Ten Books That Have Been On My TBR Way Too Long

Look! Baby’s first Top Ten Tuesday. I’ve wanted to do this for a while, but I didn’t really have the time to commit to doing it every week. Realistically, I still don’t until September, but I thought the themes for the next few weeks were too good to pass up.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, and this week’s theme is about the books that have been sitting on your shelf for a really, really long time.

Now, I’ve no shame in admitting that my TBR is huge. It’s dauntingly huge. I used to list all the books I wanted to read on my Goodreads page, but that got overwhelming, so I decided just to list the books that I actually own.

“But Amy,” I hear you say, “Doesn’t your Goodreads TBR look like this:”

Yes. It does.

Anyway. Here are all the books that have been sitting around my bedroom for longer than I care to admit, accompanied by my flimsy excuses for not having read them yet.

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THE CASUAL VACANCY BY J.K. ROWLING

 Back in 2012, when this book came out, I was fairly certain I wasn’t going to read it. Sure, it was J.K. Rowling’s new book, but I wasn’t really interested. After reading some reviews, I wasn’t completely sure that I’d like it.

Then I just…bought it anyway…

Will I get around to this eventually? Probably. But I’m in no real rush. I just know that if I got rid of this I’d end up wanting to buy it again.

 

 

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THE NAME OF THE WIND BY PATRICK ROTHFUSS

Remember this post? When I said I wanted to read this at some point this year? I’m all talk, apparently, and I still haven’t read this.

I know I’m probably going to like this, it’s just that I’ve been putting off committing to such a big book. I actually already have the second book in this series, which makes it seem like even more of a commitment, so here I am.

 

 

 

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THE FINAL EMPIRE BY BRANDON SANDERSON

“Didn’t you mention this book in that post you just mentioned too?” Yes! I did! I’m terrible.

I actually started reading this last year, and really enjoyed the few pages that I read, but since I have the whole series already, I really wanted to marathon it, and once again, didn’t have the time.

 

 

 

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11.22.63 BY STEPHEN KING

Finally, a book I can actually blame someone else for. My dad is also a huge Stephen King fan, and he read this when it came out. He absolutely loved it, and said it had become one of his favourite King novels. He then insisted that I buy it and read it, and that I also buy and read Revival because they were both in a Kindle sale.

So I bought them. And I haven’t read them.

Honestly, this is another one of those books that I know I’m going to love. It’s just that it’s over 800 pages and even though I have it on my Kindle and I’d never really be able to tell…I’m frightened.

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EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE BY JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER

I bought this because I really, really wanted to read it, but then I ended up committing the terrible sin of watching the film first, because my dad wanted to see it.

I did enjoy the film, and I do still want to read it, but I’m worried that it either won’t live up to my expectations, or it’ll make me really sad, or both. So it’s been sitting pretty on my shelves for years.

 

 

 

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BIRDSONG BY SEBASTIAN FAULKS 

Everyone I know who has read this book has loved it, and I usually I do like War literature, but again, I feel like this is just going to make me sad.

I’m writing a dissertation, I’m already sad.

 

 

 

 

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1Q84 BY HARUKI MURAKAMI

After reading a few of Murakami’s books and loving them, I decided that I wanted to try and read all of his work. Around that time, this book came out, and I ended up getting it for Christmas. Then, you guessed it, it’s just been sitting around ever since.

I feel like people either loved or hated this book, so I’m still a bit nervous about reading it. People have also said that it’s quite hard to get into, or that it’s confusing. But I’ve read Kafka on the Shore, and honestly, while I can’t imagine this being more confusing than that, confusion is something that I pretty much anticipate.

 

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MORT BY TERRY PRATCHETT

I’ve loved the few Terry Pratchett books that I’ve read so far, and my favourite character in the books that I read was Death. I decided that I really wanted to get into Discworld, and thought I’d start with the books following the character that I liked the most.

I think I have pretty much all of the Death-centric books, and it’s not like they’re particularly long, so I have no idea why I haven’t read any of them yet.

 

 

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BRIDGET JONES’ DIARY BY HELEN FIELDING

Honestly? I bought this because of the pretty cover.

I mean, I also bought it because I wanted to read it, and I’ve seen the film countless times. I’m fairly certain that I did read this at some point, but I have no idea when.

Again, this is really short, I could probably read it in one sitting if I really wanted to, but nope. Still not read it.

 

 

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CLOUD ATLAS BY DAVID MITCHELL

I haven’t read this one because I have it in my head that it’s going to be really confusing, though I’ve nothing to either prove or disprove that.

I still think it sounds really interesting, and I do really want to read it, but again, I feel like I’m going to have to dedicate a lot of time to it.

At least I have this on my Kindle, where it’s easy to ignore.

 

 

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So there you have it! A glimpse of what is, quite literally, about 10% of my actual TBR. Like I’ve said throughout the post, I do really want to read these still, despite the fact that I’ve owned them for actual years. I find that, more often than not, when I buy a book I’m really excited to read it, but then I lose my enthusiasm, so the books just end up sitting around.

I’d love to know if there are any books here that you think I really, really need to read! As you can probably tell, I’m in desperate need of the peer pressure, so do let me know!