Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Top Ten Tuesday (#5): Books I Can't Believe I've Never Read

I'm still pretty new to Top Ten Tuesdays, hosted by The Broke & the Bookish, so there were lots of great topics to choose from for this week's list! As I've been dipping my toe into the blogging world recently through blog hops and weekly features such as this one, I swear my To-Read list has just been growing exponentially! I've come across so many recommended books that I really can't believe I haven't read yet, so I thought this would be perfect for me. I've chosen mostly classics since they are so foundational for their genres and I really do feel like I've been missing out by not having read them yet. I also added a few contemporary books at the end. This is going to be embarrassing, but here goes nothing!

1. Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen -- This is such a beloved classic that so many speak so highly of. I own it, but have yet to crack it's spine!

2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer/The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain -- I feel like everyone except for me read one of these two for school!

3. One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez -- My husband recommended this one to me forever ago, but it just never happened!

4. Rebecca, by Daphne DuMaurier -- One of the original gothic novels that I really must get around to one of these days.

5. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte -- Another shameful omission!

Pride and Prejudice   The Adventures of Tom Sawyer   100 Years of Solitude
Rebecca   Wuthering Heights

6. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte -- ditto above.

7. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald -- Really looking forward to the day I finally get to this one.

8. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman -- Haven't seen the movie either!

9. Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- OK I have read a couple of the short stories, but I've been meaning to read one of the full collections and/or the novels, FOREVER.

10. The rest of the Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis -- I read the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for a college class, but never more than that. I wish I read them as a kid, but I still think this is a must at some point in time.

Jane Eyre   The Great Gatsby   The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure
The Adventures and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes   The Chronicles of Narnia

BONUS: A few contemporary books that also deserve a mention (and a read one of these days!)

11. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

12. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman

13. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer

14. The Passage, by Justin Cronin

15. A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness

The Book Thief   His Dark Materials Omnibus (His Dark Materials)   Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Passage (The Passage #1)   A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy, #1)

This list could probably go on and on, but I think I'll end it here!

27 comments:

  1. I remember feeling so guilty when I made this list back when it was the weekly top ten! Kind of liberating, though. Love your "printed word" badge, by the way.

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    1. I know the feeling! I kind of liked writing it down though -- it's a reminder that I really do want to get to them at some point.

      And thanks :) If you click on the badge, you can get it for your own site -- they have several variations & I love them all!

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  2. Do read The Book Thief and His Dark Materials! =) Both of them are high up in my all-time faves. I can't believe I still haven't read Rebecca. Huhu. Tell me if you ever get around to reading it, I'll be reading!

    Marj @ In Library Paradise

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  3. I haven't read The Book Thief wither - but not sure if I'll ever get to it. Rebecca & The Passage are 2 I plan on reading soon though.

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    1. There are books I've never read that I know I never will as well, but for this I tried to stick to ones that I really DO want to read. I hope you enjoy Rebecca & The Passage -- I'm trying to move them up on my To-Read list. That pesky thing just keeps expanding!

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  4. I haven't read Sherlock Holmes, but after watching the movies and TV show I really want too. :) Hopefully next year!

    Wuthering Heights is such a great book. A bit depressing, but so, so good. ;)

    J'adore Happy Endings

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    1. I loved the few stories I read, and for such classic stories they were amazingly easy to read. I too want to get to them soon!

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  5. Are you sure you never read Huck Finn? I could have sworn we read it in 7th or 8th grade.

    And I have to steal The Book Thief back from my sisters and actually read it this time. Then lend it to you when I'm done. :-)

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    1. Haha...If we did I have zero recollection of it. If anything, maybe we read an excerpt in one of those reader things we had? But I could swear I haven't read the whole thing. I actually just found a cheap copy of The Book Thief at Marshalls so I have it, now I just need to read it!

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    2. It's entirely possible I've made up the fact that we read it to convince myself that I've read more classics than I have, haha.

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  6. I actually haven't read a lot of these either! I just don't do well with a lot of classics! I did enjoy Sherlock Holmes though, and I still have a few of those sitting on my shelf.
    And you MUST read The Princess Bride! Or at least see the movie. One of my all-time favorites, both movie and book!! :)

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    1. All the ones I put on this list, I actually do own, I just need to dust them off and get to it! Thanks for the recommendation :)

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  7. I tried reading P&P once and I guess because the 5 hour long movie is so much like the book I just couldn't stay interested because I "knew what happened". The Chronicles of Narnia books are ALL fantastic classics!!

    Check out my pick for TOP 10






    Holly @ Words Fueled by Love

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    1. I haven't seen any of the movie adaptations of P & P, so I'm hoping I will enjoy this one as much as it seems everyone else has. I own the rest of Narnia, so I'll get there someday :)

      Thanks for stopping by Holly, going to check your list out now.

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  8. There are some great classics on your list.
    We all have books that we mean to read but find it difficult to get round to for whatever reason. Both His Dark Materials and The Chronicles of Naria would feature on mine, I've read the first in Philip Pullman's series and NONE from The Chronicles of Naria, I know, shocker!

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    1. It took me until college to read one from Narnia, so I totally understand! The sheer number of books I want to read distracts me constantly.

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  9. The book thief <3 It's one of my favorites! It's soooo pretty. I re-read it almost every year, haha.

    I recently got a copy from The passage. It sounds really fascinating, even when the amount of pages is terrifying.

    I've never read Pride & Prejudice. I've seen the movie from Wuthering heights and Jane Eyre is a wonderful movie, but I have yet to read those books *ashamed* I love classics, so I need to dive into them soon.

    Great list!

    TTT @thedailyprophecy.

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    1. That seems to be the consensus on the Book Thief -- everyone seems to love it, so I really should get to it!

      I do tend to enjoy long books -- when they are engrossing, they can be sooo good. I hope The Passage is as good as I imagine.

      And I'm glad that I haven't seen any of the movies to spoil some of these books. Though I've heard the movie versions are quite good, I do like to read the book first when I can.

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  10. Wow! You have quite the TBR list now. There's quite a few there I haven't read, either. I'd suggest 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' if you are looking to read some Sherlock Holmes. I only read The Book Thief earlier this year, but I'm glad that I did. I chose book quotes for my Top Ten this week:
    http://wcs53.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/top-ten-tuesday-rewind-book-quotes-october-9/

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    1. My To-Read list truly overwhelms me! Though I suppose I'll never run out of things to read! Thanks for the recommendations.

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  11. I was with you until you said that you'd never even seen The Princess Bride movie. I died. (Also, The Book Thief is fantastic and beautiful and heartbreaking.)

    My TTT: http://shelversanon.blogspot.com/2012/10/top-10-tuesday-rewind-top-ten-bookish.html

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    1. The list of movies I haven't seen is even worse than the list of books I haven't read! Thanks for stopping by.

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  12. Oh, The Princess Bride is well worth reading, and I love the His Dark Materials trilogy.

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    1. I admit a particular guilt about not reading His Dark Materials yet -- I've heard so many good things about it over the years, starting in high school & I still haven't read it! Thanks for the recommendation.

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  13. I too have P&P on my shelf. I've made it my goal to read it this year.

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    1. Hopefully I'll get to it by next year...I'm not making any promises for this year since it's already October! Thanks for stopping by :)

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I'd love to hear what you think :)