What's in your "To-Be-Read" Pile?

Cafe Society
1

In another thread, I mentioned that I’d wanted to start this thread for a while, so here it is. I have a huge To-Be-Read pile on my nightstand, as I’m sure many of my fellow Dopers do.
Some are new purchases, some are thrift store finds.
Most of them are in the category of “Chick-Lit” or maybe Oprah’s Book Club type of books (although I don’t think any of them actually are Oprah’s), so I don’t think they fit with the usual Doper tastes - none of them are sci-fi/fantasy.
Some of them are older books that I’ve just never gotten around to reading.

Feel free to suggest which one I should read next, and which one I should give away without reading.

My To-Be-Read Pile:
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey.
Charlotte Bronte, Villette.
Clarence Day, Life With Father.
Nelson DeMille, Up Country.
Nelson DeMille, Cathedral.
Daphne Du Maurier, Frenchman’s Creek.
Ken Follett, Jackdaws.
E.M. Forster, A Room With A View.
Melinda Haynes, Chalktown.
Alice Hoffman, Here On Earth.
Laura Lippman, Sugarhouse.
Anthony McCarten, Spinners.
Jodi Picoult, Second Chances.
Jodi Picoult, Perfect Match.
Anita Shreve, Resistance
Betty Smith, Maggie Now.

Be sure to post your To-Be-Read pile, too.

2

Well, I could post specific titles when I get home, I suppose…

I have a dozen secondhand fantasy and scifi novels…

Terry Brook’s latest saga (Voyage of the Jerle Shannara) - three or four books of that…

Half a dozen Terry Pratchett Discworld books…

The first two of the Callahan’s series…

And probably two dozen more miscellaneous.

3

My entire house is a to-be-read pile. Seriously. There are two small bookcases in the dining room exclusively dedicated to the active “to be read,” plus a couple of shelves in another bookcase of stuff that’s been in the “to be read” pile so long I’m not pretending there’s any active urgency to it.

Highlights:

A bunch of alternative histories obtained in the wake of a thread here about a year ago

A history of ventriloquism

Several books of gardening essays

A book about Victorian travelers

A couple of Freddy the Pig titles, and a couple of Edward Eager books (childhood faves)

At least a half dozen titles on early hominid evolution, development of language, etc.

At least a dozen titles on language in general

Two books written by friends – !!! – (damn, I really should rotate them up) – one a history of the Pioneer space project and one on religious violence.

Miscellaneous thrillers, mysteries, etc.

4

I’ve actually seriously cut down on the to-be-reads in the last few weeks (mostly because I was broke and couldn’t afford to buy anything new), so I’ve got a relatively tiny pile going on right now. Off the top of my head, I can think of …

Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca, which I was supposed to read in high school, but never did.

A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess, which I finally decided I should read.

Wedding Season, author forgotten for the moment, which looked to be a mildly amusing chick-book about attending 17 weddings in 6 months, which is more or less what I’ve been doing with my Saturdays lately.

Sharon Kay Penman’s Here Be Dragons, which I believe is the beginning of a series that I will probably regret starting.

Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey–given to me by a friend, no idea what it’s about or if I’ll like it.

The Iliad, which I’m halfway through. I made it as far as the actual fighting, but I have to take it in small doses.

The Odyssey, which naturally comes next.

Ultimate X-Men No. 7–Block Buster. I’m saving that one for last. :slight_smile:

5

My “to-read” pile is too big to list here, especially considering that I just made it a dozen books or so longer with a bunch of books my fiancee and I picked up at a used book store yesterday, but after finishing Gotham, I plan to start Don Quixote, and then read Bleak House. While reading these doorstops I’ll also read a bunch of shorter (150-300 page) books, but at this point I have no idea of what to read after I finish One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

6

The books I actually have purchased in preparation of reading:

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves
My Life
Window Seat: Reading the Landscape from the Air
A Cook’s Tour
Rick Steves Guide to Eastern Europe

7

If you only have a to-be-read “pile” you’re just not doing your part for the publishing industry. :slight_smile:

I have to-be-read bookcases, which have to be sorted by subject matter like a library just so that I can find a topic.

Fortunately, books are a realtively cheap and socially-approved-of addiction. :cool:

8

Right now its “The Kings of Infinite Space” by James Hynes, “Porno” by Irvine Welsh, “A Hat full of Sky” Terry Pratchett, and at some point I have to jump back on the behemoth that is “The Confusion” Neal Stephenson, especially since the third 900 page tome is scheduled to be out this September.

9

My “To be read” pile:
Dougla Adams - The Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul.
Dennis Miller - I Rant, Therefore I Am.
Wendy Northcutt - The Darwin Awards II.
David Bowman - This Must Be The Place (the adventures of Talking Heads in the 20th century).
Neil Gaiman - Don’t Pamic.

Unclviny

10

Or panic, whichever you prefer.

Unclviny

11

Just two:

Ray Bradbudy - Fahrenheit 451
Stephen King - The Long Walk

12

Bibliocat, I highly recommend Northanger Abbey. It’s a delightful takeoff on the gothic thrillers of Miss Austen’s day.

Draelin, you should enjoy Daughter of Time. It’s a look at the history of Richard III, the mysterious disappearance of the two young princes, and the oh-so-sinister Henry VII. I’ve loved that book for years, and was delighted to have a history professor assign it for class. It’s always pleasant to meet another Ricardian.

Okay, moving on to my “To Be Read” list, bear in mind that for the past three years I’ve been attending college nonstop as well as working full-time, so I haven’t had quality reading time. I’ve been keeping a list on the computer of books to read, and here is a selection:

1215: The Year of Magna Carter by Danziger & Gillingham
Defying Rome: The Rebels of Roman Britain by de la Bédoyère
Plagues and Poxes by Bollet
Salt by Kurlansky
Eats, Shoots, and Leaves
Growing Up in Medieval London by Hanawalt
The rest of the Pendragon books by MacHale
The Rule of Four by Caldwell and Thomason

There are many, many more. I am really looking forward to the chance to read non-assigned books again!

I also plan to write a few, as well, that I hope will eventually make it on your to read lists! :wink:

13

Lesse here… No particular order…
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Shadowland - Peter Straub
Black House - Stephen King
The Tommyknockers - Stephen King
I’ve gotta finish It - Stephen King, but I can’t read it around my mom, it scared the crap out of her back when she read a bit of it in the 80s.
Those are all I found at first glance. I have more, but the cleaning lady always puts my books away. My pile drives her nuts.

BTW, The Man With The Golden Gun, The Long Walk is a good book. I would sumarize it for you if I had an ounce of ability to sumarize things.

14

Just finished David Sedaris’
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
and I find myself constantly bumping Jonathan Schwartz’s:
All in Good Time: A Memoir
…which has been sitting on the nightstand for almost a month. Perhaps I’m taking the title too literally.

15

This is the current pile, give or take. A lot of y’all are going to see books you’ve mentioned on the boards recently.

Driving blind Bradbury, Ray

*From the dust returned : a family remembrance Bradbury, Ray *

*The boy who couldn’t die Sleator, William. * A young adult book. I read lots of childrens’ books and this guy is one of my favorite authors.

*5 novels Pinkwater, Daniel Manus * I don’t even recall what they are; the only one I’ve read previously by him is Lizard Music. Was okay.

*Thrift score Hoff, Al * I think I’ve read this before, it looks familiar!

*Protecting the gift : keeping children and teenagers safe (and parents sane) De Becker, Gavin. * Decent book, though it’s practically the same as the one I just finished:
*The gift of fear : survival signals that protect us from violence De Becker, Gavin. *

*Code of the street : decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city Anderson, Elijah. *

*I don’t know how she does it [sound recording] Pearson, Allison *

*The Count of Monte Cristo [sound recording] Dumas, Alexandre *

*The center of everything [sound recording] Moriarty, Laura * Current audio book, so far so good.

The dark : new ghost stories Datlow, Ellen.

*All dressed in white : the irresistible rise of the American wedding Wallace, Carol *

Dust Slade, Arthur G.

*A kiss before dying Levin, Ira. * Think I’ve read it, but I have to make sure.

*The root cellar * Lunn, Janet Louise Swoboda

America’s women : four hundred years of dolls, drudges, helpmates, and heroines Collins, Gail.

*Eats, shoots & leaves : the zero tolerance approach to punctuation Truss, Lynne. *
I apologize if the coding sucks, I did a lot of cutting and pasting here.

16

100 Years of Solitude - started but haven’t finished
several books on cladistics
Elegant Universe
Letters from Galileo to his Daughter
Confusion - Neal Stephenson
David Copperfield-Charles Dickkens (the noted Dutch author)
When the Sleeper Wakes, Annotated-HG Wells, the annotations take forever!
Programming Jakarta Struts (better than Ativan!)
Learning Perl
HTML and XHTML 5.0
Java Server Faces
Style: Towards Clarity and Grace: Joseph M. Williams
The Brother Karamazov
The Non-Designers Design Book: Robin Williams
The Anatomy Coloring Book
The Magic of Origami-Alice Gray and Kunihiko Kasahara
The Silmarillion

Daughter of Time is a small but enthralling book, and well worth the effort

17

Egads! Like** twickster**, my entire house is a to-be-read pile. The tip of the iceberg includes:

Non-Fiction

*Frost on My Moustache - The Arctic Exploits of a Lord and a Loafer - * Tom Moore

*Measuring America - * Andro Linklater

*With The Old Breed - At Peleliu and Okinawa - * E.B. Sledge

*Hole The Enlightenment - More Travel, Less Bliss - * Tim Cahill

Lee’s Miserables: Life in the Army of Northern Virginia from the Wilderness to Appomattox - J. Tracy Power

*Joseph E. Johnston and the Defense of Richmond - * Steven H. Newton

Fiction

*Last Tango In Aberystwyth - * Malcolm Pryce

*Tepper Isn’t Going Out - * Calvin Trillin

*Hot and Sweaty Rex - * Eric Garcia

*Ruled Britannia - * Harry Turtledove

And that is just the start of things…

18

I only have two books in the immediate to be read pile, and thats because theyre Library Books. They are:

Taltos by Anne Rice

The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas

I aslo have the collection of Middle Earth History Books to read too, I had planned to read them this Summer, but its not looking like that will happen… I might read one or two of them… there are 14 in total.

I also have to finish The Incredible lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

19

The Otherland Saga - Tad Williams
Half of the Mars Trilogy - Kim Stanley Robinson
The last three volumes of the Dark Tower saga (whenever part VII comes out) - Stephen King
A Marlon Brando-buttload of comics

20

My immediate list- just THE DA VINCI CODE (I bought it & two C’tian books refuting it, read the two rebuttals)

My perpetual to-read list (aka the Who am I kidding? I’ll never get around to read these list)-
Tolkien’s THE SIMARILLION
Milton’s PARADISE LOST
Dante’s DIVINE COMEDY