Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, so go see what other authors decided to write about for this week’s prompt – tackling the TBR!
I’m gonna be honest, I haven’t read as many of the classics as I would have liked to. There are just SO MANY BOOKS out there! And more are published every day! Who can keep up?! I’ve been blogging for a while, so I figured that most of these were safe choices for when I actually added them to my TBR.
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hossini
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
These next two books have been on my TBR, but I probably will never read them.
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
I started reading this book in fourth grade. Some bookseller handsold this to my mom, telling her that it was totally appropriate for a young girl who likes Wizard of Oz. No way is this book appropriate for a 9-year-old, and honestly it was a little scarring to read. I’ve been given the book several times over, because I love Wizard of Oz still as an adult, but I’ve never read it. I don’t think it’ll ever happen. I love the play, though?
Lolita by Vladimir Nobokov
I think you can all probably guess why I won’t read this. I feel like I should read it, because it’s such a classic, but I can’t bring myself to check it out of the library.
What books have you been meaning to read but haven’t quite managed it yet?
Loved North & South and Northanger Abbey–I get thru a lot of classics by listening to audio on my daily commute. Caged Bird Sings–and the rest of her autobio volumes are all good. I couldn’t stop reading Thousand Splendid Skies. Anna Karenina is a long-time favorite.
I’ve tried to read Anna Karenina twice, but never finished it for whatever reason. I’m glad you liked most of these! I plan to read them..eventually!
Anna Karenina–If you want to watch it I recommend either the Garbo version or the 1970s PBS one–it’s on Youtube. Ditto the North & South with Brendan Coyle (aka Downton Abbey’s Mr. Bates).
Anna Karenina is definitely up there on my TBR, too! I’ve tried a few times to read it, but never end up getting too far before stopping.. I think I finally need to dedicate some time to that one. 🙂 I really enjoyed Northanger Abbey, it definitely got some laughs out of me. I hope you eventually get to read all of these! 🙂
OH MY GOD EVERY BOOK ON YOUR LIST = <3
If I had to pick one and tell you to drop everything and read right now it would be…North and South. Mostly because everyone's always talking about Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters, but we don't hear that much about Elizabeth Gaskell so I think she'd be a pleasant read.
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I loved the North and South miniseries, and keep meaning to read it, I just always forget to pick it up when I’m looking for something to read!
Let me just say that I never thought I’d get to Anna Karenina either, but I read it a few years ago and was spellbound the whole way through that doorstop. A+ literature, I hope you get to it!
If you don’t want to read the Maguire or Nabokov, don’t! We all have our boundaries, and none of us will judge you. 🙂
The books that have been on my TBR longest (about three years prior to blogging!) that I still hope to read are Cosmos by Carl Sagan and Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis.
Oh, shoot, I forgot about Mere Christianity! I’ve heard great things about it. I just need like 3 straight days to do nothing but read Anna Karenina, I think.
Oh yea I feel you with the classic novels. There are a bunch sitting on my TBR list for years and years. I was able to finish The Red and the Black earlier this year, but as I am going now it seems like one classic per year. Good luck with starting and finishing these books!
Thanks! I just always forget about them…I’ll get to them eventually, I’m sure.
So, so, so many. One of the most shameful ones is The Master and Margarita, which my sister gave to me for my birthday in 2010 and which I still haven’t managed to read. BUT Alice at Reading Rambo is hosting a big readalong for it later this year, and I will finally be able to rectify this appalling situation.