Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Top Ten Books Everyone Has Read But Me

It's Tuesday again which means it's time for another Top Ten, Hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Last week the topic was about blogging peer pressure. This time it's just general book reading peer pressure only this time it's the peer pressure I resisted. Or else it's the books I missed that I should probably fix. Or books that I might get around to reading or might not. Whatever. 

Books/Authors I'll get to when I'm done with all of the other books
1. The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson - I read the first one and after that I was good. No need to keep going with the series. 

2. Nicholas Sparks or Jodi Picoult - I'm putting these 2 as one entry. Maybe they're completely different and I have no idea what I'm talking about. Maybe I'm really missing out on something and my life is less complete not reading them. It's a risk I'm willing to take while there's so much else out there I want to read first.Update: I may not want to read her, but I should at least spell Picoult's name right. Fixed.

Books that I'm "meh" about reading
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - So many people have read this and so many bloggers talk about it. I'm not actively avoiding it, but I'm certainly not going out of my way for it.

4. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - I read A Thousand Splendid Suns and enjoyed it. Well liked it enough. Clearly not enough to run out and read this one that was on pretty much everyone's reading list for awhile. I wouldn't turn it down if it appeared in front of me and I had nothing else.

5. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that a few different trusted bloggers have mentioned this as a worthwhile read, this would probably have landed in the first category. Maybe I'll give this a try someday but honestly, every time I look at the summary I think "hmm there are some other books I'd like to read first..."

6. Nancy Drew by "Carolyn Keene" - I put this in this middle category because I'm not against reading them. They seem interesting and the type of thing that most people read when they're young. And I actually had the entire collection growing up, that I got from my grandmother and mom. And yet I still didn't read them. I'm not opposed to them, but apparently even putting them in front of me didn't get me to check them out. 

Books/authors I haven't read but should remedy
7. Lord of the Flies by William Golding - I somehow missed this one in high school. I was in the group that read 1984. But I'd like to read this. And I will get to it. Soon-ish.

8. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - Another one I would have thought I'd get to in high school but I never did. My friend read it in her class so apparently I was just in the wrong class. That and I'd like to have a better memory of Steinbeck because when I think of him I think of Grapes of Wrath which I did read and didn't care for. Although I've been told I should give this one another try. Maybe someday.

9. Ernest Hemingway - I've never actually read any Hemingway and I'm a bit ashamed of this. I feel like I should have read him. He's not difficult like a Joyce so I don't really have an excuse. Plus my brother has read him and liked him. My non-reading brother has me beat here. I cannot let him win.

10. Julius Ceaser by Shakespeare - This is another one that I'm ashamed I haven't read. I've read a lot of Shakespeare. I've even read ones like Cymbeline. I've read speeches from JC. I even said Et tu, Brute this week coming out of a Mets game. This wasn't actually in reference to anything that happened so much as we were parked near "A2" and I noticed they sound the same because I am smart like that.

What are your everyone-has-read-this-but-me books?