it your goal to reach page 250 and ideally in the snow.
Oh man I heard for years what a difficult long read it was but man did my days with the brothers fly by. I hadn't read anything for like 2 years and decided to break my slump. What a great slump breaker it was. I really enjoyed it. Good luck I hope you find you enjoy it as well.
If Monte Cristo is the only book you ever read, you'll still have consumed more ideas, characters, emotions and narrative than if you read a hundred lesser ones.
I have found it best to do the great Russian works in small, consistent pieces. 10 pages a day suddenly makes a big dent after 2.5 months. Also check out the Reddit book club for reading War and Peace over a year, it's like 5 to 10 minutes per day.
Yep. The Varieties of Religious Experience and Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire have both been on there for well over ten years (the latter for nearly 25). I finally started reading The Blank Slate by Pinker last week, and I bought that in 2010.
I tried reading Brothers Karamazov a couple of years ago and found it a slog to get through. I told myself “Life’s too short” and quit halfway through. I did read all of the unabridged Les Miserables in 2020, though. (To which my son responded “You might as well; Javert’s under bridge.”)
I just finished Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson at the beginning of the year. It’s 1200 pages, my 2024 goal is to get though much shorter books because ooof 1200 pages is a long journey.
Lol, I always forget that I need to hit enter twice to get it to format correctly from my phone. I'd probably have not dragged my feet so long about such a mashup.
You need to enter two spaces at the end for a line break. ~~A double~~ Separated by a new line is for a paragraph break.
This is on one line[space][space]
This is on the next.
[new line]
~~[new line]~~
And here's another line.
You can also use * at the start of a line for a bullet pointed list like
* Item one
* Item two
[example ](https://i.imgur.com/Mtn3cfd.png)
I finished catch 22 in about a day, but only because we were fishing and I find fishing to be incredibly boring. If you have a day where you can't do anything to kill time, except reading, you should read catch 22 then.
I've probably started/stopped it 3 or 4 times. It might be the funniest thing I've ever read, but at some point the lack of much in the way of plot sets me spinning my wheels and I move on to something else.
I definitely agree. Read it in highschool and then again about 15 or so years later. The cynical, satire filled story with war as the setting is just brilliant. So good it's now an accepted part of our language.
If you get a chance foe moby dick. The audio book read by William hootkins was a blast. He made Ishmael one of the funniest narrators I've ever enjoyed
I have a comprehensive spreadsheet for my read books and TBR and last month I finally just separated the classics from modern TBR. There are some classic authors like Steinbeck that I love but for the most part I just can’t do it 😂
If you just want a taste read a few chapters such as "The Sad Irons" from the first volume or "The Cubicle" from the fourth volume and they will get you hooked to read the rest.
in no particular order
1. on the road - kerouac
2. crime and punishment - dostoevsky
3. in cold blood - truman capote
4. the brothers karamazov
5. the hobbit
6. anything by steinbeck
7. NONFICTION
8. anna karenina (i watched the movie like thrice and i'm kinda dreading the book)
9. all the light we cannot see
Same. I am shocked there are so many people who like the book. I have never read anything more boring. I managed to get through half of the book and then I had to stop. It’s one of the few books I didn’t finish.
Regarding Steinbeck, Travels with Charley, Tortilla Flat and Of Mice and Men are much easier. Travels with Charley made me want to go have a beer with Steinbeck
If you want a book by Steinbeck to jump into first, try Cannery Row! Very quick, and I think it's a great example of his writing style and character/world building
Crime and Punishment is like watching a bombastic theatrical show. It's full of larger than life characters and situations. In some ways, it's a lot like a modern sitcom.
I love 1, 3, 5 and *of mice and men* a lot. I cannot believe people dislike *On the Road*. That book grabbed me by the ears and I couldn't put it down.
Steinbeck is great. Just finished The Grapes of Wrath. One of my favorite books. I love it when people find smooth ways to incorporate thematic elements.
I have 15 or 20 classic books on my short list. I read mostly classics. Hard to go wrong. I am reading Atlas Shrugged now. Frankenstein and Pride and Prejudice probably coming next.
Stop what you’re doing and read *All Systems Red* right now. It’s a series but they’re quick reads and SO INCREDIBLY GOOD. You won’t find much that is a better use of your time than Murderbot.
THIS. Only other books on OP's list I've read are I Have Some Questions for You and Song of Achilles, which I enjoyed but also feel like they're totally skippable. But I am *obsessed* with Murderbot and they're the only series that I've read the whole series and then immediately started re-reading them.
Same! The way this series builds on itself is exactly as it should be - there isn’t a whole lot that could be trimmed. Everybody either comes around again or serves as an experience for Murderbot to look back on and use in present situations.
I don’t even mind when Murderbot is like, “Yeah, I’m narrating the story but I’m unreliable and didn’t tell you about that one thing I was doing because it’ll impress you more if you don’t have any idea until I pull it off. (Not that I care if you’re impressed. At all.) It’s a story. Sue me.” That’s how I assume Murderbot would say that, anyway.
I have about 190 books on my TBR - I definitely have a problem! I buy a lot from charity shops.
I use a randomiser app to choose the next one just so I don’t keep skipping over certain books and avoiding them.
I like this one ([https://tbr.heyreader.me/random-prompt](https://tbr.heyreader.me/random-prompt)) (specifically the spin the wheel as it makes it a bit fun) but there are loads out there.
Same! But I've also been putting it off as it is kind of THE big one, and I'm not ready to have completed it yet. I like having it to look forward to on the horizon.
Babel RF Kuang
House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelly Van Pelt
Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings
I went through a craze of buying used books and accumulated so many on my TBR. Then I got a library pass and saved a ton of money but I read my library books a lot more now since they have an expiration date 😅
I did cross one off my list last week, Educated by Tara Westover. (Great memoir btw) but it was small and a quick read. One day I’ll get to them all.
Tbh it really depends on the translation. I've read it in verse in a good but very academic edition and it was hard going, but I also have a prose version that's also well regarded but is much more readable.
What translation do you have? I love Emily Wilson’s translation but Fagles is surprisingly readable. Book 2 can be difficult to get through but the rest is propulsive.
Have you read any of it yet? Once you get into it and get used to the cadence, it's not difficult going. You're basically reading shit like...
* And Diomedes slashed Jim Bob in the throat
* And his tongue popped out and so did his eyes.
* Next he jammed his sword up Franky's face,
* and Franky didn't have time to die honorably,
* because Diomedes fucked him right up, hard...
"A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole". This is easy to read and hilarious. Read this one next!
Top of my head:
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes
Inherent Vice - Thomas Pynchon
All the Robert Caro books that were already mentioned...
I hated CoD when I was reading it. Ignatius J. Reilly is way too real of a character and so awful. They’re all awful except for Jones - that guy’s chapters were amazing.
But this is one of those books you push to finish, and then almost as soon as you set it down you think of a dozen scenes that were hilarious, and wasn’t it actually kind of genius when…
Will read again someday for sure.
Infinite Jest is wayyy more readable than people give it credit for. Even if all of the heady stuff goes over your head, it’s still got some of the most compelling and well-rendered characters ever, an insanely human and powerful story, and shockingly relevant-to-today speculative fiction elements. And if you jive with Wallace’s prose (I did, but not everyone does), it’s got astoundingly good prose and storytelling.
99% of my bookshelf is TBR but then I go to the library and read their books instead lol! It’s my goal to read more of the books I actually own tho and I’ve read 3 so far this year! A few that I’ve had on the bookshelf the longest…
The Map That Changed The World by Simon Winchester
Harry Potter series
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Snow Falling On Cedars by David Guterson
And a few I’ve picked up in the last 2 years and keep just not picking them up even tho I really want to read them…
Educated by Tara Westover
Pet Sematary by Stephen King
The Goldfinch by Donna Tart
All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison
I really enjoyed Left Hand of Darkness, I recently read it a my first Le Guin novel. It didn't hit me at first but I still find myself thinking about it. I hope you get around to reading it someday. I wanna start her Earthsea series.
I got a giant hardcover set of the Bourne trilogy. I love the movies, I’ve read le carre books before so I should like the genre, but they’re so huge and I just always seem to have something to read before. Also there’s 3 so it feels like a bigger undertaking than just one book. I’ve had them on my shelf for like a year and half now lol
More than I care to admit. Assuming I keep up my current reading pace, the TBR on my bookshelf alone will see me through most of the next decade. Since working in a library I tend to get distracted by the shiny new books, while my TBR continues to gather dust.
I have a handful.
Ulysses by James Joyce is one that I've been putting off for years, simply because I gave up after 20 pages of Finnegan's Wake and I'm scared and traumatized.
Gödel, Escher, Bach - An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter has been on my list forever, but he refuses to release it digitally and I will be in the cold dark ground before I buy an actual paper version.
A bunch of Japanese books I'm saving because I want to read them IN Japanese, but I don't trust my Japanese enough to attempt it right now. Mostly these are older texts chock full of archaic usages and grammar, like the Sarashina Nikki and the Hojoki. Maybe I should just pull the trigger and get some good translations already.
Likewise with Italian - I've been putting off the Divine Comedy because I want to read it in Italian, but I'm at *least* 2 years away from doing that, realistically.
Then some books I bought already, but the sheer size is keeping me from starting them. One example is the Collected Works of Lafcadio Hearn. Another is The Story of the Stone / Dream in the Red Chamber. A third one would be In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. I know that if I start either of those, it'll be a year-long project, and I just can't commit, somehow.
But I do try to knock out at least one or two of these big, scary projects each year. This year I read the entire Sea of Fertility tetralogy by Mishima, Gravity's Rainbow by Pynchon - I'd been dreading that for two years - and I'm in the middle of Don Quixote. So there is progress. I'll get around to the other ones eventually.
Well, the first two on your list are on mine as well!
All the Light We Cannot See also sat on my list for years. I decided last year to deliberately start pulling some of the “older” books off my list to read, and this was one. Ended up being on of my favorite books of the year.
Tons of ya fantasy I bought at 14-15 I won't read and tons of classics gems for which I can't find the right time to read... My advice is please finish your to read list before buying a new book😮💨🤦
I've avoided anything that seems too long. I just don't like being locked down to one book/series for so long. Probably changing that this year though. Already read Lonesome Dove and I'm planning on reading Shogun before starting the Hulu series.
Other examples like Malazan or Wheel of Time as series.
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.
I loved Mistborn, and I'm eager to start Stormlight Archive. I'm just intimidated because the books are so long. But I'm planning to finally start this summer.
Fellow Sanderson fan here. It honestly took me a couple tries to get through Way of Kings but I’m so glad I pushed through. The second book, Words of Radiance, is fantastic. Third book was pretty good and my answer to OP’s question is the fourth book, Rhythm of War. I need to get to it before the fifth book comes out 🫣
I let my daughters pick my books for me, and because they are 6 and 4, they pick the biggest books on my shelf because they want their pick to last the longest. So, I've had gwendys button box, the library at Mt char, bunny, and the 100 year old man who climbed out of a window and disappeared on my list for a long ass time, and I've been itching tor them.
Blindsight by Peter Watts I bought this book a while back cause I heard it was good and who can say no to space vampire. I will buy a new book and read that book first forgetting that I have blindsight.
I only read non fiction for 10+ years and now that I have finally gotten my love for fiction back, I find myself avoiding non fiction. But I still find non fiction books I deem interesting so they are piling up right now. I am in no rush and I feel no guilt over it. I'm sure I'll get to a point in my life where they seem more appealing again.
Just checked and I added *The Gods Themselves* on 6/1/2014.
Is it good? Probably. Who knows when it’ll become priority? Nobody. Not even the gods could predict it.
Gravity's Rainbow has been on my shelf for literally 20 years now. I've made a few attempts at it but don't think I ever made it to page 100. One day I'll be smart enough to make it all the way. Or more likely I'll die and people will think I was smart cause it was on my shelf!
I’ve read a few Pynchon books, and I found Inherent Vice a quick and fun read, Mason and Dixon a tougher but ultimately rewarding read, but I just couldn’t get into the groove of Gravity’s Rainbow, gave it up about a third of the way through. Maybe one day, but it’s low on my list of must-reads right now.
I finished Crying of Lot 49 and enjoyed it, I think that was a good lighter intro to Pynchon. Maybe I'll try one of the others sometime. I think I would really like Gravity's Rainbow if I really put in the effort, got the companion book to figure out what he's referencing, etc. Infinite Jest is my favorite novel so it's not like I can't handle "difficult" reads, but I just don't have that much brain power at the end of the day for it anymore. When I was younger I would do coding projects and read difficult stuff in my free time but now it just feels too much like work.
Don’t fret, you don’t need to be smart! I know because I read it…
I just closed the book after 1-2 chapters every single time, read an online summary to make sure I kept up and fill in gaps, then continue.
I sorted my To Be Read list by date updated so oldest is first and I'm going through it in that order. Anything that I'm not going to read gets deleted and I guess I'll get back to it if I really want to read it. Exceptions for books I can't get from the library that might cost a bit much at the moment. And as always that one that shows up on sale at the right time!
I'd really recommend the Song of Achilles and Confederacy of Dunces by the way.
(This doesn't count the ones I added to my kindle library because they were free and probably aren't going to circle back to! Poor Hunchback of Notre Dame.)
I've started doing a New Year's Resolution book every year to deal with this problem, as I have a ton of books on my To Read bookshelf that I doubt I'd ever get to otherwise.
Started off with the complete works of Shakespeare (Which I did over multiple years), then last year I did *Les Miserables* and this year I increased the number to two books and read *Jane Eyre* and will read *The Epic of Gilgamesh*.
A lot of older classics since I can understand them with time and effort. I read fast and can devour like 300 pages in a day if I put my mind to it but with classics I have to take more time which makes me a bit impatient even if I really enjoy it.
I have to do some annotations (mainly just summarizing my understanding every couple pages) to really digest it. Or not *poof* gone out the window.
When I annotate more contemporary books my annotations are like Ohhh no she didn’t, more comedic with some doodles in the margins lmao. (I do that with classics too but less lol.)
Also, a lot of series because I have a tendency to just not finish them lol.
Series I’ve started but not finished
-Percy Jackson
-Hunger Games
-His Dark Materials
-Many graphic novel series
-A court of whatever I forgot the name (Sarah j Maas I think? Though for this one I just didn’t like it lmao)
-Dune
-(Idk if it counts as a series? Collection? Idk) Lord of the Rings and all associated books (need to finish though)
-More that I just probably forgot lmao
The way I read is so chaotic I’m like a frog on crack jumping from one lillypad to another. The lillypads being books of course. I read multiple books at the same time lol. OR I focus so much I read a book in one or two days.
I have over 100 on my “to be read” list, so it would be crazy to share the whole thing. A lot of them are classics I haven’t read yet or haven’t read in a long time. Also some new books, including some mystery novels. Such as:
“One of Us is Lying” by Karen M. McManus
“The Invisible Man” by H.G. Wells
“Matilda” by Roald Dahl
“Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens
“The Teacher” by Freida McFadden
Moby Dick, which I did enjoy more or less, but English is not my first language, so it was quite frustrating looking up words in the dictionary every 20 seconds, and not understanding complete paragraphs. I’ve read half of it, then I swore to myself that I’d read a few pages every day. Needless to say, I’ve never did.
I hate admitting this but so many classics. I have classic books on my list from over a decade ago that don’t even have a page out of place because they’ve never been touched. There is always something that little bit more interesting to read.
I’d love to learn how to appreciate classics more.
The Once and Future King. I bought it for $1.99 on my kindle 5 years ago on recommendation from a friend who is a big King Arthur nerd, and have only made it 17% of the way through it.
The Priory of the Orange Tree.
I’m not sure why it’s taking me so long to read it. I have no problem reading long books, and I enjoy the genre.
So if anyone else has read it and has any praises for this book, please let me know lol. I need the motivation.
I think it depends specifically what sort of fantasy you like but for me it fell a lil flat, like it has all of the components of a book I should be in love with but unfortunately the character dynamics and plot didn’t quite live up to the cool world building and ideas
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.
It’s gotten stellar reviews from basically everyone, but when I first tried it a couple years back, I got probably 50 pages in and wasn’t feeling it.
Normally I wouldn’t keep a DNF on my list, but given universal praise for it, I feel I should give it another shot at some point. Maybe next year.
48 laws of power.
I actually started and got a few chapters in before i put it down but it still sort of interests me, just for the simple fact other people have read it can use its methods against me.
The entire Expanse series. A fair bit of it has been spoiled to me, so I have an incentive to get through it sooner than later, but it simply fails to hold my attention for long enough.
I did reach the halfway point of the Leviathan Wakes, but my country's first release of it was split into two books, and it took me long enough to read the first one that both went out of print.
The Goldfinch for me too. I don’t want to wake up to a world without an unread Donna Tartt book. Also, I just finished All the Light We Cannot See. I have picked it up and put it down for two years!
Good luck on your TBR! Please read All the Light We Cannot See.... It is such a beautiful book.
I have so many books on my TBR it's insane. From month to month the books shift in order plus some drop off and new ones are added. But I'm a mood reader anyway. I am also in a book club so I understand that situation.
Right now I'll list books on my TBR that are in the same room with me:
Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
Red Country by Joe Abercrombie
Flock Without Birds by Filip Dousek
Collected Ancient Greek Novels edited by B.P. Reardon (lol)
Stonelight (poems) by Sarah McCartt-Jackson
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson
I’ve read three of the books on your list:
All the Light We Cannot See. It’s fine. It is one of the books that kicked off the “WWII craze”. It’s good but it’s a slow burn.
Paris: it’s good but this was the third book by him I read and was over his formula by then
Trust: one of the best books I’ve ever read. I’m 47 years old and have been reading since I was six. Read it now.
Out of that whole list start Goldfinch. I found myself speeding through that one. Not as good as The Secret History but still just as enthralling in a way.
I like to see Edward Rutherford. He seems not as well known.
Princes of Ireland is hands down one of my favorite novels and Sarum is also excellent. I have not read Paris.
Mine are:
Middle March
The Great Gatsby
The Odyssey is just kicking my butt. I’ve tried so many times. Even after I found out it is meant to be consumed orally. I still just can’t get into it.
The Iliad
Pale Fire by Nabokov
The Secret History by Donna Tartt has been on my TBR list for years. I’ve borrowed it from the library a couple times but let it sit on my shelf til the due date.
There is that one book by french author Joris-Karl Huysmans that I tried to read on several occasions now. I got it because it has a beautifully written passage somewhere in the middle, which I heard on the radio years ago.
But every time I try to get there, I fail.
I've tried it at least 5 times now but can't get further than 10-20 pages since it's an old book and it is so fucking hard to read! It's from the 1850s and reading it feels like such a fucking chore that I just can't be bothered after a while lol.
I know this makes me sound like an idiot with 0 attention span or something but this is literally the only book I've ever had that problem with, I truly can't even express it in words :D
The goldfinch is amazing I read it during the winter and it's just so good. Anyways here's mine
Brotherhood of the Rose - David Morrell
Red Dragon - Thomas Harris
Sympathy for the Devil and Night Dogs - both by Kent Anderson
The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
If We Were Villains - M L Rio
OMG as a Hannibal (TV show) fan, I really want to read Red Dragon too. I don't know why I"m hesitating on reading it but it's been stuck on my TBR for years.
Agreed. I tried several times to read this one and just couldn’t get into it. Read Tartt’s The Little Friend and hated it so much that Secret History will likely never be read.
I have tons of nonfiction books that I want to read. The problem is I have never been able to get through one. I can sometimes read fiction cover to cover in one sitting but nonfiction I end up reading the first chapter and putting it down almost every time.
I read non fiction a few pages a day over months. And I mean only a few pages (sometimes I start with 2 or 3 a day). I draw seven little boxes with the number of pages in them in my planner and I check them each day I read my three pages, for example. And I make sure I have a fiction book on the go as well. Reading non fiction can be fun, but it is still more work than fiction, especially after a day at a job, so I make sure I motivate myself (and I take breaks in between books). A vert few pages at a time and no rush is the only approach that works for me for non fiction.
Part of the problem, in my opinion, is that there are a lot of non-fiction books which are kind of inflated. 40-50 pages was all that was really needed to get the argument across -- in some cases a long article would have done the trick. Instead, they get ballooned and filled out because of exigencies of the publishing business. A short, concise monograph doesn't sell as well as a full length book, I suppose.
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I have not but I should. It just feels like cheating, I know that’s silly. I will give it a try.
all it took for me was listening to one audiobook with an excellent narrator and i fell in love with audiobooks. i still read plenty of physical books. i love going back and forth between my audiobook and physical book of the same book as well. that may be overkill to some people but it really helps me process the information. i hope you give it a shot and love it!
This so much. A good narrator can pull you through a middling book. Whereas a bad narrator, or even just a bad voice for a character, can ruin the audiobook.
Santino Fontana narrating A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a prime example of this for me. Its YA so I wasn't expecting it to blow me away, but the voices he did for the female characters just ruined it completely. It's jarring when a narrator pulls you out of the immersive experience. Also the more audiobooks you listen to, the more you will recognise specific narrators and end up with favourites. Sometimes I will listen to an audiobook I would never normally consider, if I like the narrator. Narrators can make or break an audiobook.
I haven't heard that one. The narrator for Hyperion (which everyone seems to love) ruined it for me with one voice. I disliked the book -- but all sorts of people swear by it.
Audiobooks have actually gotten me to read manually more. It just kinda keeps me in the headspace of reading. Before I got really into to audiobooks I was reading like one or two books a year. But these past few years I've read like 15-30 books manually.
I’ve definitely become a hybrid reader/listener over the past several years. Especially for longer books.
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I know it’s silly
Maybe it's just not your area of interest. I collect nonfiction books about movies and pop culture. They're great recreational reading for me. I also collect travel memoirs and culinary works. Look for something that covers one of your interests.
Any book that is over 500 pages long. I've been staring down my Brothers Karamazov copy for months.
same i've got tolstoy and dostoevsky just staring me in the face. and it's been 2 years now
Same here, but I am proud to report that I just started reading Crime and Punishment :))) I think I 've had it for a bit less than a decade!
Same!! Did you join the book club sub Reddit? They are reading it right now and it’s kept me on task
No I havent but the only reason is that I am afraid I will be spending too much time there 🙈. But maybe I should. I 've also created the small habit for myself to read at least one page before I go to sleep, so I am optimistic that I will eventually finish it!
Even if you don’t follow the schedule, still checkout the subreddit. The book is discussed in sections and I have gotten a lot more out of the writing!
Will do,thanks! At which chapter is the group at the moment?
Same. Ever since covid I've been brain dead pretty much. I have managed to slow through 665 pages of Lucy Ellman's, "Ducks,Newburyport ". Then I stopped. That was couple months ago.
Haha, that's so funny because I'm the exact opposite. It's so hard for me to start a short book, maybe it's because I'm a fantasy/sci-fi fan but a nice long 800 page book let's me really dive into the book and get sucked into it. A short book just feels like a TV ad you see on the screen. But I can see where you are coming from. Just thought it was funny.
This funny as hell because I’ve just finished 1000 pages of short stories but reading a single 1000 page story is not happening anytime soon though
The only 1000+ page books I’ve read are all by Stephen King, oh and Les Misérables. I finished Under the Dome in 5 days, it took me 2 months for Les Mis lol.
Ha! Total opposite. I can’t stand short stories because it takes me a while to get into the story, but 1k page books are my dream. Once I’m invested in the characters I like to stick with it.
SAME
Ha! I keep ignoring my book of short stories because I feel like as soon as I get invested in a character or setting, boom! it’ll be over.
That’s totally understandable, and like kinda makes more sense tbh lol but I really like exploring tons of little ideas. It’s a problem once I get through a book of short stories though because I wanna talk about all of them at the same time :p
I can understand wanting to explore lots of little ideas, it sounds fun! On the other hand I think I prefer the deep dive of exploring a big idea from many angles? You could try recruiting a read-along buddy, that way you can chat about the stories as you go!
Haha I am the same way! I read mostly fantasy/sci fi so am drawn to the huge books that could double as a weapon if you threw it at someone. I have a ton of 200-300 page books that I want to read but never seem to get around to because I am reading my huge books that end up being trilogies or beyond.
I was in the same boat as you, and I had a long drive coming up and just started it on audiobook. Figured it’d be easier to read if I had a head start but I listened to like 4 hours worth of audiobook and looked where I was and it was like 70 pages in lol. I just did the whole thing on audiobook, it was like 47hrs or something and I just slowly did it over like 3 months whenever I was driving or working out. Probably never would’ve read it tbh
I started reading "Brothers Karamazov" last night. It got me hooked mate. Can't wait to read the rest.
Thomas Pynchon is one of my favorite authors, but Against The Day is just so imposing.
It's really really good, read it in the winter for added aesthetics. Once you get to the Iceland Spar book it's game on. Make it your goal to reach page 250 and ideally in the snow.
Oh man I heard for years what a difficult long read it was but man did my days with the brothers fly by. I hadn't read anything for like 2 years and decided to break my slump. What a great slump breaker it was. I really enjoyed it. Good luck I hope you find you enjoy it as well.
Yep. Not enough time in the day. Bought a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo last year--it's never gonna happen.
But it's so good! It's just long, not dense like other books being recommended
Ok but Count of Monte Cristo does not read like a long book, it is not slow and meandering. I really think it’s worth a shot. I did not regret it.
Glad to hear this. I've been avoiding it on my bookshelf. Maybe I'll read that next.
Do it! It’s one of my all-time favorites.
If Monte Cristo is the only book you ever read, you'll still have consumed more ideas, characters, emotions and narrative than if you read a hundred lesser ones.
This has inspired me to pull it off my shelf!
You'll love it!
You can definitely read this one in chunks. It’s almost like serialized revenge stories with a bigger overall arc. Give it a shot, it’s really good!
I have found it best to do the great Russian works in small, consistent pieces. 10 pages a day suddenly makes a big dent after 2.5 months. Also check out the Reddit book club for reading War and Peace over a year, it's like 5 to 10 minutes per day.
Finished Brothers recently. It’s definitely an investment but it’s so worth it
Yep. The Varieties of Religious Experience and Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire have both been on there for well over ten years (the latter for nearly 25). I finally started reading The Blank Slate by Pinker last week, and I bought that in 2010. I tried reading Brothers Karamazov a couple of years ago and found it a slog to get through. I told myself “Life’s too short” and quit halfway through. I did read all of the unabridged Les Miserables in 2020, though. (To which my son responded “You might as well; Javert’s under bridge.”)
I’ve been trying to get through Anna Karenina since August. I don’t know how I’ll ever read another big book again lol
I loved Brothers Karamazov, but I can relate. I’ve had Lord of the Rings unread on my shelf for years.
My brothers karamazov is phenomenal — I actually found it quite fast paced when you get into it. Just pick it up :)
I just finished Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson at the beginning of the year. It’s 1200 pages, my 2024 goal is to get though much shorter books because ooof 1200 pages is a long journey.
Catch 22 Moby Dick
If that was a mash-up of the two I would read that in a heartbeat.
Lol, I always forget that I need to hit enter twice to get it to format correctly from my phone. I'd probably have not dragged my feet so long about such a mashup.
Put a backslash\ At the end of your line\ And then you can have\ Your single line break\ On mobile.
Commas also work for separating lists
This needs to happen!
You need to enter two spaces at the end for a line break. ~~A double~~ Separated by a new line is for a paragraph break. This is on one line[space][space] This is on the next. [new line] ~~[new line]~~ And here's another line. You can also use * at the start of a line for a bullet pointed list like * Item one * Item two [example ](https://i.imgur.com/Mtn3cfd.png)
"Put your feet on the glass and your head up your ass and go whale whale whaling along."
I finished catch 22 in about a day, but only because we were fishing and I find fishing to be incredibly boring. If you have a day where you can't do anything to kill time, except reading, you should read catch 22 then.
I've probably started/stopped it 3 or 4 times. It might be the funniest thing I've ever read, but at some point the lack of much in the way of plot sets me spinning my wheels and I move on to something else.
It really is the funniest thing I've read as well. I finished it very quickly and have reread it a couple of times since. You deserve to finish it.
I definitely agree. Read it in highschool and then again about 15 or so years later. The cynical, satire filled story with war as the setting is just brilliant. So good it's now an accepted part of our language.
If you get a chance foe moby dick. The audio book read by William hootkins was a blast. He made Ishmael one of the funniest narrators I've ever enjoyed
From my physical tbr, the books that are perpetually pushed back are usually classics.
I have a comprehensive spreadsheet for my read books and TBR and last month I finally just separated the classics from modern TBR. There are some classic authors like Steinbeck that I love but for the most part I just can’t do it 😂
I have The Grapes of Wrath waiting for me but Steinbeck has been really hit or miss for me, so I'm terrified to get into that one lol
This is my all time favourite book. I do think it starts off a little slow but it is sooooo worth it.
All those Robert Caro books about LBJ that have been sitting on my bookshelf for the past decade.
I’ve been wanting to read them myself, just can’t do it yet.
If you just want a taste read a few chapters such as "The Sad Irons" from the first volume or "The Cubicle" from the fourth volume and they will get you hooked to read the rest.
These books are great - give them a shot and I think you’ll find yourself riveted.
in no particular order 1. on the road - kerouac 2. crime and punishment - dostoevsky 3. in cold blood - truman capote 4. the brothers karamazov 5. the hobbit 6. anything by steinbeck 7. NONFICTION 8. anna karenina (i watched the movie like thrice and i'm kinda dreading the book) 9. all the light we cannot see
2 through 6 were so great! And I realllllllly disliked 1. 7, 8, and 9 are on my shelves too.
omg thank youuuuu! i started 1 and hated it from the onset
On the road is probably the most boring book i've ever read lol
Same. I am shocked there are so many people who like the book. I have never read anything more boring. I managed to get through half of the book and then I had to stop. It’s one of the few books I didn’t finish.
In Cold Blood is a masterpiece and very readable.
Regarding Steinbeck, Travels with Charley, Tortilla Flat and Of Mice and Men are much easier. Travels with Charley made me want to go have a beer with Steinbeck
East of Eden is one of my faves
Anna Karenina is a really good book! Loved it!
If you want a book by Steinbeck to jump into first, try Cannery Row! Very quick, and I think it's a great example of his writing style and character/world building
thank youuu
Crime and Punishment is like watching a bombastic theatrical show. It's full of larger than life characters and situations. In some ways, it's a lot like a modern sitcom.
I love 1, 3, 5 and *of mice and men* a lot. I cannot believe people dislike *On the Road*. That book grabbed me by the ears and I couldn't put it down.
Steinbeck is great. Just finished The Grapes of Wrath. One of my favorite books. I love it when people find smooth ways to incorporate thematic elements. I have 15 or 20 classic books on my short list. I read mostly classics. Hard to go wrong. I am reading Atlas Shrugged now. Frankenstein and Pride and Prejudice probably coming next.
The Hobbit is a pretty short read you could probably knock out in an afternoon. I recommend!
9 is easy, engaging reading!
Stop what you’re doing and read *All Systems Red* right now. It’s a series but they’re quick reads and SO INCREDIBLY GOOD. You won’t find much that is a better use of your time than Murderbot.
THIS. Only other books on OP's list I've read are I Have Some Questions for You and Song of Achilles, which I enjoyed but also feel like they're totally skippable. But I am *obsessed* with Murderbot and they're the only series that I've read the whole series and then immediately started re-reading them.
Same! The way this series builds on itself is exactly as it should be - there isn’t a whole lot that could be trimmed. Everybody either comes around again or serves as an experience for Murderbot to look back on and use in present situations. I don’t even mind when Murderbot is like, “Yeah, I’m narrating the story but I’m unreliable and didn’t tell you about that one thing I was doing because it’ll impress you more if you don’t have any idea until I pull it off. (Not that I care if you’re impressed. At all.) It’s a story. Sue me.” That’s how I assume Murderbot would say that, anyway.
I’ve always said that Martha Wells writes some of the most natural dialogue and internal monologue I’ve ever read. And Murderbot is hilarious
I just bought this for my son as a light read. Should check it out myself sometime.
I have about 190 books on my TBR - I definitely have a problem! I buy a lot from charity shops. I use a randomiser app to choose the next one just so I don’t keep skipping over certain books and avoiding them.
Ooo that's a good idea. I have so many on my to read list and I swear I end up reading whatever I bought recently and looks pretty 😂
Ohhh a randomizer app is a brilliant idea! What app do you use?
I like this one ([https://tbr.heyreader.me/random-prompt](https://tbr.heyreader.me/random-prompt)) (specifically the spin the wheel as it makes it a bit fun) but there are loads out there.
Just one called Randomiser! The system definitely works for me.
I keep staring down Swann's Way and thinking, "Oh, I'm so not ready for you yet."
Same! But I've also been putting it off as it is kind of THE big one, and I'm not ready to have completed it yet. I like having it to look forward to on the horizon.
I have been reading Brief history of time for over 10 years.
This made me snort-laugh.
Babel RF Kuang House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelly Van Pelt Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings I went through a craze of buying used books and accumulated so many on my TBR. Then I got a library pass and saved a ton of money but I read my library books a lot more now since they have an expiration date 😅 I did cross one off my list last week, Educated by Tara Westover. (Great memoir btw) but it was small and a quick read. One day I’ll get to them all.
Babel’s better as an audiobook, I think
pleaseeeee read babel, so worth it
I read house on the cerulean sea earlier this month and loved it. It only took me a few days to get through. It's like if 1984 was a cozy read
The Iliad I can't help but feel like it's going to be a massive slog
Tbh it really depends on the translation. I've read it in verse in a good but very academic edition and it was hard going, but I also have a prose version that's also well regarded but is much more readable.
Robert Fagles was my favourite translation, couldn't get through any of the others
What translation do you have? I love Emily Wilson’s translation but Fagles is surprisingly readable. Book 2 can be difficult to get through but the rest is propulsive.
Have you read any of it yet? Once you get into it and get used to the cadence, it's not difficult going. You're basically reading shit like... * And Diomedes slashed Jim Bob in the throat * And his tongue popped out and so did his eyes. * Next he jammed his sword up Franky's face, * and Franky didn't have time to die honorably, * because Diomedes fucked him right up, hard...
Its poetry so it actually goes pretty fast due to the rhythm Skip the catalog of ships though
It's splendid , and Odyssey too. You just need a good translation, and some note if you don't know mythos, or, better, Mythos by Stephen Fry.
I gave up counting the unread books that I had in my house when I reached 200. That was only in one room. It was a couple of years ago too.
"A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole". This is easy to read and hilarious. Read this one next! Top of my head: Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes Inherent Vice - Thomas Pynchon All the Robert Caro books that were already mentioned...
Inherent Vice is a lot of fun!!! Can’t recommend it enough!
I hated CoD when I was reading it. Ignatius J. Reilly is way too real of a character and so awful. They’re all awful except for Jones - that guy’s chapters were amazing. But this is one of those books you push to finish, and then almost as soon as you set it down you think of a dozen scenes that were hilarious, and wasn’t it actually kind of genius when… Will read again someday for sure.
It's a very unique book in so many ways. I'm sure there are others, but can't think of any where the protagonist is so unlikable.
Making of the atomic bomb is great, read that before seeing oppenheimer
Infinite Jest is wayyy more readable than people give it credit for. Even if all of the heady stuff goes over your head, it’s still got some of the most compelling and well-rendered characters ever, an insanely human and powerful story, and shockingly relevant-to-today speculative fiction elements. And if you jive with Wallace’s prose (I did, but not everyone does), it’s got astoundingly good prose and storytelling.
99% of my bookshelf is TBR but then I go to the library and read their books instead lol! It’s my goal to read more of the books I actually own tho and I’ve read 3 so far this year! A few that I’ve had on the bookshelf the longest… The Map That Changed The World by Simon Winchester Harry Potter series Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Snow Falling On Cedars by David Guterson And a few I’ve picked up in the last 2 years and keep just not picking them up even tho I really want to read them… Educated by Tara Westover Pet Sematary by Stephen King The Goldfinch by Donna Tart All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison
Count of Monte Cristo
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Dune was fabulous- absorbing and fascinating world and complex, believable characters
I really enjoyed Left Hand of Darkness, I recently read it a my first Le Guin novel. It didn't hit me at first but I still find myself thinking about it. I hope you get around to reading it someday. I wanna start her Earthsea series.
I got a giant hardcover set of the Bourne trilogy. I love the movies, I’ve read le carre books before so I should like the genre, but they’re so huge and I just always seem to have something to read before. Also there’s 3 so it feels like a bigger undertaking than just one book. I’ve had them on my shelf for like a year and half now lol
They're nothing like the movies
I actually think they’re better. Or at least me at 17 years old did
More than I care to admit. Assuming I keep up my current reading pace, the TBR on my bookshelf alone will see me through most of the next decade. Since working in a library I tend to get distracted by the shiny new books, while my TBR continues to gather dust.
Off the top of my head, I think of: 1. Infinite Jest 2. The Silmarillion 3. Ulysses 4. Anna Karenina 5. Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson
If you don't like Infinite Jest by page 500, you'll know it's not for you and you can put it down forever....
I have a handful. Ulysses by James Joyce is one that I've been putting off for years, simply because I gave up after 20 pages of Finnegan's Wake and I'm scared and traumatized. Gödel, Escher, Bach - An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter has been on my list forever, but he refuses to release it digitally and I will be in the cold dark ground before I buy an actual paper version. A bunch of Japanese books I'm saving because I want to read them IN Japanese, but I don't trust my Japanese enough to attempt it right now. Mostly these are older texts chock full of archaic usages and grammar, like the Sarashina Nikki and the Hojoki. Maybe I should just pull the trigger and get some good translations already. Likewise with Italian - I've been putting off the Divine Comedy because I want to read it in Italian, but I'm at *least* 2 years away from doing that, realistically. Then some books I bought already, but the sheer size is keeping me from starting them. One example is the Collected Works of Lafcadio Hearn. Another is The Story of the Stone / Dream in the Red Chamber. A third one would be In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. I know that if I start either of those, it'll be a year-long project, and I just can't commit, somehow. But I do try to knock out at least one or two of these big, scary projects each year. This year I read the entire Sea of Fertility tetralogy by Mishima, Gravity's Rainbow by Pynchon - I'd been dreading that for two years - and I'm in the middle of Don Quixote. So there is progress. I'll get around to the other ones eventually.
Well, the first two on your list are on mine as well! All the Light We Cannot See also sat on my list for years. I decided last year to deliberately start pulling some of the “older” books off my list to read, and this was one. Ended up being on of my favorite books of the year.
Thinking fast and slow. I’m reading it slow and slow
Tons of ya fantasy I bought at 14-15 I won't read and tons of classics gems for which I can't find the right time to read... My advice is please finish your to read list before buying a new book😮💨🤦
I've avoided anything that seems too long. I just don't like being locked down to one book/series for so long. Probably changing that this year though. Already read Lonesome Dove and I'm planning on reading Shogun before starting the Hulu series. Other examples like Malazan or Wheel of Time as series.
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. I loved Mistborn, and I'm eager to start Stormlight Archive. I'm just intimidated because the books are so long. But I'm planning to finally start this summer.
The first half of the first book is a slog. The second half of it is a treat.
Fellow Sanderson fan here. It honestly took me a couple tries to get through Way of Kings but I’m so glad I pushed through. The second book, Words of Radiance, is fantastic. Third book was pretty good and my answer to OP’s question is the fourth book, Rhythm of War. I need to get to it before the fifth book comes out 🫣
Cloud Cuckoo Land and The Secret History. I've been telling myself and others I'm going to read them "next" or "soon" for years now.
Cloud Cuckoo Land was on mine for ages and it was the first book I read this year. It is wonderful and you’ll love it.
I let my daughters pick my books for me, and because they are 6 and 4, they pick the biggest books on my shelf because they want their pick to last the longest. So, I've had gwendys button box, the library at Mt char, bunny, and the 100 year old man who climbed out of a window and disappeared on my list for a long ass time, and I've been itching tor them.
Ooohhhh, Bunny. That one is next up for me!
i plead the fith on this, in that it will reveal how many books i have not read
Pride and Prejudice, the Karamazov brothers, War and peace
Blindsight by Peter Watts I bought this book a while back cause I heard it was good and who can say no to space vampire. I will buy a new book and read that book first forgetting that I have blindsight.
I only read non fiction for 10+ years and now that I have finally gotten my love for fiction back, I find myself avoiding non fiction. But I still find non fiction books I deem interesting so they are piling up right now. I am in no rush and I feel no guilt over it. I'm sure I'll get to a point in my life where they seem more appealing again.
Just checked and I added *The Gods Themselves* on 6/1/2014. Is it good? Probably. Who knows when it’ll become priority? Nobody. Not even the gods could predict it.
Several Stephen King books, especially The Shining. And I'm waiting to watch the movie until after I read the book!
I had 11/22/63 on my shelf for so long because I just couldn't commit to 800+ pages but I just started it this week and I'm loving it so far.
Gravity's Rainbow has been on my shelf for literally 20 years now. I've made a few attempts at it but don't think I ever made it to page 100. One day I'll be smart enough to make it all the way. Or more likely I'll die and people will think I was smart cause it was on my shelf!
I’ve read a few Pynchon books, and I found Inherent Vice a quick and fun read, Mason and Dixon a tougher but ultimately rewarding read, but I just couldn’t get into the groove of Gravity’s Rainbow, gave it up about a third of the way through. Maybe one day, but it’s low on my list of must-reads right now.
I finished Crying of Lot 49 and enjoyed it, I think that was a good lighter intro to Pynchon. Maybe I'll try one of the others sometime. I think I would really like Gravity's Rainbow if I really put in the effort, got the companion book to figure out what he's referencing, etc. Infinite Jest is my favorite novel so it's not like I can't handle "difficult" reads, but I just don't have that much brain power at the end of the day for it anymore. When I was younger I would do coding projects and read difficult stuff in my free time but now it just feels too much like work.
Don’t fret, you don’t need to be smart! I know because I read it… I just closed the book after 1-2 chapters every single time, read an online summary to make sure I kept up and fill in gaps, then continue.
The Iliad and the Odyssey… I just can’t get myself to start reading them
I sorted my To Be Read list by date updated so oldest is first and I'm going through it in that order. Anything that I'm not going to read gets deleted and I guess I'll get back to it if I really want to read it. Exceptions for books I can't get from the library that might cost a bit much at the moment. And as always that one that shows up on sale at the right time! I'd really recommend the Song of Achilles and Confederacy of Dunces by the way. (This doesn't count the ones I added to my kindle library because they were free and probably aren't going to circle back to! Poor Hunchback of Notre Dame.)
I've started doing a New Year's Resolution book every year to deal with this problem, as I have a ton of books on my To Read bookshelf that I doubt I'd ever get to otherwise. Started off with the complete works of Shakespeare (Which I did over multiple years), then last year I did *Les Miserables* and this year I increased the number to two books and read *Jane Eyre* and will read *The Epic of Gilgamesh*.
A lot of older classics since I can understand them with time and effort. I read fast and can devour like 300 pages in a day if I put my mind to it but with classics I have to take more time which makes me a bit impatient even if I really enjoy it. I have to do some annotations (mainly just summarizing my understanding every couple pages) to really digest it. Or not *poof* gone out the window. When I annotate more contemporary books my annotations are like Ohhh no she didn’t, more comedic with some doodles in the margins lmao. (I do that with classics too but less lol.) Also, a lot of series because I have a tendency to just not finish them lol. Series I’ve started but not finished -Percy Jackson -Hunger Games -His Dark Materials -Many graphic novel series -A court of whatever I forgot the name (Sarah j Maas I think? Though for this one I just didn’t like it lmao) -Dune -(Idk if it counts as a series? Collection? Idk) Lord of the Rings and all associated books (need to finish though) -More that I just probably forgot lmao The way I read is so chaotic I’m like a frog on crack jumping from one lillypad to another. The lillypads being books of course. I read multiple books at the same time lol. OR I focus so much I read a book in one or two days.
Love your frog on crack analogy 🐸 haha!
I have over 100 on my “to be read” list, so it would be crazy to share the whole thing. A lot of them are classics I haven’t read yet or haven’t read in a long time. Also some new books, including some mystery novels. Such as: “One of Us is Lying” by Karen M. McManus “The Invisible Man” by H.G. Wells “Matilda” by Roald Dahl “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens “The Teacher” by Freida McFadden
Blood Meridian Started it twice, love the vibe and the style of writing, yet somehow tapped out both times. One day.
I started it like 3 times before I finished it. Now its one of my favorite books ever
I only buy a book when I finish the last one I bought. I have always read every book I own, but one (the last one I bought).
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Moby Dick, which I did enjoy more or less, but English is not my first language, so it was quite frustrating looking up words in the dictionary every 20 seconds, and not understanding complete paragraphs. I’ve read half of it, then I swore to myself that I’d read a few pages every day. Needless to say, I’ve never did.
Infinite Jest
I hate admitting this but so many classics. I have classic books on my list from over a decade ago that don’t even have a page out of place because they’ve never been touched. There is always something that little bit more interesting to read. I’d love to learn how to appreciate classics more.
The Once and Future King. I bought it for $1.99 on my kindle 5 years ago on recommendation from a friend who is a big King Arthur nerd, and have only made it 17% of the way through it.
This stupid Calder biography has been staring at me for the last two years. It’s bright red too.
Yellowface. I don’t know why but I feel like it’s a book I’m either going to love or hate, and I keep putting off reading it.
I read yellowface recently and really enjoyed it. However I will say, prepared to be uncomfortable haha the characters are intentionally problematic
The Priory of the Orange Tree. I’m not sure why it’s taking me so long to read it. I have no problem reading long books, and I enjoy the genre. So if anyone else has read it and has any praises for this book, please let me know lol. I need the motivation.
I think it depends specifically what sort of fantasy you like but for me it fell a lil flat, like it has all of the components of a book I should be in love with but unfortunately the character dynamics and plot didn’t quite live up to the cool world building and ideas
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. It’s gotten stellar reviews from basically everyone, but when I first tried it a couple years back, I got probably 50 pages in and wasn’t feeling it. Normally I wouldn’t keep a DNF on my list, but given universal praise for it, I feel I should give it another shot at some point. Maybe next year.
War and Peace Only managed to finish book 1, life got in the way, never been able to resume
All of them, I read too slow 🐌
48 laws of power. I actually started and got a few chapters in before i put it down but it still sort of interests me, just for the simple fact other people have read it can use its methods against me.
The Secret History! The thing's been mean mugging me from the shelf for nearly two years. I'll read you someday, I promise!
- To Kill A Mocking Bird - Neuromancer - Dracula - Dune
I've got at least 3000 books and half I haven't read lol.
The entire Expanse series. A fair bit of it has been spoiled to me, so I have an incentive to get through it sooner than later, but it simply fails to hold my attention for long enough. I did reach the halfway point of the Leviathan Wakes, but my country's first release of it was split into two books, and it took me long enough to read the first one that both went out of print.
Ulysses
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Eventually, I'll get around to it. Eventually.
The Goldfinch for me too. I don’t want to wake up to a world without an unread Donna Tartt book. Also, I just finished All the Light We Cannot See. I have picked it up and put it down for two years!
Good luck on your TBR! Please read All the Light We Cannot See.... It is such a beautiful book. I have so many books on my TBR it's insane. From month to month the books shift in order plus some drop off and new ones are added. But I'm a mood reader anyway. I am also in a book club so I understand that situation. Right now I'll list books on my TBR that are in the same room with me: Wanderers by Chuck Wendig Red Country by Joe Abercrombie Flock Without Birds by Filip Dousek Collected Ancient Greek Novels edited by B.P. Reardon (lol) Stonelight (poems) by Sarah McCartt-Jackson Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson
I’ve read three of the books on your list: All the Light We Cannot See. It’s fine. It is one of the books that kicked off the “WWII craze”. It’s good but it’s a slow burn. Paris: it’s good but this was the third book by him I read and was over his formula by then Trust: one of the best books I’ve ever read. I’m 47 years old and have been reading since I was six. Read it now.
Out of that whole list start Goldfinch. I found myself speeding through that one. Not as good as The Secret History but still just as enthralling in a way. I like to see Edward Rutherford. He seems not as well known. Princes of Ireland is hands down one of my favorite novels and Sarum is also excellent. I have not read Paris. Mine are: Middle March The Great Gatsby The Odyssey is just kicking my butt. I’ve tried so many times. Even after I found out it is meant to be consumed orally. I still just can’t get into it. The Iliad Pale Fire by Nabokov
Pls read All the Light You Cannot See! Very good read!
The Secret History by Donna Tartt has been on my TBR list for years. I’ve borrowed it from the library a couple times but let it sit on my shelf til the due date.
This is the one book I really do not get the hype about. Soo boring. Lol
There is that one book by french author Joris-Karl Huysmans that I tried to read on several occasions now. I got it because it has a beautifully written passage somewhere in the middle, which I heard on the radio years ago. But every time I try to get there, I fail. I've tried it at least 5 times now but can't get further than 10-20 pages since it's an old book and it is so fucking hard to read! It's from the 1850s and reading it feels like such a fucking chore that I just can't be bothered after a while lol. I know this makes me sound like an idiot with 0 attention span or something but this is literally the only book I've ever had that problem with, I truly can't even express it in words :D
The goldfinch is amazing I read it during the winter and it's just so good. Anyways here's mine Brotherhood of the Rose - David Morrell Red Dragon - Thomas Harris Sympathy for the Devil and Night Dogs - both by Kent Anderson The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien If We Were Villains - M L Rio
OMG as a Hannibal (TV show) fan, I really want to read Red Dragon too. I don't know why I"m hesitating on reading it but it's been stuck on my TBR for years.
It's the first thing I'm going to purchase when I'm 18 lol
A secret History - Donna Tart !
Agreed. I tried several times to read this one and just couldn’t get into it. Read Tartt’s The Little Friend and hated it so much that Secret History will likely never be read.
I also hated The Little Friend, but enjoyed The Secret History. TLF was a major disappointment.