I have a bookcase full (and now a Goodreads account full) of books I've been meaning to read. I'm not even sure how to pick any more...

Pick from the bookshelves. :) Going through the to be read pile is the fun of the exercise... :)

I have read six of your twelve. I would only recommend two of them. :)

I do reserve the right to bounce off the books. Which 6 have you read? :)

1. Dracula (Bram Stoker)
2. Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. And the Band Played On (Randy Shilts)
7. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)
8. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
11. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)

The only ones I actually enjoyed were #5 (for which "enjoyed" isn't exactly the right word, but we've discussed it at length lately) and #8.

I do want to read your #3 and 4 though. *library*

Edited at 2011-09-13 02:24 pm (UTC)

I'm with zhaneel, I have so many in my to-be-read pile, I'm not sure where to even start. Though going through them would be good.

I know 2 of yours are in my pile too (1&9) and I think I've read 2 others of yours, 1 of which I remember enjoying (11), but I don't remember much about the other (7).

Small confession: part of why I want to read P&P is so I can read the zombie version. :)

I have the zombie version in my to-be-read pile :)

I have this set of faux leather bound classics that my parents gave me. Lots of "normal" things I want to read in that set, like the unabridged Don Quixite and some Sherlock Holmes, but also less-appealing things like Balzac and Voltaire. I keep meaning to slog through them, and perhaps this is as good a time as any! :)

If you tackle Voltaire, I'm going to be seriously impressed. :)

Here's proof of the variety of my interests: "I will totally start that after I finish reading the gamemaster guide for the Doctor Who RPG." How's that for literary whiplash?

That is a pretty big difference. :) I think most of us readers are pretty poly in our tastes, though. :)

I have read Gone with the Wind, Jane Eyre, The Hobbit, The Dark is Rising, & Pride & Prejudice.

The Hobbit is a great tale.

Pride & Prejudice is so short that even if you aren't thrilled it's easy to get through, but I thought it had funny bits. It's a romantic comedy (of manners?) with banter.

Gone with the Wind is worth it if you want to contemplate people's ability to delude themselves, for a couple of other reasons that might count as spoilers, & for the historical context of the book.

As a kid I loved the entire Dark is Rising series. When I re-read them as an adult a few years ago I found the first book overly childish - it did not hold up as well as I'd hoped to being re-read. Later books in the series were somewhat more advanced & held up somewhat better.

I read Jane Eyre in order to read Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair. I did get more out of Fforde's book for having read the Brontë, but I found it painful to read.

Twice now I've gotten 2 chapters into Guns, Germs, & Steel & twice I've bogged down & quit. I was recently told by two people whose opinions I trust that getting through the first chapters with their tables & charts & whatnot is needed to make sense of what gets laid out after that, & if that I can just get past that part it gets MUCH more interesting. So it's on my list. As is the Kurlansky book on Salt!

I'll post my own list over in my journal in a bit, but I will mention that I'm currently reading Don Quixote because it is one of THOSE books & I'm not really enjoying it. I've promised myself that I'll finish part one, but that I don't have to read part two (it was originally published in two sections, several years apart).

Where "it" is the Brontë, not the Fforde. The Fforde was good. The Bronë is all sorts of dysfunctional. Maybe Jane Eyre should be read as a drinking game - every time something broken is said or done or discovered, you have to take a drink?

I read the first book in the Dark is Rising series a couple years ago, and it was a kid's book, and then I never got around to the rest, and I'm not really sure why. But they're those formative kids books that most of the geeks I know have read, so...

I've read most of Fforde's books, and I think they would have held up better having read Jane Eyre.

And that's good to know about GGS. :)

Lovely! I think maybe I'll do this too!

I highly, highly recommend Pride and Prejudice. I love The Dark is Rising to little bits and pieces, but I don't even know if I recommend it -- it may be one of those books you have to read when you're ten or twelve. But it is one of my favorite books ever.

Have you read any other Heyer? I like Cotillion a lot, but I might suggest reading Pride and Prejudice first, just because I got a kick out of how much Cotillion reminded me of P&P.

I've never read any Heyer at all, and I hear that Black Moth is a good starting point, but if Cotillion is better, I'll dive in there. :)

I have no idea about Black Moth! I'll have to look that one up. I've only read about three Heyers, two of which I bounced off hard, and the third (Cotillion) of which I liked a lot, so I'm not the best person to ask.