# What's in your "To-Be-Read" Pile? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2004, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-your-to-be-read-pile/252544 "2004-06-28T14:31:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-your-to-be-read-pile/252544/21 "2004-06-29T18:26:08Z")
My house is also a “to read” list. I have an elaborately bound, multi-volume set of Gibbon’s _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ that I have yet to excavate from its shrink wrap. Plus four or five books on the Second Punic War and the history of Carthage, which I will have to read before I can even begin work on my long-planned historical novel. A friend has loaned me two books on the defense of Corregidor in WWII, in which her father played an important role. I’m also on the lookout for a copy of _Blind Man’s Bluff_, which I’ve been told is an amazing read. On the lighter side, I’m halfway through _Master and Commander_ right now, and have little doubt that I’ll be plowing through the rest of the series presently. I also have _The Subtle Knife_, but I’ll probably have to re-read _The Golden Compass_ before moving on to it. And I’ve got a whole box full of popcorn novels on my bedroom desk to serve as fillers. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-your-to-be-read-pile/252544/22 "2004-06-29T18:44:09Z")
I want to get \* Eats, Shoots and Leaves\*. That one looks great. I also need to pick up the new Janet Evanovich, _Ten Big Ones_. I think my To-Be-Bought list would be even bigger than my To-Be-Read pile! ---
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-your-to-be-read-pile/252544/23 "2004-06-29T18:46:33Z")
Bookshelves are full - so I have to make do with boxes on the spare room floor. Cherrypicked from [this list](http://www.livejournal.com/community/booktards/1039922.html): A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bryson, Bill Postmodern Pooh - Crews, Frederick Sir Apropos of Nothing - David, Peter Unteleported Man (aka Lies, Inc.), The - Dick, Philip K. Angry Candy - Ellison, Harlan Difference Engine, The - Gibson, William Replay - Grimwood, Ken Players At The Games Of People - John Brunner Best of Fritz Leiber - Leiber, Fritz This Is the Way the World Ends - Morrow, James Invisible Monsters - Palahniuk, Chuck Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney, The - Schickel, Richard I Capture the Castle - Smith, Dodie \* on loan to my mom\* Snow Crash - Stephenson, Neal Bogumbo Snuff Box - Kurt Vonnegut (bought 6/26/04) I also have an extensive To Get from the Library list - broken down into fiction & non-fiction sections. **Dung Beetle** , **N. Sane** & **SmackFu** - bump the Truss book up to the top of the pile - entertaining _and_ educational! **N. Sane** - I read _Salt_ last summer - an intriguing way to look at history; I quite enjoyed it. **unclviny** - _Teatime_ is perhaps my favourite Adams book and his bio is a good read as well. ---
**Author:** ![Proudest\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/proudest_monkey/32/13257_2.png) [@Proudest\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Proudest_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-your-to-be-read-pile/252544/24 "2004-06-29T22:26:11Z")
From the library: **The Road to Ruin** –a new Dortmunder book from Donald Westlake From the bookstore: **The Poet** –a Michael Connelly book which is the prequel to his most current novel (which will go in the to-read pile when I get it from the library) **Cookoff Fever** (or something like that)–by a local author Borrowed from friends: **A Prayer for Owen Meany** –everyone says I must read this; just haven’t gotten to it yet **Lake House** –somebody Patterson Kid books to keep up with my fifth graders: **Midnight for Charlie Bone** and **Charlie Bone and the Time Twister** **Caught by the Sea** –Gary Paulsen ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-your-to-be-read-pile/252544/25 "2004-06-29T22:47:03Z")
What a question. Everything I haven’t read is in my to-be-read pile. For the sake of brevity (ha!) I’ll only list those I have next to my bed. In no particular order, because they get re-jigged every time they fall over: Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte The Sensitivity of the Spirit, RT Kendall Operation Shylock, Philip Roth Works of Malory Web, John Wyndham Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky The Essential Spike Milligan The Autobiography of Henry VIII, Margaret George Allegory of Love, CS Lewis Its Colours They Are Fine, Alan Spence The Old Men at the Zoo, Angus Wilson Bleak House, Charles Dickens (I WILL finish this one day!) The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell The Waves, Virginia Woolf The Gun Seller, Hugh Laurie some kind of collected Orwell essay book I can’t remember the name of Flaubert’s Parrot, Julian Barnes The Assurance of Things Hoped For, Avery Dulles plus assorted Dilbert and Cahrlie Brown books, and a bunch of magazines and old newspaper articles and daily devotionals and all that stuff etc ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-your-to-be-read-pile/252544/26 "2004-06-30T00:13:59Z")
Another vote for _Eats, Shoots, and Leaves_, which is now in my “just-read” pile. Very entertaining. Let’s see - in the thread that inspired this one, I listed the Christopher Moore titles I’ve just picked up (and I’ve just finished _Fluke_, which was very good), so I won’t list them all again here. What else? _Bible Stories for Adults_, James Morrow _The Demon-Haunted World_, Carl Sagan (started a while ago, inexplicably never finished) _Sin and Syntax_, Constance Hale (recommended by a writer friend) _The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford (and other classic stories)_ by Philip K. Dick _Cryptonomicon_, Neal Stephenson _Speaks the Nightbird_, Robert McCammon Also on hand for spare-time browsing: _They Have a Word For It_, Howard Rheingold _The Devil’s Dictionary_, Ambrose Bierce ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-your-to-be-read-pile/252544/27 "2004-06-30T01:48:40Z")
Origin of Species - Charles Darwin. And there is one Discworld book I’m sure I have and haven’t read but It is nowhere to be found. ---
**Author:** ![Elza\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-your-to-be-read-pile/252544/28 "2004-06-30T02:06:48Z")
Unfortunately, I have nothing new at the moment. I do have over 1500 books in my apartment, though, so I re-read everything. I’m rereading most of my Rosamunde Pilcher books at the moment. Although, my fiance does have a Bennett Cerf autobiography that he’s been trying to get me to read. Maybe I’ll hit him up for that. Ava ---
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-your-to-be-read-pile/252544/29 "2004-06-30T16:57:23Z")
I can’t even begin to name all the books in my To-Read cabinet. These are the books I have checked out from the library to read: _How the Irish Saved Civilization_ by Thomas Cahill (recommended to me by **Aitara** in [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=263738) thread) _The Fixer_ by Bernard Malamud _Wuthering Heights_ by Emily Bronte _On the Road_ by Jack Kerouac _The Austere Academy_ by Lemony Snicket _The Ersatz Elevator_ by Lemony Snicket Other books I want to read this summer: _100 Years of Solitude_ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez _The Fall_ and by Albert Camus _The Fatal Shore_ by Robert Hughes (recommended by **calm kiwi** , **sunfish** , **RealityChuck** and **mhendo** in the previously mentioned thread) _The Golden Globe_ by John Varley (I don’t read much sci fi, but I was given this for my birthday and it looks pretty interesting, if lengthy) _1984_ by George Orwell all the books so far in Lemony Snicket’s _A Series of Unortunate Events_ if I still have time, _Myra Breckenridge_ by Gore Vidal and _The Plague_ by Albert Camus [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-your-to-be-read-pile/252544.md?page=1)