My To Read Pile

Nikitta

Nikitta

Silly Person
Joined
Nov 3, 2006
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When I want to decide which book to read next, I assign a number to each of the books I haven't read yet and then either roll some dice or ask someone for a random number between 1 and [this number varies] and then count through them to find out which book the number corresponds to.

Today I was finally bored enough to mark them and write a list of them. I have 47 books that I haven't read yet.

Since I've written the list, I might as well post it here, so you can all gasp, point and go "Oh my God! You haven't read that one yet?! I can't believe it!" or something to that effect.

Here it is. Apologies for there being a few (5) Norwegian and Swedish Titles on the list:

1: The Vampire Omnibus - Peter Haining
2: Khaled - F. Marion Crawford
3: Alice's Adventure in Wonderland - Lewis Caroll
4: Brave New World - Aldous Huxlex
5: The Thing on the Doorstep and other weird stories - HP. Lovecraft
6: The Dream in the Witchhouse and other weird stories - HP. Lovecraft
7: Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
8: Dracula - Bram Stoker
9: Paradise Lost - John Milton
10: Blood Rites - Jim Butcher
11: Season of the Witch - Natasha Mostert
12: Heart Shaped Box - Joe Hill
13: Before They Are Hanged - Joe Abercrombie
14: Grunts - Mary Gentle
15: Ash, a Secret History - Mary Gentle
16: Dragons of Autumt Twillight - Margareth Weiss and Tracy Hickman
17: Frøya - Johanne Hildebrandt
18: The Lies of Loche Lamora - Scott Lynch
19: Labyrinth - Kate Mosse
20: The Dark Elf Trilogy - RA. Salvatore
21: Winterbirth - Brian Ruckley
22: The Hobbit - JRR. Tolkien
23: The Silmarillion - JRR. Tolkien
24: The Collected Stories - Arthur C Clarke
25: Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick
26: The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula le Guinn
27: The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
28: Hyperion omnibus - Dan Simmons
29: Halting State - Charles Stross
30: Singularity Sky - Charles Stross
31: Glasshouse - Charles Stross
32: Bagombo Snuff Box - Kurt Vonnegut
33: God Bless You, Mr Rosewater - Kurt Vonnegut
34: Slapstick - Kurt Vonnergut
35: Blindsight - Peter Watts
36: Join Me - Danny Wallace
37: God, a users guide - Sean Moncrieff
38: The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
39: Unweaving the Rainbow - Richard Dawkins
40: A Briefer History of Time - Stephen Hawkins
41: Kosmos, en Kort Historik - Stephen Hawkins
42: What We Believe but Cannot Prove - John Brockman
43: The Science of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Michael Hanlon
44: Valley of the Dolls - Jaqueline Susann
45: Reality.no - Thomas Bjørnskau
46: Slottet - Franz Kafka
47: Salme Ved Reisens Slutt - Erik Fosness Hansen
 
Hardly one to point and comment, as there are literally tons of classics in the sf, fantasy, and horror fields I've yet to read (though I'm attempting to catch up on at least the latter two, eventually -- I hope -- all three). All I'll say about your list is: Damn! Some great stuff on there. You've got some real treats ahead of you....
 
Ha! Someone else who rolls dice to pick their next book! I thought I was the only one with that particular disorder... ;)

Anyway, you do have some treats in store. And you've also got some stuff that's on my pile, too (which, by the way, is about twice the size of yours. I really need to find more time to read...)
 
Just wondering about your number 44...doesn't really seem to fit with the rest of the list.....:confused:
 
pyan said:
Just wondering about your number 44...doesn't really seem to fit with the rest of the list.....:confused:
Click to expand...


that is on Weave's to read pile which is quite large I never have more than 2 or 3 books in my pile any more and they get chucked in a corner until I have nothing else to read
 
Seeing ad you like to roll dice to see which book to read next, perhaps you should add "Dice Man" by Luke Rhinehart to your list...
 
Durandal said:
Ha! Someone else who rolls dice to pick their next book! I thought I was the only one with that particular disorder... ;)

Anyway, you do have some treats in store. And you've also got some stuff that's on my pile, too (which, by the way, is about twice the size of yours. I really need to find more time to read...)
Click to expand...

I've rolled dice to decide on things since I read The Dice Man in the early 90's :D

I found out that I missed two books on the list :eek:, so it's 49 books. The last two are Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan and Eating - What We Eat and Why It Matters by Peter Singer and Jim Mason.

Just to complete it.
 
pyan said:
Just wondering about your number 44...doesn't really seem to fit with the rest of the list.....:confused:
Click to expand...

I was curious and started to wonder about it, so I eventually bought it to find out. Besides, I like to think of myself as having a fairly broad taste.
 
Fried Egg said:
Seeing ad you like to roll dice to see which book to read next, perhaps you should add "Dice Man" by Luke Rhinehart to your list...
Click to expand...

I've already read it and got the idea to roll dice on things from there. I agree that it's a good one.

Anyway, I'm still not in a position where I can buy any books until I find a new job, but on the bright side - it's bound to help my to read pile get smaller.
 
Hmm, interesting enough. I'm only shocked you hven't read "The Hobbit" the Classic that it is. There are some fairly nice choices, you'll enjoy this list wuite a bit I'm sure.
 
What a great choice of books Nikkita! You really are in for some very interesting and enjoyable hours of reading :D

(I read #44 :eek: but I didn't enjoy it)
 
littlemissattitude said:
pyan said:
Just wondering about your number 44...doesn't really seem to fit with the rest of the list.....:confused:
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was thinking, pyan.

You know, I've never read it. But I'm curious about it now. How frightening is that?
Click to expand...

You know, I would have had this attitude too. But recently I read Finola Hughes' book Soapsuds for a bit of a change of pace, and quite enjoyed it right up until the end (which I thought was a bit of a non-ending).

It gave a lot of insight into what the lives of those actors who work in the world of Soap Opera - and have very successful careers in it - is like.

*by "non-ending" I mean that it seemed as if she and her co-writer just couldn't come up with any kind of real ending for it, so they just stopped writing and tacked a letter onto the end of it.
 
Doesn't it scare you Gollum that if you read a book a week it would take THIRTEEN YEARS to finish them all?

I use dice to decide things as well! But I'm probably much more screwed in the head then just rolling to decide which book to read.
 
Hilarious Joke said:
Doesn't it scare you Gollum that if you read a book a week it would take THIRTEEN YEARS to finish them all?

I use dice to decide things as well! But I'm probably much more screwed in the head then just rolling to decide which book to read.
Click to expand...

Well, I can't speak for GOLLUM, but considering my number is *ahem* a leetle past that... no. It can be frustrating, realizing that I won't get around to some of them for that long, but on the other hand, it means I'm not going to run out of good reading material for quite a spell.....:D
 
Exactly my sentiment.

I've estimated it will take me the better part of 10 years to get through my current pile. 7 years at top speed.
 
If I didn't buy another book, I could probably get through my to-read pile in about three to four years. Of course, that's never going to happen. Stop buying books? Inconceivable! :)
 
My to Read Pile is too huge to list like other posters before. I've read about 10% of the books on your list; in fact, at the moment, I'm reading Brave New World and just recently watched the animated version of Dragonlace: Dragons of Autumn Twilight. No random number generators and dice rolling for me, I just read the best one relative to the rest.

Here's the Algorithm I follow:

until To-Read-Pile is exhausted
select the most interesting one from pile
read
cross it off from the list
Loop

Cheers, DeepThought
 
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