Classic Books Collecting Dust on your Bookshelf

RookieWriter · Jul 16, 2019

Last night I started reading Fight Club and found the receipt in the book which showed I bought it in December of 2013. I was wondering how many of you, like me, have a huge pile of books that you have been wanting to read for years but have yet to get to them. Every time I read a book I find five more that I want to read so there is no way to read everything, and sometimes they sit on the shelf for a very long time without being opened. Here is a short list of some famous books I have on my shelf for a long time but have not read yet.

Fight Club - Just started, almost 6 years later
Tropic of Cancer - 6.5 years
Dark Tower Series - 6 years
11/23/63 - 7 years
Cujo - 2.5 years
Brave New World - 6 years
Helter Skelter - 5+ years
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - 3 years
Dexter Series (other than book one) - 3+ years
Night of the Living Dead - 5 years
Jurassic Park - 7 years
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - 6 years
The Kidnapper - 7 years
The Cather in the Rye - 7 years

I've got dozens of others that are not famous. Many of them being 10 or more years.

frimble3 · Jul 16, 2019

I'm pretty much up to date on novels. But I have a giant tottering stack of craft books that I bought for one particular project or technique, but have never done. And, in the case of some of them, considering the arthritis in my fingers, probably never will.
But I'm not giving up on my dreams!

Siri Kirpal · Jul 20, 2019

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

And then there's all the books we inherited more than a decade ago from Mr. Siri's family but haven't yet read: Camille by Dumas, The House of Seven Gables by Hawthorne, The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan, The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker, most of the works of Khalil Gibran (pronounced with the accent on the last syllable for both words) and a biography of him, plus Gloria Vanderbilt's autobiography Once Upon a Time, etc., etc., etc. There's also a full set of Dickens of which I've only read a few.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Chris P · Jul 20, 2019

I still have The Gilded Age by Mark Twain on my Kindle, half read from over a year ago. I read half of Moby Dick about 6 years ago, and should get back to it. Otherwise I'm pretty minimalist and don't buy the books until I'm ready to read them, or I donate them as soon as I'm reasonably sure I won't get to them.

RookieWriter · Jul 20, 2019

Chris P said:
I still have The Gilded Age by Mark Twain on my Kindle, half read from over a year ago. I read half of Moby Dick about 6 years ago, and should get back to it. Otherwise I'm pretty minimalist and don't buy the books until I'm ready to read them, or I donate them as soon as I'm reasonably sure I won't get to them.

This is the approach I try to use but year after year I fail miserably! Especially since I have gone back and read some books two or three times while the others sit and wait.

I will probably have to either read a ton of books or donate a ton of unread books someday since I will be probably moving in the next year or two. That is one advantage of the ebook, much more portable and saves a ton of space.

Bufty · Jul 21, 2019

I'm intrigued by the comment that you read some books two or three times, RookieWriter. :Hug2:

I've no doubt you are not alone, but I don't recall ever wanting to read a book twice -does that say anything about me- I don't know :Shrug:

I've also never been to the cinema to see a film twice. Maybe watch it if it's on TV but...

.

RookieWriter said:
This is the approach I try to use but year after year I fail miserably! Especially since I have gone back and read some books two or three times while the others sit and wait.

I will probably have to either read a ton of books or donate a ton of unread books someday since I will be probably moving in the next year or two. That is one advantage of the ebook, much more portable and saves a ton of space.

Introversion · Jul 21, 2019

I often re-read books I’ve enjoyed. The older I get, the quicker I forget fine details of plots, so while they’re not really new to me on a re-read, they’re new enough. :tongue

Siri Kirpal · Jul 21, 2019

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

I've read some books twice. (Not counting kids books that I read and reread gadzeeks times.) I also like to keep books and reread little passages here and there that I remember with fondness. And there's keeping books (usually, but not always, non-fic) for research.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

RookieWriter · Jul 21, 2019

Bufty said:
I'm intrigued by the comment that you read some books two or three times, RookieWriter.

I've no doubt you are not alone, but I don't recall ever wanting to read a book twice -does that say anything about me- I don't know

I've also never been to the cinema to see a film twice. Maybe watch it if it's on TV but...

.

Maybe for you reading it once is enough. If you're getting everything you want out of it after one read then that's all you need.

Most of the books I reread are non-fiction. A memoir, a self help book or something about a subject I have a deep interest in such as martial arts or a book about writing. Sometimes I mark up and highlight books like that and go back over the info from time to time but don't actually reread the whole thing. I did read Jay Leno's autobiography three times as well as a biography about Bill Belichick.

Rarely do I read a novel a second time. The Firm is one of my favorite novels ever, maybe my favorite, and after I got done reading it I remember thinking that someday I will read this again. That was seven years ago and so far I haven't.

I think the only two novels I ever reread were The Shining (both times I read them I was in college, first as a freshman reading it on my own time then sophomore year for an English class) and Based on a True Story which is the fictional memoir of Norm MacDonald. That is the other novel that I debate as maybe being my favorite of all time. I read that book a second time because I heard so many rave reviews about the audio version of the story that I went ahead and listened. The audio version is even better! So technically I didn't reread it, I listened to it.

Bufty · Jul 22, 2019

I follow now. I had interpreted the thread title of Classic Books as referring to novels.

RookieWriter said:
Maybe for you reading it once is enough. If you're getting everything you want out of it after one read then that's all you need.

Most of the books I reread are non-fiction. A memoir, a self help book or something about a subject I have a deep interest in such as martial arts or a book about writing. Sometimes I mark up and highlight books like that and go back over the info from time to time but don't actually reread the whole thing. I did read Jay Leno's autobiography three times as well as a biography about Bill Belichick.

Rarely do I read a novel a second time. The Firm is one of my favorite novels ever, maybe my favorite, and after I got done reading it I remember thinking that someday I will read this again. That was seven years ago and so far I haven't.

I think the only two novels I ever reread were The Shining (both times I read them I was in college, first as a freshman reading it on my own time then sophomore year for an English class) and Based on a True Story which is the fictional memoir of Norm MacDonald. That is the other novel that I debate as maybe being my favorite of all time. I read that book a second time because I heard so many rave reviews about the audio version of the story that I went ahead and listened. The audio version is even better! So technically I didn't reread it, I listened to it.

RookieWriter · Jul 22, 2019

Bufty said:
I follow now. I had interpreted the thread title of Classic Books as referring to novels.

Yes, I did jump around a bit. Sorry for the confusion. I do know people who read novels several times. I know a guy who reads Silence of the Lambs every few years. Says he never gets tired of it and finds something new in the story every time he reads it.

Lakey · Jul 22, 2019

I often read novels multiple times. A few I've read as may as half a dozen times. Sometimes it's just because I like them! Other times it's because I like them and there is something I want to study about how they are put together. I would say that about a quarter of my reading is, in fact, re-reading.

:e2coffee:

Chris P · Jul 22, 2019

The only books I've recently read twice were Main Street by Sinclair Lewis and A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh.

I re-read Handful because when I read it for a class in high school the teacher said I had missed the main points (I took the satire too literally, she said). But the story stuck with me, and reading again as a adult with a better sense of irony and satire it was twenty times more enjoyable. Vastly underrated. I reread Main Street because I am basing my current WIP on it.

I want to reread the Mithgar series by Dennis L McKiernan. This series got me hooked on SFF back in high school, and at the time there were very few other books like it--magical items but no (yawn) magic users as main characters, wasn't spoofy or cute, but also didn't take itself too seriously. The books were published out of chronological order, so my plan (someday) is to read them in the order they take place.

starrystorm · Jul 22, 2019

I don't usually re-read books. I tried once with my favorite, but couldn't make it past the first page, knowing what would happen next. One of the only books I've read twice is Frankenstein, but that was for high school.

williemeikle · Jul 22, 2019

I'm a multiple-time reader. Some things, like the Raymond Chandler set, I've read about eight, nine times. Lord Of The Rings I read once every year from 1973-2004ish, and a few more times since. Stevenson's Treasure Island, I must have read 20 times over the years since a first read in 1966ish, similarly with Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles and Wells' War of the Worlds.

As for classics on the shelves...I've had Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy for thirty years, and never read the third book although I've read the first two twice.

Classic Books Collecting Dust on your Bookshelf

RookieWriter

frimble3

Heckuva good sport

Siri Kirpal

Swan in Process

Chris P

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

RookieWriter

Bufty

Where have the last ten years gone?

Introversion

Pie aren't squared, pie are round!

Siri Kirpal

Swan in Process

RookieWriter

Bufty

Where have the last ten years gone?

RookieWriter

Lakey

professional dilettante

Chris P

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

starrystorm

williemeikle

The force is strong in this one.