Friday, April 6, 2007

Someday list



I have a secondary nightstand--a stack, really, of more books to read, when I find the time (hah!). Sometimes they move up to my nightstand, sometimes they get reshelved, and go into a sort of limbo. I still have one eye on them, but it gets less and less likely that I'll pick them up. Sad, really.

Right now, my secondary "To Be Read" pile includes:

When We Were Orphans, by Kazuo Ishiguro
The House of the Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Marie Antoinette, by Antonia Fraser
That Old Ace in the Hole, by Annie Proulx
13 Ways of Looking at the Novel, by Jane Smiley
The Echo Maker, by Richard Powers
Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky

Then there's the list of someday reads--books I didn't read in high school or college, but it seems that everyone else did, books I feel I should read, books I have an interest in, but they're just too daunting, thick, or whatever. And you never know, so I keep them around, too.

The ambitious pile includes:

Cape Cod, by Henry David Thoreau
A House for Mr. Biswas, by V.S. Naipaul
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
Waverley, by Sir Walter Scott
Scarlet and Black, by Stendhal
Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens
War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy



What's on your someday list?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know those pamphlets they have at the library, the ones filled with all the classics? That pretty much sums up my someday list. Also, One Hundred Years of Solitude has been hanging around for years, as well as Baudolino and The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

Gentle Reader said...

Matt--When I was younger I tried to read The Name of the Rose and couldn't get into it, but I think I should try again...thanks for reminding me!

Also, I just read your post re: the top 10, and I like your list.

julie said...

I need to finish "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi and plan to read "Kalooki Nights" by Howard Jacobson before Michael Chabon's "Yiddish Policeman's Union" comes out on May 1st.
Matt- you must find time for "One Hundred Years of Solitude"- it's truly amazing.

Sam said...

I've more than a shelf full of Modern Library classics from the '40s and '50s that I've collected. "Some day" I plan to actually read them.

Gentle Reader said...

Julie--ah, some more books for my list! Thanks. And I really loved "One Hundred Years of Solitude" too.

Sam--then you get the double pleasure of collecting and reading!

Anonymous said...

Oh goodness I have so many shelf sitters it's not even funny. It's just so hard when new books keep popping up and you want to read those right away :)

Gentle Reader said...

Iliana, that's my problem, too--too many interesting-sounding new books crowding out the old...