Which book do you keep meaning to read but you never do?

@boiboing (13153)
Northampton, England
November 29, 2015 11:21am CST
I think we all have one or two books that torment us. We know we should read them, we actually want to read them, but we just can't get started. Today whilst bouncing around on Amazon I was reminded that I STILL haven't read Vikram Seth's 'A Suitable Boy'. I have it in the big fat paperback and I have it in the two volume slightly more holdable version, but I'm perpetually put off by the size of the task even though I know I'm going to love this book. When Kindles first came on the scene, I vowed I would buy one as it was the only way I'd get to read 'A Suitable Boy' but I was horrified to discover that it wasn't actually available in Kindle format. It is now - at about £8 - so I'm deliberating again about whether it really will be more readable electronically. How about you? Is there a particular book that you know you're going to love but you just can't somehow get started?
9 people like this
6 responses
41Combedale
@41CombedaleRoad (5952)
• Greece
30 Nov 15
I am putting off reading a 'Teach yourself Greek' book, for obvious reasons, none good.
1 person likes this
Boingboing
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
30 Nov 15
It's all Greek to me - so to speak
Val
@valmnz (17099)
• New Zealand
29 Nov 15
I have a whole bookcase of New Zealand books by NZ authors that I promised myself I'd read when I retired and had more time. Ha, ha, I have less time than ever now. I am more inclined to read those I have on Kindle though.
Val
@valmnz (17099)
• New Zealand
29 Nov 15
@boiboing The Luminaries by Eleanor Carton - definitely worth reading. Long though. And, have you read the 2014 Man Booker, The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan. Australian author.
Val
@valmnz (17099)
• New Zealand
29 Nov 15
@boiboing I have this goal to read all the Man Booker winners, haven't done very well so far, only these two!
Boingboing
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
29 Nov 15
OK, now that's a test for me. NZ writers? Keri Hulme, The Bone People. That's the one that's top of mind. And wasn't the woman who won the 2013 Booker from NZ? Sorry - I should be ashamed not to come up with more.
1 person likes this
Always smiling
@allknowing (130064)
• India
30 Nov 15
Honestly I have the Bible but have never read it in the manner I should have.
41Combedale
@41CombedaleRoad (5952)
• Greece
30 Nov 15
@boiboing I started re-reading the Bible at the beginning of January because I had forgotten much of the Old Testament. I think I am almost halfway through. It is enlightening to read it 25 years later with older eyes and a lot more experience. I realise now how much I missed lst time around. I read 2-3 chapters a day staying with a book at a time but not reading it in any particular order.
Boingboing
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
30 Nov 15
@41CombedaleRoad I would imagine you'll find something new every time with a book like that.
Boingboing
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
30 Nov 15
Yes that is not a book to take on without a lot of time and dedication.
2 people like this
Jekca
@Jessicalynnt (50525)
• Centralia, Missouri
29 Nov 15
I have a few I still cannot get on kindle, it's so annoying! I have an e-copy of Portia de Ross's Unbearable Lightness for years now, since it came out, and still have not read it
M.-L.
@MALUSE (69413)
• Germany
29 Nov 15
There are some classics I haven't read and somehow feel a moral obligation to do so. But I'm not sure I'll love them, so I let them be.
Boingboing
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
29 Nov 15
I think we have to WANT to read them rather than to feel obliged to fill a gap in our reading. I know I will most likely love this book but it's just so darned enormous.
M.-L.
@MALUSE (69413)
• Germany
29 Nov 15
@boiboing I mentioned in many of my book reviews on dooyoo and ciao that I avoid books which have more than 400 pages. What has to be said can be said on 400 pages. The rest is usually superfluous padding.
Boingboing
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
29 Nov 15
@MALUSE Then A Suitable Boy is not for you. I think it's about 1500 pages.
Alice Henry
@IreneVincent (15962)
• United States
30 Nov 15
I read probably about two books or more per week. I am myself a published novelist. My latest book is on lulu.com under my name: Alice Henry. A couple months ago I found the book "Catcher in the Rye" that I had heard so much about for years, but I had never read it. I found it at a thrift store in paperback form for $1.00 so I bought it and brought it home. I started reading it and found it to be, not worth the effort, in my humble opinion. After reading just a couple chapters, I threw it away. Sorry, J.D. Salinger, but I didn't like it AT ALL. I had always thought that I should read it since I had heard so much about it for years, but NO! I did not like it at all.
Boingboing
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
30 Nov 15
I think you have to be a teenager to appreciate the book and to understand how radical it was in its heyday.