Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Ten Books That Have Been on My Shelf From Before I Started Blogging

Ten Books That Have Been on My Shelf From Before I Started Blogging That I Still Haven't Read Yet

Top Ten Tuesday is a blog meme hosted by the ladies at The Broke and the Bookish

Oi! Hello, you lot! I saw this topic for today last minute and couldn't resist because -sadly- I know it will be a really quick and easy one for me to write up. (ouch)

1-3. I, Robot; The Naked SunThe Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov
After seeing -and loving- the film I, Robot starring Will Smith, I found the title at my local used bookstore. This would have been, gosh, six or seven years ago? Yikes. Of course, once I got the book home I realized it wasn't the story of which the film is based -it's an anthology of short stories all based off Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. With a little research, I did learn that Asimov wrote a series of sci-fi/mysteries, starring an old-school police detective, Elijah Baley, partnered up with a robot, R. Daneel Olivaw. Now, the first book of this series, The Caves of Steel, I DID READ AS SOON AS I BOUGHT IT. I even liked it, though it's still about as different from the I, Robot film as the anthology of the same name, just on the other end of the spectrum.
So why didn't I finish reading the series if I liked it?
Because I'm insane and have too many books, that's why.

4-10. The Young Unicorns; Troubling A Star; A House Like a Lotus; An Acceptable Time; The Arm of the Starfish; Dragons in the Waters; Meet the Austins by Madeline L'Engle
Right. So I discovered A Wrinkle in Time at an early age -arguably my first exposure to science fiction- and listened to that probably four or five times before I realized it was a quartet. I don't think I ever got around to finishing the quartet, specifically Many Waters until my late teens. Possibly early 20s. It's been awhile. (The change of main characters to Sandy and Dennis, the jumping back in the timeline, the different tone of the story -it all threw me off for awhile. But it's good!) Obviously, this didn't stop me from collecting as much of L'Engle's work as I could. I know these books are part of at least two different series; more accurately, following different genealogies. As I recall, these books all take place in the same 'universe'. Some are about the Murrys and Calvin and their successive generations and there's also a series about the Austins. Once upon a time, I could tell you the order, even if I hadn't read them.
It is far past that time.

11. Sahara by Clive Cussler
Again. Saw the movie. Loved the movie. I started reading this book -even got a decent chunk into it, I think. I don't remember why I stopped. Other books at the time with due dates, probably. I do that a lot. But I have read at least one other Cussler -Valhalla Rising- and I keep telling myself I'm going to start this series because I love so many things about it.
As a side note, Sahara and National Treasure make for a fantastic double feature!

12. Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reeves
It was cheap. I'd heard the name 'Neil Gaiman' a lot. It had a cool cover. Still haven't gotten farther than that.

I'm stopping here, but believe me when I say this barely makes a dent. And considering all the unread books I've bought since I started blogging?
This is why I'm finally -FINALLY- going to instigate a TBR A Month feature into my reading schedule to start cleaning those out. Though I'm probably going to get a cooler name for it. You know. Me and cool names. Suggestions are totally welcome, by the way. ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

What are some of your oldest unread books?

7 comments:

  1. I've started to weed out my list a bit, so many books on the TBR list. Someday I hope to read some more Neil Gaiman books. Someday, sigh. My TTT list


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    1. There's only one Neil Gaiman I've tried to read. Not the one I own, of course, but 'Neverwhere'. I couldn't get through it because of swearing and content, but BBC did a radio adaptation of it starring James McAvoy and Benedict Cumberbatch (and more!) that was fantastic.
      I'm trying to decide if I set up a TBR Jar with all my unread titles or if I just randomly pick one every month. How did you weed through yours?

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  2. The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
    The Bark of the Bog Owl - Jonathan Rogers
    Road Work - Stephen King
    Star Wars - Thrawn Trilogy (this one I'm ashamed of for not reading already)
    Barrayar - Bujold

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    1. There's a few! ^_^
      Ahh, no shame involved. Well, at least, it's a shame we all share. :P

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  3. I haven't read any Neil Gaiman books yet either.
    See my list here: https://runwright.net/2016/08/23/11364/

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  4. LOVED the I, Robot movie too and it made me want to read the books but I haven't gotten around to them yet. Also, I have yet to read ANY Neil Gaiman books yet and I MUST fix that soon!

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    1. And now I'm remembering that I haven't watched I, Robot in years...

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