To Read Pile

[Connavar]

I have 137 books on unread pile thanks to Goodreads. But like 20-30 of them is library books i can get from local library to try new authors. Around 100 books unread at home.

I wouldnt raise my unread pile more than 100 at home, i dont want it to feel like a duty to read a pile of book that is like a mountain.....

 

[GOLLUM]

My TBR pile would be over 1,000 books but having a private library of over 2,000 books that's not too bad I suppose....

Time to start scaling that mountain.....

 

[Connavar]

Thats why its a blessing to me that there isnt many good second hand stores for other than swedish books. I cant impulse,second hand buy as you guys.

80% of my book hauls are new books that cost around €10. Like i got 10 new books last month and have read 6 of them already. Have only Don Rodriguez by Lord Dunsany, The Man in High Castle, Marian Time-Slip by PKD, End of Trail by REH left to read on the new books.

Since new books, new reprints are not cheap i try to buy them only when i can read them. Books are like food to me, i will monthly buy what i need to live on the near future only

 

[Vertigo]

I dropped out of book reading for twenty or thirty years and then got heavily back into it again (I thought I didn't have time to read books then realised I was spending masses of time watching complete garbage on the TV ). I then went a bit crazy buying books; I like reading series so I'd buy the first book and if I liked it I'd buy all the rest.

However I like to vary my reading so the end result was reading a lot of different series simultaneously and a lot of book on my TBR pile. Then I joined this place and things started to get really out of hand... the TBR pile reached about 500 at its biggest. Now I'm being a bit more disciplined and not buying so many books but putting them on my wish list. The TBR pile is now down to about 240 books but of course the wish list is getting silly.

At least I'm not buying books so many books now. The big problem with building up such a big TBR pile is that my tastes have shifted somewhat and some of those books I bought may never get read. At least with a wish list that doesn't happen.

 

[Mouse]

...my tastes have shifted somewhat and some of those books I bought may never get read.

This is the trouble I'm having too. I tend to buy books I fancy the look of, then put them aside while I finish the ones I'm reading, then it turns out I no longer fancy the other one quite so much, so I move on to something else. Plus, I'm not really into the 'epic' fantasy and series so much any more, I'd rather read a standalone. I was even *gasp* looking for novellas the other day.

 

[Perpetual Man]

On my immediate To Read Pile there are:

The Hidden Stars by Madeline Howard
A Dark Sacrifice by Madeline Howard
Fallen Dragon by Peter F Hamilton
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
Mage Guard of Hamor by L E Modesitt Jr.
Forest Mage by Robin Hobb
Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson
Nation by Terry Pratchett
The Runes of the Earth by Stephen R Donaldson
and
The Kingdom of Malinas by E J Tett

And I'm currently reading A Dance With Dragons by George R R Martin

But I have another bigger to read pile which has a lot more in it!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

My immediate TBR pile contains:

The Hidden Stars and A Dark Sacrifice by Madeline Howard
The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott lynch
The Illearth War and The Power That Preserves by Stephen R. Donaldson
The Other Lands by David Anthony Durham
A Cruel Wind and The Swordbearer by Glen Cook
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams
The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams

In addition to the above, I have a bunch of ebooks (including all 12 of the The Dresden Files) that I will have to get around to reading eventually.

*sigh*

 

[ktabic]

My TBR pile currently consists of about 120 physical books and about 300 ebooks. There is also the list of books I want to buy. That has 92 books on it. I won't both listing them.

 

[Extollager]

TBRs or currently-being-reads include

The Fox Woman and Other Stories by A. Merritt
Devil's Tor by David Lindsay
The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales (Pantheon ed.)
The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia by Richard Overy
Saving the Appearances by Owen Barfield
Slaves, Women & Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis by William Webb
Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper by Nicholson Baker (If you are an American who likes old books and newspapers, this will get you mad and/or disgusted -- an eye-opener -- has anyone here read this?)
Hamlet
What Happens in Hamlet by J. Dover Wilson
An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy by Robert Dallek
The Living and the Dead: Robert McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost War by Paul Hendrickson
Pickwick Papers by Dickens
The Citadel of Fear by "Francis Stevens"
A bunch of old issues of Mythlore, Tolkien Journal, etc.
Harry Smith's notes to the Smithsonian release of Anthology of American Folk Music -- this is kind of a main document for the "old, weird America" theme

 

[J-Sun]

...and let me know which on my list I can particularly look forward to!

Just realized I didn't take you up on that half of your post. I've read nothing on your list (wow!) except

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Picture of Dorian Gray unedited version by Oscar Wilde

and I recommend both very much (except that I've almost certainly read the edited version of Dorian, but would expect either would do). Though this may be a discouragement in this case.

Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man
Ursula Le Guin, The Dispossessed
Roger Zelany, Lord of Light

I especially recommend those, conveniently in that order.

Kirinyaga - Mike Resnick

Fantastic.

Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper by Nicholson Baker (If you are an American who likes old books and newspapers, this will get you mad and/or disgusted -- an eye-opener -- has anyone here read this?)

I haven't read it (and I don't need anything more to get me mad/disgusted about any sorts of assaults on paper) but I have to ask - what's the main thesis/evidence? Sounds fascinating.

 

[Extollager]

J-Sun asked, "I haven't read [Baker's Double Fold] (and I don't need anything more to get me mad/disgusted about any sorts of assaults on paper) but I have to ask - what's the main thesis/evidence? Sounds fascinating."


The dustjacket copy: "Since the 1950s, our country's libraries have followed a policy of 'destroying to preserve': They have methodically dismantled their collections of original bound newspapers, cut up hundreds of thousands of so-called brittle books, and replaced them with microfilmed copies -- copies that are difficult to read, lack all the color and quality of the original paper and illustrations, and deteriorate with age. Half a century on, the results of this policy are jarringly apparent: There are no longer any complete editions remaining of most of America's great newspapers. The loss to historians and future generations is inestimable.

"[The author] explains the marketing of the brittle-paper crisis [which largely did not exist] and the real motives behind it" -- the lust for "space" without building new facilities that might even have been cheaper than microfilming; the desire to indulge in new technology and make a name for oneself, etc. "The players include the Library of Congres, the CIA, NASA, microfilm lobbyists, newspaper dealers, and a colorful array of librarians and digital futurists," etc.

The evidence is an amazing survey of professional librarianship books and journals, interviews (some of which must have embarrassed people when they saw what they had said, in print), tours of labs and libraries, etc.

I'm past the halfway mark and recommend the book. It will be too much for some people; I'd say, just read it in installments. Among other things, the anecdotes will keep you going, e.g. the one about the lost Nixon statement (page 51) -- Nixon said something off the record that was quoted in an early edition of the Chicago Sun-Times for 17 Sept. 1970; the White House objected and the remark was omitted from later editions; Walter Isaacson saw a clipping of the early-edition remark (about a crisis in the Middle East) in the files of Time magazine and quoted it in his book Kissinger; but these Time files "'don't really exist anymore'"; Jeffrey Kimball, author of Nixon's Vietnam War, has tried for years to track down a copy of the paper with the quotation but has not succeeded. All existing microfilm copies of the Sun-Times for this date appear to be from the evening edition. You cannot verify the Nixon quotation by appealing to the original early edition(s). They are all gone forever, as far as is known. Yes, it reminds me of Orwell too, even if the erasure of history was not intended.

Last year my university library began a renovation project which, about 14 months later, is still not completed. The library gets an elevator but it will have less space for books and magazines, some of which were loose copies, but many of which were bound in sturdy volumes. It discarded, I would estimate, about 90% of its magazines. I was invited to take what I wanted from this stuff and had piles of magazines on my office floor, but I am often disgusted with myself for not taking more. But all along, though it was exciting to salvage things, I felt that what the library was doing was traumatic. The librarians felt they could do this (1) because they had to; the renovation with less space reflected the attitudes of others game players, not necessarily themselves, as I gather, and (2), well, it's all on microfilm or available digitally now, right?

But I will give you one more anecdote, a person one this time. One of the things I saved was an issue of The New York Times Book Review with its review of Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring (first edition, hardcover). I have no doubt that you can read it online right now for free. But there was something rather interesting about the placement of the review, which you probably wouldn't see clearly even with a microfilm image of the review, let alone a nice digital presentation of the review. I might be reading too much into what I noticed: but I noticed that on the opposite page, children's books were reviewed. On the page with the FOTR review, however, there were ads for adult-oriented books (e.g. an expensive art book). I suspect that the Times layout/editorial people had to decide what to do with this book about hobbits, elves, magic rings, etc. Sounds like children's stuff! On the other hand, it's a huge book and the reviewer treats it as something for adults. So..... it seems they split the difference, layout wise. If it reflects a decision about what to do with this huge fantasy novel for adults, it seems it reflects, in a small way, the challenge that such fantasy posed for the literary establishment for years to come: could normal adults really read fantasy like this?

I think that is interesting.

 

[antiloquax]

@Mouse that looks like an interesting TBR list! Of the books you mention, I have only read "Dorian Gray". I'm sure you'll enjoy that!
@Extollager. I have read "Double Fold". Fascinating and disturbing book!
My TBR "pile" is very large (not least because of picking up recommendations on here!) I tend to hoard lots of books & ebooks. I like to have a pretty big choice so that I can just see what I feel like reading, rather than having a TBR "list" as such. a

 

[Connavar]

I have too a shorter pile that i focus on reading first. 10-20 books in a table on my room as a reminder to read them first.


My immediate TBR pile contains:

Ticket to the Boneyard - Lawrence Block
The Driver's Seat - Murial Spark
The Wall - Jean-Paul Sartre
Master and commander - Patrick O'Brian
Queeen Pokou - Véronique Tadjo
To Your Scattered Bodies Go - Philip Josè Farmer
Don Rodriguez Chronicles of Shadow Valley - Lord Dunsany
End of the trail:Complete western - Robert E Howard
Martian Time-Slip - PKD
The Man in The High Castle - PKD
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
The Count of Air - Stephen Hunt
Dossuye - Charles R. Saunders
Eye of the Cricket - James Sallis
The Last Watch - Sergie Lukyanenko
Dark Moon - David Gemmell
Every Last Drop - Charlie Huston
Half of the blood of Brooklyn - Charlie Huston
Maske Thaery - Jack Vance
Galactic Effecuator - Jack Vance
The Moon Pool - A. Merritt
The Steel Remains - Richard Morgan
The Burglar who Studied Spinoza - Lawrence Block
Undertow - Elizabeth Bear

 

[Fried Egg]

My to read pile is as follows (alphabetical, by author):

The Unsettled Dust - Aickman, Robert
The Canopy of Time - Aldiss, Brian W.
The Rest of the Robots - Asimov, Isaac
Unlimited Dream Company - Ballard, J.G.
Hello America - Ballard, J.G.
Consider Phlebas - Banks, Iain M.
Books of Blood: Vol. 4 - Barker, Clive
Books of Blood: Vol. 6 - Barker, Clive
Sea Kings of Mars and Otherwordly Stories - Brackett, Leigh
The Jagged Orbit - Brunner, John
Fool Moon (The Dresden Files, #2) - Butcher, Jim
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - Calvino, Italo
The Hungry Moon - Campbell, Ramsey
Xenocide (Ender's Saga, #3) - Card, Orson Scott
The Fountains of Paradise - Clarke, Arthur C.
Little, Big - Crowley, John
The Jewels of Aptor - Delany, Samuel R.
The Lost World - Doyle, Arthur Conan
Don Rodriguez; Chronicles of Shadow Valley - Dunsany, Lord
Deathbird Stories - Ellison, Harlan
Mini Modern Classics The Machine Stops - Forster, E.M.
She - Haggard, H. Rider
Nightmare Reader - Haining, Peter
The Magicians: The Occult in Fact and Fiction - Haining, Peter
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Miller, Walter M.
Metamorphosis and Other Stories - Kafka, Franz
The Day Watch - Lukyanenko, Sergei
Melmoth the Wanderer - Maturin, Charles Robert
The Face in the Abyss - Merritt, Abraham
Mini Modern Classics Terra Incognita - Nabokov, Vladimir
Wolfbane - Pohl, Frederik
Fugue for a Darkening Island - Priest, Christopher
Wetware - Rucker, Rudy
Nightwings - Silverberg, Robert
The Artificial Kid - Sterling, Bruce
Grass - Tepper, Sheri S.
Emphyrio - Vance, Jack
When the Sleeper Wakes - Wells, H.G.
The Citadel of the Autarch - Wolfe, Gene
The Kraken Wakes - Wyndham, John
The Seeds of Time - Wyndham, John
We - Zamyatin, Yevgeny
The Dream Master - Zelazny, Roger
Doorways in the Sand - Zelazny, Roger

I really want to get it down to around twenty or so but it's a real struggle not to buy them faster than I can read them.

 

[Mouse]

The Kingdom of Malinas by E J Tett

Well this one looks awesome!

The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales (Pantheon ed.)

Got this on audio book and so far I've listened to the few first stories. Love them.

Just realized I didn't take you up on that half of your post. I've read nothing on your list (wow!) except

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Picture of Dorian Gray unedited version by Oscar Wilde

and I recommend both very much (except that I've almost certainly read the edited version of Dorian, but would expect either would do). Though this may be a discouragement in this case.

Ah, I should've explained. I've read Dorian Gray, the edited version and absolutely love it. I'm a huge Oscar Wilde fan, so had to get the unedited version too! It's on my list as a 'not read' instead of a 're-read' as technically it's not the same book.

I was debating whether to read Hitchhiker's next as it's one of the few books I've got which isn't packed away. It's either going to be that or the Chris Priestley book.

@Mouse that looks like an interesting TBR list! Of the books you mention, I have only read "Dorian Gray". I'm sure you'll enjoy that!

See above. I do love that book, glad to see so many people here also enjoyed it.

 

[Hex]

You're going to read We! That's so exciting. It's a wonderful book. I was thinking of it recently because there's a story in the 300 word challenge that reminded me of it.

I don't have much money just now so not buying books is easier that it used to be. My To Read pile fluctuates according to when the library decides it wants things back.

Currently top of the list: The City of Hope and Despair and A Game of Thrones.

I've just finished The Demon's Surrender - I loved that trilogy completely so I'm feeling bereft.

Also: Anansi Boys was the first Neil Gaiman I read and it's great. I've loved all of his, though, except Smoke and Mirrors which got too scary to go on with :|

 

[Mouse]

Also: Anansi Boys was the first Neil Gaiman I read and it's great. I've loved all of his, though, except Smoke and Mirrors which got too scary to go on with :|

Ah good, that's encouraging! Smoke and Mirrors is one of my favourite books ever, can't say I remember anything particularly scary though.

 

[J-Sun]

But there was something rather interesting about the placement of the review, which you probably wouldn't see clearly even with a microfilm image of the review, let alone a nice digital presentation of the review.

Yep - there are several degrees of completeness and context is a part of that. Thanks for that whole post and pointing me to the book - I may not be able to get to it and, as I say, it probably wouldn't be good for my blood pressure, but I'll definitely keep it in mind.

My to read pile is as follows (alphabetical, by author):

I'm not going to keep doing this, but you've got such a cool pile, FE.

I love

The Rest of the Robots - Asimov, Isaac *
The Fountains of Paradise - Clarke, Arthur C.
Deathbird Stories - Ellison, Harlan
Metamorphosis and Other Stories - Kafka, Franz *

I very much like (or even love)

Consider Phlebas - Banks, Iain M.
Sea Kings of Mars and Otherwordly Stories - Brackett, Leigh *
Wolfbane - Pohl, Frederik
Wetware - Rucker, Rudy
The Artificial Kid - Sterling, Bruce

* I don't actually have these specific titles, but have most of, all of, or more than what's in them.

On the other hand

Books of Blood: Vol. 4 - Barker, Clive

Poe is about as horrific as I get. I read some Book of Blood and I'll never forget it and never read Barker again. I think I recall you asking for restrained horror. I didn't find him restrained.

Xenocide (Ender's Saga, #3) - Card, Orson Scott [didn't like the first two, so never read this]
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Miller, Walter M. [extremely well-regarded yet I didn't much like it]
Nightwings - Silverberg, Robert [I liked the title novella and not so much the fixup]
Emphyrio - Vance, Jack [this was okay, but not great for me]
The Dream Master - Zelazny, Roger [I liked the story version but not the novel]

Also, for Connavar:

1. The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
2. Martian Time-Slip - PKD
3. To Your Scattered Bodies Go - Philip Josè Farmer
3. The Man in The High Castle - PKD

Ah, I should've explained. I've read Dorian Gray, the edited version and absolutely love it. I'm a huge Oscar Wilde fan, so had to get the unedited version too! It's on my list as a 'not read' instead of a 're-read' as technically it's not the same book.

I'm sorry - I think I actually knew that you were a big Wilde fan (distinct from being Lady Windermere's Fan) from seeing your other posts, but it didn't quite register strongly enough when I was posting for me to make the correct assumption.

 

[Fried Egg]

J-Sun

I'm not going to keep doing this, but you've got such a cool pile, FE.

Thanks. It's not often people say those words to me!

Books of Blood: Vol. 4 - Barker, Clive

Poe is about as horrific as I get. I read some Book of Blood and I'll never forget it and never read Barker again. I think I recall you asking for restrained horror. I didn't find him restrained.

Well, yes, I tend to agree although once in a while I am very impressed with one of Barker's stories.

 

[Hex]

Smoke and Mirrors is one of my favourite books ever, can't say I remember anything particularly scary though.

I got as far as the hunter and the fox story, and found it so terrifying that I couldn't go on. I was dreaming the stories as well -- never healthy! But I'm a complete wuss about anything remotely horror-related and I find Neil Gaiman's stories pretty freaky at the best of times (but in a good way).