Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

What books are gathering dust on your bookshelves?

62 replies

MrsSpoon · 10/04/2006 17:56

I'm presuming we all have them, two or three books that have taken up residence on the shelf and never been read. I thought perhaps we could mention them here and someone could encourage us to read them or charity shop them. Grin

Mine are:-

The Poisonwood Bible - recommended here loads of times but I just never manage to pick it up.

Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani - Didn't like Big Stone Gap so have presumed I won't like this either.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith - I have owned this book a couple of times but never actually read it.

Cold Mountain

Captain Correli's Mandolin

I'm sure there must be more but these ones concern me most. Grin

OP posts:
zubb · 11/04/2006 23:39

moondog - that has just pushed it even further back in the queue!
Actually reading a book about Ken Saro Wiwa written by his son at the moment, so was going to go to something lighter next - but maybe not that light!

moondog · 11/04/2006 23:41

Ah Zubb.but his stuff in Telegraph is brill.V thought provoking.I am no right wong type either,I pronise you!

Pruni · 12/04/2006 14:06

just checked, it's My Name Is Red
started it (three pages) and loved the beginning
what is wrong with me?? eh? that I can't go and pick it up again

Nightynight · 12/04/2006 20:57

It goes a bit slowly just after the beginning, but picks up again later.

Original poster
MrsSpoon · 28/04/2006 13:41

Anyone started any of their dust gatherers? I haven't. Blush

Since starting this thread I have read The Laments and I have placed Never Let Me Go on my bedside table to start tonight. I'm rubbish! Grin

OP posts:
ItalianJob · 29/04/2006 15:07

I've been charity shopping my dustgatherers recently Grin

but still on shelves are:-
Forty words for Sorrow by Giles Blunt
Murder in the Marais by Cora Black
City of Falling Angels by John Berendt
A ommibus of 4 thrillers by George Pelecanos.

Original poster
MrsSpoon · 01/05/2006 15:58

Sigh, didn't even start Never Let Me Go. Started Short History of Tractors in Ukranian as it jumped into my basket in Tesco ... don't know how that keeps happening...

OP posts:
lilibet · 01/05/2006 19:41

I've just read both a short History of Tractors and Never Let Me Go, loved both of them.

I've never got round to White Teeth either.

and I've had The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for ages

acnebride · 01/05/2006 19:50

Anna Karenina. I have been meant to be reading it for 19 years at least. DH gave me a beautiful edition a year ago, and I did manage a chapter or two.

MrsSpoon, Lucia Lucia is not 'classic' enough to struggle with, but it's fairly different in setting etc from Big Stone Gap so might be worth a try. However, I liked Big Cherry Holler very
much and now want to read Big Stone Gap so maybe chuck it.

FrannyandZooey · 01/05/2006 19:52

"2 or 3 books" ROFL. More like 2 or 3 hundred till recently. Have been really strict since ds was born and have cut it down to one shelf full. It is upstairs but from memory there is:

Dave Eggers / By Our Velocity wotsit
Gore Vidal / Myra Breckenridge
Rabelais / Pantagruel & thingy
Something by Marina Warner on mythology
and several more.

Moondog Shock

read yours straight away! They are all wonderful, especially Perfume.

yummimummy · 02/05/2006 05:08

Hazellnut - Snow Falling in Cedars is fab.
I've started Far From the Madding Crowd about 3 times and not got very far.
Dr Zhivago
Midnights Children - Salman Rushdie

NotQuiteCockney · 02/05/2006 07:20

Stasiland is good. White Teeth is ok. Poisonwood Bible very good. The new translation of Anna Karenina is better than the old Constance Garnett rubbish, but it's stil. ... dunno ...

I have about a billion unread books kicking about, it's very sad. I think I gave up and got rid of some of them.

I have two left over from my Booker set, The Sea, and A Long Long Way. Oh, and the Dave Eggers, somewhere. Oh, and a lot of issues of McSweeneys, as I have a lifetime sub, but stopped reading for a bit ... whoops.

But more alarmingly, I have a bit of a newspaper obsession, must always read Guardian and Observer. Must read them in order published. I have 2 weeks' worth downstairs in a cupboard, and 3 weeks' worth coming from a friend this week. The 3 weeks are from before the 2 weeks. It takes me nearly a week to read the two papers, generally. And I am 5 weeks behind now. So I will never read another book. (There's also the New Yorker and Granta.)

(Anyone else reading Slightly Foxed? It's lovely, really cozy. Oh, and I just finished Suspect, which is an issue of a magazine I'd never heard of, Alphabet City, by MIT press.)

clerkKent · 02/05/2006 12:43

NQC,I have just finished the last of the Booker set - A Long Long Way. I still think The Sea is the best of them, but A Long Long Way was the only one I read at every opportunity. You can guess the ending early on, but that is not the point - it has an inevitability about it.

I alwast read Granta cover to cover soon after it arrives - I am sure I would never catch up if I got behind. I had a subscription to the London Review of Books for a while, but I could not keep up. It took ages to read, and there were usually 4/5 unopened. I am not quite so obsessive about the newspaper, but last Saturday I finished the previous week's Saturday Guardian.

NotQuiteCockney · 02/05/2006 13:44

So far, I've liked Arthur and George, and loved Never Let Me Go, although was quite upset by it. What else was in the set? Oh, the Zadie Smith, hmm, enjoyed it at the time, can't remember it that well now. Oh, and Ali Smith, which I absolutely adored. Just finished Hotel World recently, it wasn't as good.

NotQuiteCockney · 02/05/2006 13:45

Oh, and do try Slightly Foxed, it's lovely. All about books, obviously, but not so much about what's come out this month. A slim quarterly.

I enjoy Granta, but don't always read it right when it comes. I think I like the New Yorker better.

Original poster
MrsSpoon · 02/05/2006 15:05

LOL Frannyandzooey, I do have more than these few books on my to be read pile, I must have at least 40 titles but these are my long term residents, those that I don't look at wistfully wishing I was able to find the time to read them. Grin

NQC, I enjoyed The Sea but perhaps not as much as some others on MN did. I found it a beautifully written book that lulled me off to sleep every night. I wish I hadn't read it first out of my Booker set, I may have appreciated it better if it had been left until last.

OP posts:
bundle · 02/05/2006 15:07

gave up with The Sea (after dh said it never improved). I'm in the middle of Harbor (lorraine adams) and Never Let Me Go. also gave up on Quincunx, Poisonwood Bible, hated White Teeth.

tamum · 02/05/2006 15:11

I couldn't get on with the Poisonwood Bible either even though I like her other books, and PB is probably the most well-reviewed. I also bought The People's Act of Love recently and had to give up after 30 or so pages. I had no idea at all who anyone was, or what they were doing, or why, and I didn't actually care, either.

bundle · 02/05/2006 15:12

purple hibiscus is good though

spidermama · 02/05/2006 15:16

I have about three million recipe books gathering dust. Well meaning friends and relatives, when stuck for a present idea for me, always come to the conclusion that I need more recipe books.

expatinscotland · 02/05/2006 15:26

Oh, spidermamama! I LOVE recipe books. Got any good ones? Willing to put them on sale here?

I get rid of all books I cannot get into, no longer have a need for, etc.

Best to pass them on to someone who might find what I missed about them.

suzywong · 02/05/2006 15:28

who is going to start a thread entitled

"Moondog has not read Perfume Shock"

bundle · 02/05/2006 15:29

never finished Perfume either

suzywong · 02/05/2006 15:30

UMMMMMMM!
that's two of you
anyone else????

buffythenappyslayer · 02/05/2006 15:31

amara by richard layman.its my friends and she keeps telling me i MUST read it,but havent got round to it yet,8 months after she gave me it!

Swipe left for the next trending thread