The Unread

A classic, Mark Twain once said, “is a book that people praise and don’t read.” It’s as true today as it was then—we’ve all encountered books that we wanted to read, or thought we should, and never got around to reading, or even said we did.

Susan here. Years ago, one of my sons in high school was supposed to read The Scarlet Letter over the summer, and never got around to it. Then he heard there would be a test on it the first day of school. He stayed up late the night before and skimmed that book furiously, went to class, took the test—and somehow aced it. Not the way to crash an assignment, but he managed to wiggle through, and still isn’t sure what the book was about. Sometimes we have to wiggle through, whether it's a book club or dinner discussion of a book everyone seems to rave about. It might be a book that we wanted to read, but just couldn’t get through it, a must-read that turned out to be a no-thanks. Some books we begin and wander away from, some we really wish we had read and never found time. And some are collecting dust on our bookshelves and we will get to it someday, maybe. It can be hard to admit that there are books we never actually read…

While I read Jane Eyre more than once, I couldn't drag myself through Wuthering Heights. I wanted to throttle Heathcliff early on, and that was that. As a kid, I never read The Secret Garden or The Velveteen Rabbit, don't know how I missed those - just never was interested. I tried Anne of Green Gables and could never get through it. I've avoided Steinbeck, Sinclair, and a few other giants for just be so depressing, despite their social worth. And I have had to confess before on this blog that I haven’t read Georgette Heyer, or at least very little of her work ... I did try, honest I did, but it just didn't click with me. I was steeping myself in Robin Hood and King Arthur and medieval history while my friends were tracking from Austen to Heyer to Regency.

I’ve never read Game of Thrones, though I have tried; the writing and storytelling are just phenomenal, but it’s just too gritty and too big an undertaking for me (I did get through the HBO series with the encouragement of my sons and husband, who are huge fans). I’ve read Pride and Prejudice more than once, and Northanger Abbey too, but not the rest. I keep meaning to do that…

As a medievalist, I have to confess that I never got all the way through Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror, valuable and detailed as it is; I suffered terrible guilt over that in my grad years, until an esteemed professor of medieval studies admitted that he couldn’t get through it either, worthy as it was.

My bookshelves are crammed with books, many of which I’ve read. And there are still many I have tried to read, and will try again—and just as many that I haven’t found time to read just yet, and I keep promising myself that I will get to those. There are also books that I grabbed up in case I ever needed them, research-wise, that haven’t been needed yet. One of these days I’ll cull the shelves again, haven’t done that for a while. In the meantime, it sure looks to the casual observer that I’ve read a lot more books than I have...

What books have you never read, that you wish you had – or never want to try? Are there titles that you have stacked up, or on a shelf, that you’re not sure you’ll ever read?  

Comments

[Gail]

There are classics or important books that I've tried to read and couldn't. These include Catcher in the Rye, Gone With the Wind and Moby Dick among others. I can't make myself read them and have given it up as something that just isn't going to happen. So far, I've managed to survive without reading them. At this point in my life, it's just not going to happen and I refuse to feel guilty about it.

[Mary T]

I don't think that there are any books that I never read that I wish I had. If there were, I could read them now couldn't I.

I remember trying to plow through several of Earnest Hemingway's books and just couldn't do it. There were several I read as school assignments and just couldn't stand (Catcher In The Rye - that kid was a psycho). There were several that I forced myself to read. War And Peace was my personal best - longest book I ever read. Made myself read Gone With The Wind even though I couldn't stand Scarlett O'Hara. But most that I read - I did enjoy - although enjoy seems like a strange word for the ending of Of Mice And Men.

When I was a kid there was something called Classic Comics. I honestly can't remember if I actually read the book or comic book version of David Copperfield (smile).

Interesting post and I love the pics you included.

[Katja]

Interesting topic, and yes I certainly have books on my shelfs that I never read and probably will not read either.
Most of these are books I was given that just aren't my cup of tea.
Some of them I started and couldn't get through. Partly classics (James Joyce's Ulysses springs to mind) but a lot of them are books that I liked the sound of and then could't get into them. This by the way gets worse the older I become.
If life is indeed too short to drink bad wine, then it is certainly far too short to read books I do not like.
Sometimes it works if I just start somewhere in the middle or even at the very end and then read my way back through the book (yes I have really done this before) but mostly these days I just give up. I have so many books on my TBR pile, so despite being a really fast reader, I cannot get through all of them anyway. Especially since I read in two languages and across most genres plus non-fiction.

[Donna H.]

What a great post! I used to feel guilty if I started a book and never finished it. Now I give it 50 pages and if I can't get into it, I quit reading. I could never get into Wuthering Heights or Lady Chatterley's Lover, despite all the who-hooing that went on about. Could never read Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter (I am with your son)and The Old Man and the Sea. I do not even think that some of the "classics" are particularly well written. So there!

[Mary Jo Putney]

What a wonderful collection of pictures, Susan! And I am SO with you on books I 'should' have read and didn't want to. Many of the books on my list are the same as yours, in fact. *G*

[Christina Courtenay]

So glad it's not just me, Susan! War and Peace - I always felt I should have read that, but haven't been able to make myself start. My brother read Anna Karenina in high school, but I knew it had a sad ending so not for me. Had to read so many 'classics' at uni for English Literature and hated them - now I only read what I want!

[Lil]

It's funny the different reactions people have to books. Now back in high school, I loved Wuthering Heights and hated Jane Eyre. I thought Jane was a wimp. Then I loved Vanity Fair, and was rooting for Becky Sharp all the way through. Dickens I never much liked. I always found his heroines insipid. That's probably the key for me. It wasn't that I wanted the heroine to be a feminist icon. I just wanted her to have a spine.

[Misti]

I had never read Nancy Drew until I tried one as an adult...yeah, I think I missed the window on those. Not at all something I liked.

I have very little interest in most "classics" and most of the ones I slogged through in high school, I hated. The only Dickens I've ever read is A Christmas Carol and I don't plan to change that. However, 2 years ago I read both The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte and enjoyed them both. Maybe it really is just a matter of timing.

I do have a bunch of books on my shelf I'm not sure I'll ever read, even though I wanted to at one time. They are in many genres. I purge once in a while...LOL and sometimes buy them again at a later date when I actually read them.

[Kareni]

I have many many unread books on my shelves and in the Kindle cloud, yet I somehow make the time to reread old favorites. I read (some of) those in my possession and acquire new books, too, because there might be a new favorite lurking out there!

I'm not drawn to many classics these days, but I'd likely read one if my book group selects one.

[Linnea J Priest]

I don't worry about what I have or haven't read. I am 72 and I will read what I want to read. There are a lot of books that I start, check the ending, and do not finish. (DNF). Sometimes grammar or historical errors are so off-putting that the book is doomed. Doesn't anyone know how to use the subjunctive tense anymore? (rhetorical question because the answer is no). I refuse to kowtow to literature or music snobs, because I like what I like. How many other people have read David Copperfield so many times that quotes jump into their heads? And I agree that his women are awful, but I love the story.

[Jeanne Behnke]

First off - I love all these pictures Susan! I've read many of the "classics" and loved them, but certainly not all. I've never read any Hemingway or The Catcher in the Rye. I read anything about Robin Hood, King Arthur et al I could get my hands on. I couldn't get through Barbara Tuchman's either - but I've read everything Sharon Kay Penman ever wrote. Boy, will I miss her. Although I do have a TBR pile physically & in the Cloud, I find I'm much more behind on TV Shows & movies that everyone calls must see.

[Sue McCormick]

I decided about 50 years ago that if I didn't like a book, I would not read it. The decider was Wuthering Heights. I did read it —TWICE, but I couldn't "get" it. I was going to try a third time and decided that that was a crazy thing to do.

I have'nt read Moby DicK or any other Melville novel; I did read an unrememabered short story. I haven't read War and Peace. I can't even begin to list the others. I will try a book — old or new, classic or popular — but If I can't get into it i quit. There is too much good stuff and do many satisfactory rereads to waste time on what I don't like.

[Teresa Broderick]

Love the pics with this post.
I tried Catch 22 and just couldn't get into it. Also Wuthering Heights is another. I have too many books to read without wasting time on stuff that just doesn't hold any interest for me.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one doing this :)

[Denise]

I was happy to leave school and not having my reading directed and took great pleasure in putting a book aside if it did not catch my attention. In my younger days I was a big biography reader and read one on Flannery O’Connor. Loved the biography and thought I would enjoy her writings, but I could not get through one chapter. Same with Hemingway. Lovely pictures in the post.

[Benedicte Reiter]

I have a list of classic that I have never been able to finish. Like you I read Jane Eyre with pleasure more than once and never finished Wuthering Heights. The latter was kind of destroyer for me by comedian Dave Allen's little vignettes in the 70s.
I read a small extract from Ulysses in high school. My English teachers used my class as book depository, so I had an awful lot of books at home during that period. But I could never chew through the entire story. I got Grapes of Wrath for Christmas one year byt never managed to read the entire book. Yet I have managed to read the entire works of Shakespeare. There is No logic to reading preferences.
Love the pain ting in this blog.

[Janice]

I hated Moby Dick. What a tiresome ordeal that was.

I know I read A Distant Mirror back in the day, but I remember it as being about World War I. But I still have my copy, so I looked, and darn if you're not correct - it's medieval. I probably still have it because in college I took more medieval lit courses than modern. In it I found a 1980 postcard from my best friend tucked between pgs 168 and 169, so that must be where I put it aside. Maybe I should give it another shot. Very fine print.

During the late emergency I got through the first 200 pages or so of War and Peace. I found it unreadable. For an exciting era, it was awfully dull. Maybe it suffered in the translation. It's in the other room in a hardback bookcase, where it's separating the Marion Chesneys from the Sheila Bishops. So it's fulfilling a useful function.

In college I faked my way through some Ernest Hemingway and just looked wise when my friends raved about his novels that I'd never read. Meanwhile I read The Great Gatsby through three times.

My apartment is filled with books on the sometime, maybe, never system. Because I don't keep much pop lit after I've read it, maybe half of the books are unread as yet. I used to feel guilty until I read that when a fan visiting the late Harlan Ellison at his home commented on the enormous number of books he had and asked if he had read them all, Harlan said *of course* he hadn't read them all, they were there because he hadn't read them yet. What would be the point of only having books you had already read?

[Binnie Syril Braunstein]

Susan - you've made me feel far less guilty for what I haven't read. Will never ever read. Wuthering Heights is right up there on the shelf next to Jane Eyre. I read Jane Eyre for the first time when I was 10,then later as an adult. Never did manage to get into Wuthering Heights. Don't care about Heathcliff. I'd planned never to read War & Peace but then I saw the Russian version of the movie when I was in grad school and had to read it. I will admit to skipping The Battle of Borodin. I did read Catcher in the Rye but I can't remember one word. And don't want to I've read Pride and Prejudice but will have to admit none of Jane's other books. Read all of Mary Stewart's gothics but could never get into the Crystal Cave millieu. Never got into Dune, Game of Thrones or even Outlander. And I have dear friends who have given me literary fiction that they just know I will love. Sigh. No, I'm not reading that dust-catching Anne Tyler novel that's sitting unread on my shelf. (if you live in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, I think it's sacrilege not to read Anne Tyler. I need absolution.

[Quantum]

I remember a colleague at work who had a book case filled with the most impressive technical titles. At least they impressed me until one day I noticed a copy of 'String Theory for Dummies' open on his desk ... such is human nature!

I have many unread books but rarely give any away. Some I regard as a challenge and will occasionally dip into them ... like Dickens at Christmas. Many I picked up at second hand book shops, perhaps intrigued by the titles, and on a rainy day will pick one up on a whim. There are books for every mood, but it can be tricky finding the right match at the right time!

[Jenny Wilcox]

I have read a couple of Steinbeck's books - for school, but I would not go looking for them. I had to push myself to read them, even though I basically live to read.
One that I could NOT and will never read is Gone With The Wind. I hated Scarlet straight away and did not even finish the first chapter. Consequently, I have never even seen the film - just cannot bring myself to do it.

[Andrea Penrose]

SUCH a good post, Susan! I, too, hated Wuthering Heights . . . and Thomas Hardy, and Gone With the Wind . . . I'd could go on and on . . .

[Sweetapple, Lyn]

I am so glad someone else doesn't like Wuthering Heights. I wanted to smack them both upside the head. I didn't read many great American classics in school, but I finally read Catcher in the Rye as an adult. As a teen, I read War and Peace just to be snobby, but I liked it.

[Annette N]

I read Jane Eyre and hated it. Started Wuthering Heights and did not get very far. Do not like Hemingway....no way now how. Was not a fan of Steinbeck until I read Travels With Charlie. He made me fall in love with who he was then. I started War and Peace and could not finish it. (I see a pattern here) I read Gone with the Wind, but disliked Scarlet a great deal. Read it for the other characters.

I realize now that there are authors that I am "supposed" to like and I never will. That is probably me, but sorry....I want to read books which draw me in and some of those classics absolutely make me want to start a bonfire and throw things into it.

Hope everyone is well and safe and happy.

[Constance]

I realized, in my late teens, that I would never live long enough to read everything I wanted to read, so promised myself I would no longer read books just because they were "classic" or popular or recommended. So, the number I have started and never finished is lengthy, and includes many already mentioned here. Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, any Dickens, top the list of classics abandoned, but I would also include Huckleberry Finn. I really wanted to love them all, but no go. Middlemarch may be the only Victorian classic I truly enjoy - and I didn't read that until after I watched the PBS series. My sister did her PhD on Moby Dick, and I couldn't even get through her dissertation (yes, she knows!). Enjoyed Lord of the Rings until they left the shire; after that, I didn't last long. And while I'm a huge fan of Golden Age detective fiction, there are not many modern mystery writers I enjoy - too bloody, too psychological. And, perhaps the most guilty confession of all: while Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion are my desert island books, Northanger Abbey leaves me cold.

I've quite enjoyed reading everyone's responses - and feel vindicated! Thank you, Susan!

[Margaret]

I can only echo what so many have said, EXCEPT that I am guilty of actually TEACHING books (one in particular) that I haven't read every word of myself. (Don't report me!) Like the line from the song, "If there's a rock & roll heaven. . . " I'm hoping there's a hell of a library in the afterlife where I can catch up--not so much on the books I never wanted to read (seriously - Moby Dick?!) but rather the ones that keep falling beneath new titles even though I really, really, really want to get to them! (As to War and Peace - my claim to fame was I only read the Peace parts!)

[Janet Gahagan]

Tuchman wrote The Guns of August about the start of WW1 and the Proud Tower about the world before that war. I just went and checked my shelves. I loved everything she wrote, and have even re-read a couple!

[Linda Lou Manwiller]

Well...am I glad I'm not th only one who has started a book - classic or not - and just can't finish it. And, to make matters worse, there are dozens of non-fiction titles on my shelves that are still waiting to be opened! I have the habit of getting interested in a subject (Lewis and Clark, Thomas Jefferson, Thoreau) and buying on the subject...most of these titles are still waiting to be read - after all, they are my books so I don't have to rush to read them within a circulation period!
I loved Jane Eyre (and have re-read it several times) but can't read any of the other Bronte's. Most of my "classic" reading was don at the instigation of college professors...
I love fantasy, but haven't been able to tackle the Robert Jordan or Game of Thrones series. I adored Sara Donati's "Into the Wilderness" but haven't been able to read the rest of the series, even though I own all of them. Same with Dorothy Dunnett -Love the Lymond series...haven't read the Italian one!
Now that I'm retired from the library world...I don't feel obligated to read for purchase. If I want to read a title, I will. If it doesn't hold my interest, back to the library it goes.

[Karin]

I've been an incessant reader since childhood, but a late comer to romance, and there was none in my small town library, so when I was in my teens I read lots of 20th literary fiction, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Somerset Maugham, Sinclair Lewis. Whatever I could find on the shelves. But I had trouble with the earlier classics, the prose just seemed so stilted, and high school English class ruined Dickens and Shakespeare for me. I also never read Tolkien, I couldn't force myself past the first chapter of The Hobbit, even though it was a very trendy thing to read when I was in college. There are several classics I had hopes of reading in my lifetime, like Bleak House, Don Quixote and Moby Dick, but as the decades go by I've resigned myself to the fact that it probably won't happen. Not as long as so many delightful romances are waiting to be read!

[Annelie]

That's exactly me too!

[Annelie]

I think I've read Oliver Twist three times but could never get into David C.! You have to get some kind of access to the book and that's very individual.
When I was young I thought I had to read some books but no longer. It's freeing to get older!
And I to don't finish books I don't like any longer.

[Kareni]

Hello, Twin!

[Janice]

The Guns of August! - thank you. I know I've read that as well, but I don't seem to have kept a copy.

[Margot]

So good to read this and all the comments. I am so happy that I am not the only one who has not read some of the "Classics" or those books many claim to have read. In high school we had to read Tale of Two Cities, many of Shakespeare's plays plus memorizing long segments, Moby Dick and several others. Analyzing them to no end and getting tested made reading these a chore.
So happy that I can read what I want now. I also hesitate to stop reading once I start. I keep hoping the book will improve, but if when done I still do not like it - that author has one strike against my reading any others.

[Susan/DC]

I'm definitely a member of the "not read all the classics and used to feel guilty about it" club. I tried to read "Moby Dick" and failed miserably. I can't stand and don't read many of the male mid-century American authors famous for their "muscular prose" where the women are all either sexpots (a very 1950s term) or shrill harridans. In my teens and 20s I read "War & Peace" and all of Dickens novels, as well as "Jane Eyre", "Wuthering Heights", and "Gone with the Wind". Then jobs and marriage and children got in the way, and I had neither the time nor the energy to put into such intense reading for a while. More recently, when I tried to reread GWTW, the racism I'd not even noticed when I was 13 was now so blatant I couldn't stand it and stopped early on. OTOH, I loved Jane Eyre even more as a character, especially in the first and last sections, where her strength of character is so apparent. As for "Scarlet Letter", I had to read it in 8th grade and it flew totally above my head. When I reread it as an adult, it was much more powerful because I understood it in a way my unformed, callow teenager could not.