I read a lot. A lot a lot. Ask P. And I try to read widely – in culture, in gender, in time period.
Yet, there are still these books – some sitting on my shelves right here in the farmhouse – that I just haven’t gotten to. You know the ones? The books you know you’ll love if you just start them. Or the ones you started at, maybe, the wrong time and couldn’t quite get into. Well, here’s my list of ten books that I really do want to read . . . some day.
The farmhouse staircase.
1. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
– I love a good Russian novel, and Crime and Punishment 
is one of my favorites. But I just haven’t been able to start this one even . . . maybe it’s the sheer size of it.
2. The Brothers K by David James Duncan
– Then, there’s this one, spurred by Dostoevsky’s work and highly recommended by some of my dearest friends. But of course, I can’t read this until I read the original, right?
3. A Mercy by Toni Morrison
– I LOVE Toni Morrison’s work, and I even started this one. But I started it as an audiobook, and truthfully, Morrison’s language is too complex, and her story too subtle and interior to let me drive and actually absorb it. Now, the hardcover sits on my shelf, waiting.
4. Wicked: Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
– I so enjoy books that play with other stories, that spin them and twist them and deepen them. So you’d think I’d have gotten into this one by now. But no.
5. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
– You would think that since I have One Hundred Years of Solitude
painted on my farmhouse stairs, I would read this book. But nope, it’s up there in my bedroom on the top shelf of the book case. It taunts me.
6. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
– It won the Putlizer, for Pete’s sake. Yet, still, unread.
7. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
– Loved Midnight’s Children
. Find the story around this book amazing. Read (and adored) The Last Temptation of Christ
just because it riled people up to do so. But this one, still not read.
8. A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
– I started this one, and I put it down quite purposefully because, well, I found it pretentious. But it’s so often cited as, well, genius that I really do want to try it again.
9. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
– I kept this one on my shelf for a long time – the cover is so beautiful, and I think I would love it. Sigh.
10. The Cider House Rules by John Irving
– Adore Irving. Owen Meany is one of my favorite literary characters. Find this plotline fascinating. Have refused, still, to see the movie until I read the book. Some day.
So what about you? Any of these on your “some day” list? What titles do you keep meaning to read?
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