I don’t read as much as I want to anymore. (Pshaw – thanks, Wee One! 😉 But I want to be, and I want to be a good writer, something that is helped by reading good books. I should want to finish the books on this list. They just don’t engage me. I try to finish them, and I could force my eyes to the page and force my mind to stay focused on it. But that is valuable reading time, (something I get so little of these days), and do I really want to spend it on something I have to *force* myself to do?
1. Little Women. Maybe I’m too old for it now or I know the ’96 movie too well, but I can’t.
2. Anna Karenina. I always fall asleep.
3. Lolita. I love Nabakov’s writing, I just can’t do a whole book of it.
4. The Awakening. As a feminist, I should love this story and as a native St. Louisian, I should support the work of a hometown girl, but I struggle keeping the storyline straight and therefore, engaged.
5. The Once and Future King. I haven’t fully given up on this one yet, actually. I’m a Rennie – a lot of my hobby references this book and stories in it, so I should get into it. I don’t really like the way it’s written: vignettes with connecting text, but if I can push through the connecting text, I do like the stories. Maybe I can read it with my Wee One.
6. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. In fairness, I’ve only tried to “read” this book by listening to the audio version. Perhaps the print version will be better.
7. The Time Machine. As a nerdy girl, I should appreciate this story. I hang my head in shame.
8. The Divergent series. This may be sacrilege, but here we are. When I started reading Divergent, I was really engaged, I loved it. But then as the story moved on, I felt like Tris stopped developing as a character and the story didn’t keep up an overarching goal. And so many simulation serums was convenient. Perhaps the later books flesh the missing details, but I won’t know. Give me Harry Potter any day of the week, and The Hunger Games on Sundays. Twice.
9. The Problem with Pain. I made a little pledge to myself to read every book written by C.S. Lewis, and I own this one, I just haven’t finished it yet. I’ve tried several times, and just haven’t been in the headspace to give it the attention it deserves.
10. The Lord of the Ring stories. I know this will confound a lot of people, particularly as I am such a C.S. Lewis fan and they were such good friends, but I struggle with it. Its hard for me to keep the different names straight, so I forget relationships and the events lose significance.
Have you read them? Any tips on getting through them?
This particular Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
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