I know, let's list the books we haven't read

[Pompey Bum]

You are on a desert island or in prison when you are captured by the Pseudos, a tribe (or gang if you're going with the prison scenario) who torture you until you confess the top ten books (in no particular order) that you have never actually read.

Here are mine:

Lolita: I won't buy the ebook because I don't want it on my megadata. My Ipad already has funny ideas about me. Ever since the "Why do Christians hate Prophet Mohammad?" thread it's been trying to sell me Muslim brides. Before that it thought I was gay. God knows what it would make of this new piece of the puzzle.

Jane Eyre: Okay, that's pretty bad.

The Great Gatsby: Ditto.

The Canterbury Tales: I don't know, I never got around to it.

The Pickwick Papers: Um, I do own a copy.

Sense And Sensibility: I saw the TV show.

The Mill on the Floss: It looked boring.

Our Mutual Friend: Yeah, yeah.

Ulysses: Not really interested.

Finnegan's Wake: Ditto

[Clopin]

King Lear, and a bunch of other Shakespeare plays, but that's the major one: I'm gonna...

Don Quixote: I sort of lost my desire to read long novels, but I'm sure I'll get to this one eventually.

Moby Dick: So I sadly can't participate in the only literature related thread on here.

Ulysses: I'm sort of scared. I do plan to read it though since I like Joyce. I even own it, which ensures it will be read...

Literally anything by William Faulkner, Joseph Conrad or Charles Dickens: oops... I'll get to them.

[Jackson Richardson]

I've been around long enough to have read many well regarded books. I've read things that don't get me in order to see if they click.

I'm old enough now to think I don't want to bore/myself with books I won't enjoy. There's oddles of books I wouldn't re-read. The question is what I wouldn't read.

So, though I've read through Sons and Lovers, I'm never going to get to The Rainbow or Women in Love or indeed Lady Chat or anything by DHL.

I read Gravity's Rainbow and found it the most unpleasant novel I can remember reading. No more Pynchon.

I wouldn't call any work on Pompey's list fun, but he is missing out on some worthwhile books. Glad to see he is keeping Clarissa and Tristan Shandy as treats in future.

[Pompey Bum]

I wouldn't call any work on Pompey's list fun, but he is missing out on some worthwhile books. Glad to see he is keeping Clarissa and Tristan Shandy as treats in future.

Oh, I'm not writing those books off by any means. They are just my most embarrassing omissions. Joyce I may never get to, but the others are definitely in line. Lolita is more of a technical problem since I have trouble reading hard copy print. I suppose I could look for the senior citizen's large print Lolita, but that's just too weird. And Clarissa, like hair shirts, is not something I have Grace to rejoice in just yet.


There's oddles of books I wouldn't re-read.

I'm going through the opposite in my middle age. I've been reading literature since I was in my twenties. Some rereads are more rewarding than new ones. I picked up Crime and Punishment last night, which I hadn't read since I was a starving Raskolnikov myself, and was overwhelmed with its modernity; not modernity as a literary concept, but in the sense that it could have been written today. It made me want to reread The Idiot and The Brothers K, which are among my favorite novels already. I would like to read Our Mutual Friend, of course (and The Canterbury Tales looks like fun), but as I get older, rereads are becoming as important as new conquests.

So Clopin and JR had the stones to respond to this thread, which doesn't surprise me. Where are the rest of you?

[Danik 2016]

Paulo Coelho novels: never read and never will
Spilt Milk: These Chico Buarque novel is still asking to be read. I take it with me on my travels...
Ulysses: Didn´t have the courage yet.
Finnegan´s Wake: Read the first pages. I love this dense and poetic prose. But how does one wind ones way though an extense novel, when you understand barely 2 % of the content.
As for the 21. C literature, I know very little about it. I prefer reading and re-reading earlier works.

[Ecurb]

I bought "Bleak House" and plan to read it. I'm not a Dickens fan (although I've read 5 or 6 of his novels).

I haven't read many modern novels including "Infinite Jest" and "Gravity's Rainbow". Maybe some day.

I have never read a Faulkner novel (although I've read several stories). I'm not sure why. Something about him didn't appeal to me.

I have read the first 700 pages of Brother Karamozov twice, and abandoned it both times, partly because of distractions and partly because I didn't like it that much. I read and enjoyed Crime and Punishment.

I have read only the abridged "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire".

I have never read the Bible all through -- although I've read the famous parts: the New Testament and the first parts of Old Testament, Psalms, Job, Ecclesiastes.

Of the books on Pompey's list, I've read Sense and Sensibility (it's perhaps Austen's worst novel, but all six are fabulously great), Jane Eyre (good book, despite how unattractive Mr. Rochester is), The Great Gatsby (very good), Ulysses (it's a slog, but worth it), and Lolita (very good, although I prefer Pale Fire). You can add the remaining books on his list to mine.

[Clopin]

I have read only the abridged "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire".

I have never read the Bible all through -- although I've read the famous parts: the New Testament and the first parts of Old Testament, Psalms, Job, Ecclesiastes.


These are true for me as well. Except I only read the first twenty or thirty pages of the abridgment.

[Danik 2016]

"I have never read a Faulkner novel (although I've read several stories). I'm not sure why. Something about him didn't appeal to me."
Faulkner is a great author but also a relentless one. His stories are real nightmares. That doesn´t always appeal to the readers.

[Pompey Bum]

Never mind abridgments. Just take the time to actually read Gibbon. Or read something else if you don't have the time. Why would anyone want to shorten language as magnificent as that?

[Ecurb]

Never mind abridgments. Just take the time to actually read Gibbon. Or read something else if you don't have the time. Why would anyone want to shorten language as magnificent as that?

Because the original is so long? Actually, I own an abridgement. I have no idea where I got it. That's why I've read it.

[mona amon]

Oliver Twist, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, A Christmas Carol, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, Our Mutual Friend. I like to call myself a big fan of Dickens, so that's bad.

Infinite Jest, Gravity's Rainbow - practically every modern novel from America, though I've read some Faulkner and Blood Meridian.

Oh yeah, quite a few Shakespeare.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Danik, I've read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Worst book ever!

Pompey, I've read almost everything on your list, except for Finnigan's Wake (is there anybody on Litnet who has?) and The Mill on the Floss. Actually I have not read any George Eliot other than Middlemarch. The woman bores me to tears.

[Pompey Bum]

Pompey, I've read almost everything on your list, except for Finnigan's Wake (is there anybody on Litnet who has?) and The Mill on the Floss. Actually I have not read any George Eliot other than Middlemarch. The woman bores me to tears.

Yeah, The Mill on the Floss looked slow (and I usually don't mind slow). I think JR likes it, though.

I wouldn't worry about Uncle Tom's Cabin, by the way. It had a huge historical impact, but as literature it wasn't much better than Daniel Koonz.

[Lokasenna]

Oh god, where to begin...

I'm slowly coming to terms with the idea that a single human lifetime is not enough to read all the books I want to...

P.S I was unimpressed with The Mill on the Floss - it started well enough, albeit moving at a glacial pace, but the final third is a complete mess where Eliot had clearly lost interest in her own story and had no real clue how to bring it all to a satisfying ending.

[Bill 42]

Pompey, I've read almost everything on your list, except for Finnigan's Wake (is there anybody on Litnet who has?)

I have read it. I understood none of it - not a single word! (Maybe I've used the word "read" incorrectly.) I looked at each individual word, but since I only read English I didn't understand any of it. But now I can brag that I've read it which makes my life complete. (Now I've used the word "life" incorrectly.)

[Pompey Bum]

I have read it. I understood none of it - not a single word! (Maybe I've used the word "read" incorrectly.) I looked at each individual word, but since I only read English I didn't understand any of it. But now I can brag that I've read it which makes my life complete. (Now I've used the word "life" incorrectly.)

Now, now, you are only allowed to brag about books you haven't read on this thread. :)

[Jackson Richardson]

I forgot. The Da Vinci Code.

[Pompey Bum]

I forgot. The Da Vinci Code.

Enraged at this slight on their Holy Scripture, the Pseudos redouble their torture. Come on, JR, not the ones you wouldn't read on a bet. Which are the books you just haven't read yet? :)

[Red Terror]

Enraged at this slight on their Holy Scripture, the Pseudos redouble their torture. Come on, JR, not the ones you wouldn't read on a bet. Which are the books you just haven't read yet? :)

I haven't read most of the great books out there. I have read only a small percentage of the novels, plays and poems that I wish I knew. For example: I've never read anything by Tolstoy, Proust, George Eliot, or Virginia Woolf. I finished only half of Lolita, read only about 150 pages of Don Quixote, never read any of Montaigne's essays or Dr. Johnson and his Boswell biographer. Never read anything much by Melville or Hawthorne or Henry James. Never read the King James version of the Bible in its entirety but I have read an English popular version completely (Old Testament, New and Apocrypha). Never read Pynchon or Cormac McCarthy. I once began reading Stone's Flag for Sunrise but never finished it. I checked out from the library Andre Malraux's Man's Fate several times but never began it. The only thing by Hemingway that I've read was Old Man and the Sea. Never read Ulysses, Dr. Zhivago or Brothers Karamazov. Never read the Koran. I've read the first ten books or chapters of Paradise Lost but did not complete the last two (AAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHH) because I was in college and busy with my school work. I read the first 4 books of the Aeneid but then gave up reading it. I could go on forever.

[Jackson Richardson]

Come on, JR, not the ones you wouldn't read on a bet. Which are the books you just haven't read yet? :)

Atlas Shrugged

Finnegan's Wake

and I have no intention of reading them either. I'm not going to bother with Smollett other than Humphrey Clinker again sometime maybe.

[Danik 2016]

Danik, I've read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Worst book ever!


Mona,
Paulo Coelho is an able book seller and many people like his books. The Alchemist is the one Brazilian novel listed on international best seller lists.
But Coelho is not at all representative of good Brazilian Literature.

[ennison]

I would have no need to buy another book. About 50% of my library is unread. So that's most of Shakespeare, most of Dostoyevsky, War and Peace. A considerable number of other texts. Half of Golding. About a third of Conrad

[El Entenado]

Sometimes a book comes to my mind, and I say to myself: "What? You haven't read that?" I'm going to mention a few of them, which I remember from the top of my head. I won't mention that I haven't read Paulo Coelho (I just did), or Bob Dylan (sorry couldn't resist).

* Ulysses: I've read a few of Joyce's short stories, however I started reading English literature in English recently, so I'll get to this one a bit later maybe.
* The Three Musketeers: I don't know why I haven't read this. It was in my dad's library, shiny and attractive, right there.
* The Hunchback of Notre-Dame: I always thought I've read this, until I found out that I've not.
* The Castle: Yep, I just said to myself: "What? You actually haven't read that yet?"
* A Christmas Carol
* Pride and Prejudice
* Jayne Eyre
* Wuthering Heights

These are some that I can remember right now.

[Pompey Bum]

I would have no need to buy another book. About 50% of my library is unread. So that's most of Shakespeare, most of Dostoyevsky, War and Peace. A considerable number of other texts. Half of Golding. About a third of Conrad

So much ahead, ennison. I am truly envious.

[Pompey Bum]

I won't mention that I haven't read Paulo Coelho (I just did), or Bob Dylan (sorry couldn't resist).

Heh heh. Good one!

[prendrelemick]

You are on a desert island or in prison when you are captured by the Pseudos, a tribe (or gang if you're going with the prison scenario) who torture you until you confess the top ten books (in no particular order) that you have never actually read.

Here are mine:

Lolita: I won't buy the ebook because I don't want it on my megadata. My Ipad already has funny ideas about me. Ever since the "Why do Christians hate Prophet Mohammad?" thread it's been trying to sell me Muslim brides. Before that it thought I was gay. God knows what it would make of this new piece of the puzzle.

Jane Eyre: Okay, that's pretty bad.

The Great Gatsby: Ditto.

The Canterbury Tales: I don't know, I never got around to it.

The Pickwick Papers: Um, I do own a copy.

Sense And Sensibility: I saw the TV show.

The Mill on the Floss: It looked boring.

Our Mutual Friend: Yeah, yeah.

Ulysses: Not really interested.

Finnegan's Wake: Ditto

I think you'll like Pickwick Papers.

There are thousands of books I haven't read and a few I feel I really ought to read. For example William Faulkner, I haven't read a thing of his, nor any Thackery. I have an add blocker so I could give Lolita a go.

Edit: Nonono, not Thackery that other bloke - wassisname.

Edit: Trollope!

[Pompey Bum]

Thanks for the recommendation, prend. And as far as Lolita goes, it's not a matter of the ads as much as what Steve Jobs' zombie is telling people about me. That'll happen whether my IPad tries to sell me Muslim brides or not.

[Jackson Richardson]

As Pompey likes a picaresque novel like Tom Jones, I guess he might like Pickwick. The book has less plot than Ulysses, and is never going to be as funny as it was when first published, but it shows Dickens before he began to do melodrama (although skip all the short stories apart from the two Bagman's stories and Gabriel Grub and the Goblin - this last the precursor of Christmas Carol).

The trial scene was a great comic set piece in Dickens' readings from his books.

Dickens is always thought of as a Victorian novelist, but Pickwick was published before the dear Queen came to reign.

[prendrelemick]

It also has Sam Weller in it. Right up PB's street.

[Danik 2016]

I don´t recomend Lolita to anyone. I found it boring.

[Jackson Richardson]

Just thought of another influential classic that I'm not going to bother with, Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel. I know the wonderful Canadian novelist, Robertson Davies, thought highly of it, but I don't think it's my kind of book.

Neither, I suspect, is Lolita.

[Pompey Bum]

Just thought of another influential classic that I'm not going to bother with, Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel. I know the wonderful Canadian novelist, Robertson Davies, thought highly of it, but I don't think it's my kind of book.

Neither, I suspect, is Lolita.

I think of reading it sometimes, but it would take an awfully long time. Maybe if I broke my leg or something. Speaking of really early novels, JR, did you ever read Simplicius Simplicissimus? That looks like it might be fun, too.

[Pompey Bum]

I don´t recomend Lolita to anyone. I found it boring.

My blushes, Danik! First Molly Bloom's dream and now this? I am an innocent beside you, sir!

[Danik 2016]

We all have our innocent sides, PB! ;)

[Jackson Richardson]

did you ever read Simplicius Simplicissimus? That looks like it might be fun, too.

I have to say I wasn't aware of Simplicissimus until you mentioned it. You bowled me a googly - a reference prendrelmick as a Yorkshireman will understand.

Thinking of German classics, there's Goethe's Faust. Although I understand generally regarded as up there with Dante in importance, it is not a work I hear much about in the English speaking world. There are annual translations of the Commedia, but hardly any I know about of Faust.

I don't really like reading poetry in translation - I am bound to miss one of the most important elements. Unless I come accross a brilliant translation, I'll give it a miss. Also The Sorrows of Young Werther.

[Clopin]

I think of reading it sometimes, but it would take an awfully long time. Maybe if I broke my leg or something. Speaking of really early novels, JR, did you ever read Simplicius Simplicissimus? That looks like it might be fun, too.

Lolita's excellent. I think both of you would enjoy it quite a bit.

[prendrelemick]

- a reference prendrelmick as a Yorkshireman will understand.

[/I]

An off break disguised as a leg break - or is it the other way round? (I'm in the corridor of uncertainty)

[ennison]

Envious PB? What I am envious of is that someone wants to sell you brides! Be careful and don't purchase a bum steer.

[Pompey Bum]

Envious PB? What I am envious of is that someone wants to sell you brides! Be careful and don't purchase a bum steer.

It's muslima.com, if you're interested. Before that it was "Date a Ukranian girl!" (apparently the default). And whenever I go to Taiwan, it's suddenly "Hot Asian babes want to meet you!" I can sympathize. I mean, it gets damn hot in Taiwan, but it's not like I can help the poor things. Besides I'm loyal to my wife, even though she doesn't want me to drive anymore. She says she won't have a bum steer. ba-DUM!

[Vladimir777]

Since I just started reading classic books, my list is far fuller of the more obvious classics than everyone else's. That combined with the fact that I so rarely read books that I was assigned in school (and yes, I was an English major).

King James New Testament (did read the old one)
All of Shakespeare
The Divine Comedy
Paradise Lost
Any Dickens other than Christmas Carol
Never finished War and Peace, although I read a lot/Anna Karenina
Aeneid
Don Quixote
Ulysses
Canterbury Tales
In Search of Lost Time
Brothers Karamazov/Crime & Punishment
Really any poetry

I am reading Moby-Dick now, though!

[Red Terror]

Sometimes a book comes to my mind, and I say to myself: "What? You haven't read that?" I'm going to mention a few of them, which I remember from the top of my head. I won't mention that I haven't read Paulo Coelho (I just did), or Bob Dylan (sorry couldn't resist).

* Ulysses: I've read a few of Joyce's short stories, however I started reading English literature in English recently, so I'll get to this one a bit later maybe.
* The Three Musketeers: I don't know why I haven't read this. It was in my dad's library, shiny and attractive, right there.
* The Hunchback of Notre-Dame: I always thought I've read this, until I found out that I've not.
* The Castle: Yep, I just said to myself: "What? You actually haven't read that yet?"
* A Christmas Carol
* Pride and Prejudice
* Jayne Eyre
* Wuthering Heights

These are some that I can remember right now.

You can skip The Three Musketeers. I read it and it is just a waste of time. There is nothing in it. It is just swashbuckling action during the siege at the Rochelle in France under Louis the XIII and his Machiavellian cleric Cardinal Richelieu.
Read Ulysses instead and you won't have wasted your time.

[Jackson Richardson]

I'm sure some readers would enjoy a swashbuckling costume action flick. But I'll take Red's word for it and give it a miss.

[spikepipsqueak]

Yeah, The Mill on the Floss looked slow (and I usually don't mind slow). I think JR likes it, though.

I wouldn't worry about Uncle Tom's Cabin, by the way. It had a huge historical impact, but as literature it wasn't much better than Daniel Koonz.

I agree that Uncle Tom's Cabin was more of a social document than a good book, but it is also fun to read because of the number of phrases from it that have entered the English language. It doesn't give Shakespeare a run for his money in this regard, but it either employed a huge number of cliches or originated them.

OP. HOW could you list the books you hadn't read? Myself, if I find it appealing I should have read it, by my stage of life. If it doesn't appeal I refuse to carry it around as some sort of "should have" regret.

My one exception to this is Finnegan's Wake but I know myself well enough to be aware that I wouldn't persevere.

[ajvenigalla]

The Divine Conedy, The Aeneid, Jerusalem Delivered, Orlando Furioso, William Blake': prophetic books, The Prelude (Wordsworth), Plato's Republic, Utopia, Leviathan, Aristotle's Nichomaean Ethics, Longinus's On the Sublime, Edmund Burke': On the Sublime and Beautiful, Aristophanes' plays, Sophocles's plays, Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, Gravity's Rainbow, War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, The Idiot, Mason & Dixon, Demons (Dostoevsky), Notes from the Underground

And more...

[El Entenado]

I'm sure some readers would enjoy a swashbuckling costume action flick. But I'll take Red's word for it and give it a miss.

Yea, I actually enjoy swashbuckler stories if written by someone who knows how to write, though I don't think valuing books based on their content, rather than their entertainment is an incorrect way of dealing with literature.

[Red Terror]

I believe Faust Part II is the one that is supposed to be superior. I only read Part I. Part II is denser and richer and you have to have a thorough knowledge of Greek mythology to understand it.


I have to say I wasn't aware of Simplicissimus until you mentioned it. You bowled me a googly - a reference prendrelmick as a Yorkshireman will understand.

Thinking of German classics, there's Goethe's Faust. Although I understand generally regarded as up there with Dante in importance, it is not a work I hear much about in the English speaking world. There are annual translations of the Commedia, but hardly any I know about of Faust.

I don't really like reading poetry in translation - I am bound to miss one of the most important elements. Unless I come accross a brilliant translation, I'll give it a miss. Also The Sorrows of Young Werther.

[Danik 2016]

.....

[Danik 2016]

.....

[Danik 2016]

.....

[Danik 2016]

Faust II explores interesting themes and yes, presents almost all the creatures of Greek mitology, specially the monsters, but in my opinion lacks the vitality of part I. It is mostly allegorical.The feeling I got is that a phantomly Faust travels though several phantom worlds.
I put one link to the complete Faust (Everyman-Gutemberg) in the thread opened by JR. I guess it´s not the most up to date version, but at first glance I liked the rendering of the verses.
http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?85655-Goethe-s-Faust-English-translation&highlight=Faust

[Pompey Bum]

Yikes, Danik! Looks like Mephistopheles is messing with your posts! :)

[Danik 2016]

Yes, he definitivelly doesn´t like windy weather!Sorry, it´s all :devil: fault.

[Pompey Bum]

Good night, Flip Wilson, wherever you are.

[ennison]

War and Peace. Don't intend to
Don Quixote. Perhaps
David Copperfield . Hope to
Phillip Pullman : anything . Won't
JK Rowling : anything. Won't
Mr Kant : anything . Life's too short
Thou Hast a Devil. If I could find a copy I would
Most of Shakespeare's history plays. Will try harder Ha
Smollett. Will make no special effort
Ian McEWan Doubt if I'll bother

[ennison]

War and Peace. Don't intend to
Don Quixote. Perhaps
David Copperfield . Hope to
Phillip Pullman : anything . Won't
JK Rowling : anything. Won't
Mr Kant : anything . Life's too short
Thou Hast a Devil. If I could find a copy I would
Most of Shakespeare's history plays. Will try harder Ha
Smollett. Will make no special effort
Ian McEWan Doubt if I'll bother

[ennison]

So that double post means I am doubly condemned

[kev67]

I have not read much Shakespeare. I think I may read some student guide books so I can understand what he's going on about. Maybe, one day, I'll understand what the fuss is about.

I have not read Ulysses by James Joyce. I think I will try change that next year, but that does not mean I will either understand it or enjoy it.

Likewise I have not read To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. I'm sure it's rubbish but it's the only book in the top 10 British books I have not read, and I think it's quite short.

I have not read War and Peace, but it's over 1000 pages long.

I have not actually read any D.H. Lawrence.

There are other books like Infinite Jest I have not read, but until they're over 50 years old at least, there is no snob value lost in that.