Books You've Always Wanted To Read

[My name is red]

There might be many reasons..For example,It may sound a bit lame to you but the truth is I couldn't ever afford Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities and Master and Margarita by Bulgakov.They are so expensive for a student like me to buy and also these are like impossible to find in libraries or in second-hand book shops(in where i live).The case is the same with In The Search of Lost Time by Proust.
Or i can't find The Main Street by Sinclair Lewis,One,No one and One Hundred Thousand by Pirandello because they are out of print and not much in demand here i'm afraid.
There are also Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Safran Foer and Wasp Factory by Ian Banks.I'm really curious about these two but i haven't heard from anyone if they are any good or not.So i just hesitate.
And the others without excuses;
The Life Of Pi,The Black Book,The Satanic Verses,Kafka On The Shore are a few of the books i've always wanted to read


So i wonder what are yours?
and the excuses?

[Scheherazade]

I am looking forward to reading A Confederacy of Dunces. Luckily, the BC is reading it this month:

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46595

:D

[Dark Lady]

There are also Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Safran Foer and Wasp Factory by Ian Banks.I'm really curious about these two but i haven't heard from anyone if they are any good or not.So i just hesitate.

Well I LOVED Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close if that's any help at all. I had to read it for university last year and everyone in my seminar group said they flew through it because they liked it so much. I'd definately recommend it.



So i wonder what are yours?
and the excuses?

There are so many books that have been on my 'to read' list for ages and ages and the main reason I haven't read them is because there are so many.

However, the one I feel most guilty about is The Divine Comedy because I started it about three years ago and got quite a way in then stopped because I was too busy with uni work to continue (it's not exactly a quick read!). Now I keep thinking that I'd probably have to start it all over again because I've forgotten so much of it and that's really what's keeping me from reading it.

[Brad Coelho]

The more interested I become in literature, the longer the list gets. Much like my love for cinema, my research gets me more and more interested in older works. Though it is a poor excuse for a history lesson, my love for literature and cinema has broadened my scope and interest in cultures of the past. They are great 'window' devices. After I finished Ulysses I have a feeling that I can accomplish anything from a reading perspective (though Finnegans Wake looms fairly large), but I wonder how I'll find the time to finish Tolstoy AND Rand?!

[My name is red]

I am looking forward to reading A Confederacy of Dunces. Luckily, the BC is reading it this month:

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46595

:D

oh it's the best!(for me:banana:)
my absolute favourite
I wish i haven't read it so that i could enjoy it all over again.So you're lucky

[toni]

There are some books that have always caught my interest but never had the time to read. (excuse #1) And, seeing as I'm always reading around 3 books at the same time, I find it quite difficult to squeeze other books in my list. To quote Brad Coelho above, "The more interested I become in literature, the longer the list gets."
It never ends.

Nevertheless, the books in my list include:

The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man
Crime and Punishment
The Crucible
The Communist Manifesto
Henry V
1984
Animal Farm
D.H Lawrence's works
The God Delusion

[dfloyd]

to take the time to read: The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle. A hard read, but I'm determined to get through it. Am 200 pages into it (total of 600 pages).

The next on my list is Thuycidedes' History of the Peloponnesian War. This will probably be easier than Carlyle.

For a nice copy of In Search of Lost Time (6 volumes published by The Folio Society), try ABE.com. The Folio Society was giving this book to renewing members last year, and should be on the used market sooner or later.

When I was young, I loved to read Sinclair Lewis. His two best are Main Street and Babbitt. These have been published by the Easton Press and are usually available in the used book market. Again, try ABE.com. Two more of his to read are Elmer Gantry and Arrowsmith.

[promtbr]

This thread touches a 'sensitive spot' for me, as I gave up on lit 25 years ago, and I even took my degree in comparative literature. I was "saved" and have jumped back in. This explains why my TBR list is 4 legal pads long...as I have a 25 year gap to make up for the at least 150 no brainer must reads I should have read by now....:eek2::mad::rage:


----

[Veho]

I should really get around to reading 'A Tale of Two Cities'. I've had it sat on my bookshelf for over 4 years now, but I just can't gather any enthusiasm for it - or any Dickens' novel for that matter.

[The Comedian]

Ulysses -- I've started it like, 3 times, but after about 50 pages, I always ask myself: "couldn't you read something good instead?"

In Search of Lost Time -- I think this one is going to be my winter read this semester.

The Journals of Lewis and Clark -- I'm a sucker for first-hand accounts, travel literature, and tales of exploration.

Of Wolves and Men (by Barry Lopez) -- one of best non-fiction writers living today, and I haven't read this one of his.

[Scheherazade]

oh it's the best!(for me:banana:)
my absolute favourite
I wish i haven't read it so that i could enjoy it all over again.So you're luckyMaybe you can still join in our discussions :)

[Helga]

Moby Dick, I don't know why I haven't read it yet I have it but I just can't seem to move it from my shelf...

Rebekka by du Maurier, my friend told me to read it about 7 years ago so I bought it but still haven't read it..

the thing is that I'm reading about 3-4 books at a time and when I finish one I always grab a book that's not on my to-read list...

[David R]

Hi guys

Herodotus' Histories - I tried to read it once but there was just too much 'history', too much to keep in mind for it to be enjoyable.

Paradise Lost by John Milton. I've read Lycidas and some other shorter works and now I'm definitely hungry for this epic.

Also Le Morte Darthur by Malory, Tolstoy's War and Peace and anything by Dostoyevsky. :as-sleep:

[Janine]

I think my list would take up this whole thread. I have piles of new books everywhere and can't seem to find the time for all. Here are just a sampling of some I intend to eventually read:

Shakespeare plays ~ All the remainder of which, I definitely need to read
Henry James ~ Wings of the Dove, Portrait of a Lady, all the short stories in my particular book collection, and other books by the author
Edith Wharton ~ Age of Innocence, House of Mirth
George Eliot ~ Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch
Dostoyevski ~ so many more (I only read The Idiot so far), including a book of his short stories
D.H.Lawrence ~ All three of the Cambridge biography series
Willa Cather ~ Song of the Lark
Hugo ~ The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Countless others books, dealing with art and artifacts, history, explorers, film, etc ~ all begging for me to read or at least look at the photos.

I have many more than this; this is but a sampling. My books are all screaming to be read.

[LitNetIsGreat]

We can only ever read so much. I think the trick is to take the beauty out of the ones we have read, and take our time with the ones we haven't. We shouldn't feel guilty for not having read even some of the Major works of literature, but just let them all pile up without a worry.

Most of us have only scratched the surface and only ever will, but it shouldn't bother us.

I've got oceans of stuff I want to read, oceans, but I'll try my best to follow my own nonsensical wisdom. In particular I'd like to read the rest of Proust, Philip Sidney, some of the "lesser" works of Shakespeare, Dante, Homer, Vigil in many different translations, more Balzac, Zola, Maupassant, Waugh, Milton's lesser poems, really ground myself fully in Greek texts, get into the Romans!, and a thousand other things, as well as being able to fully master the French and Italian language, but hell, there is only so much one can do!

And that is not even mentioning art and music!

But for now, just let me listen to Bach, read a few lines of whatever, drink good Belgian beer and I'll be satisfied...

[Janine]

Neely, I agree with these two lines exactly.....

"but hell, there is only so much one can do!"

"And that is not even mentioning art and music!"

.....and I have oceans of books laying around to read also. Only thing is I got started late and considering my age, I surely hope I have time to read them all...I read slowly so it's aways a feat when I finish a book. But I am chipping away slowly at them and I got in spurts; I have faith all the ones I listed I will eventually achieve.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Only thing is I got started late and considering my age, I surely hope I have time to read them all...I read slowly so it's aways a feat when I finish a book. But I am chipping away slowly at them and I got in spurts; I have faith all the ones I listed I will eventually achieve.

I'm sure many people feel the same way, no matter what time they actually did start reading. Though, I'm just thankful that I was lucky enough to stumble across literature, and that I am not like countless others who wander blind; well if it works that way that is.

I'm sure you will read all those things you want to and much more.

[WICKES]

There are two books I want to read but am put off by the length: George Eliot's Middlemarch (which I've heard described as the greatest novel in the English language) and Dickens' Pickwick Papers

[DarkStormyNight]

I've really wanted to be able to say I've read The Brothers Karazamov. Everyone I've talked to says it's amazing in depth. I guess it's the big one I'm training for as I read.

[Pryderi Agni]

Hmmm...Catcher in the Rye is a book I've wanted to read ever since I watched the cult classics Conspiracy Theory and Ghost in the Shell. Other than that, I guess Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is another classic I've always wanted to read.

[bluosean]

Typee, Omoo, The Pickwick Papers, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Pathfinder.

[MANICHAEAN]

By the time I had started to really get into reading, it was time to go to university and take a degree in Monetary Economics. So I had little time to stretch myself properly on the literary field. Brought a lot of books but never read them. Then upon graduation, I decided I did not want to spend the rest of my life in an office & so studied for qualifications in construction and engineering. Once again cramming. So no time to read in as comprehensive a manner as I would have wished.
Only when stuck out in Saudi Arabia in the middle of nowhere could I start i.e. no TV, cinemas, clubs etc. So immersed myself in books which fitted in well with the isolation.
I'm still reading Edward Gibbons Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire (seems like a lifetime's labour of love). A whole new vista has opened up in French & Russian literature that previously I had never tasted. And then the quality of some of the Lit Net contributers is always opening up new pointers.