I have a To-Read List. Let me show you it.
READING! And BOOKS! MANY BOOKS! Come and see them!
Once upon a time, in case you’d forgotten, I shared with you my To-Read Shelf.
Go on. Click through, look at the pic that goes with that post, and then come back here.
Now look at the pic that goes with this post. Please to be noticing the only slight difference.
And you know what’s worse? The Shelf isn’t the only place where I store books I want to read.
Since September 6, 2011, I’ve also kept a written list of book. And today, Ima share that with you, too.
Do note, my dear inklings, that the To-Read Shelf and the To-Read List contain mostly different titles. The Shelf holds books I’ve acquired to read. The List holds books I have yet to acquire.
Again… *sigh*
Such is the Writing Life: so many books to read / write, and so very little time.
Anyway, without further ado or adon’t, here ya go. The List is heavy on the sci-fi and fantasy (surprise, surprise), but if you look closely, you’ll find some classics and some non-fic tucked away in there, too.
Courtney’s To-Read List
begun September 6, 2011
This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti
My Soul to Keep by Melanie Wells
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card
Sisterhood of Dune by Brian Herbert
Sorceror by James Byron Huggins
With Fate Conspire by Marie Brennan
The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell
The Taker by Alma Katsu
Stealing Faces by Michael Prescott
Terroryaki by Jennifer K. Chung
Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Night of the Living Dead Christian by Matt Mikalatos
Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby
Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel
Beta Test by Eric Griffith
My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland
Wild Seed by Octavia Butler
Winterling by Sarah Prineas
Devil’s Lair by David Wiseheart
The Rook by Daniel O’Malley
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
Divergent by Veronica Roth
The Bible Made Impossible by Christian Smith
The Troupe by Robert Jackson Bennett
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
Starters by Lissa Price
The Alchemist of Souls by Anne Levy
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Above by Leah Bobet
Indigo Springs by A. M. Dellamonica
Enchanted by Alethea Kontis
God Behaving Badly by David Lamb
Silence by Michell Sagara
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Kop Killer by Warren Hammond
For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund
The Best of Evil by Eric Wilson
Thieftaker by D. B. Jackson
Skylark by Meagan Spooner
Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines
The Grass King’s Concubine by Kari Sperring
Clockwork Angel by Kevin J. Anderson (story & lyrics by Neil Peart)
Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman
Dracula, The Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker & Ian Holt
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
World without End by Ken Follett
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Worthing Saga by Orson Scott Card
Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson
Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson
Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks
Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind
Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
Zombie Notes: A Study Guide to the Best in Undead Literary Classics by Laurie Rozakis
Death: A Life with George Pendle
A Scanner Darkly: A Graphic Novel by Philip K. Dick
Prey by Michael Crichton
_______
So, there you have it. The list is subject to change from one day to the next — admittedly, change by increase in length. I don’t think I’ve decreased it at all since I started it, mainly because other good reads keep dropping into my lap. Oh, and speaking of good reads Goodreads, you can always visit my page there to see what I’ve read and what I’m currently reading.
Back to The List, though: Which of those books are you interested in? Which ones have you read? Which ones have you already read and found UPDA* and why? Which ones would you warn me away from and why? Let’s talk!
*UPDA = unputdownable
Boneshaker was a very enjoyable and weird surprise. Let’s just say if you read the back of the book, you’ll understand why I started reading it. But if you get all the way to the end, you’ll think, “Josh would have written a very different book than this with that marketing copy to go on…”
And yet still, I lurved it.
Well, maybe you should write a very different book to go with that marketing copy. Seriously! Change what you must to avoid copyright violation, but use the existing marketing copy as a rough outline for your own work. Maybe that’s a challenge for me, too. ; )
I read This Present Darkness when I was in high school. It changed the way I viewed spiritual warfare. Interestingly enough, I read Joe Beam’s Seeing the Unseen around the same time. Probably both of those books greatly affected my faith.
Divergent is on my list to read too, but I’m waiting until the whole trilogy is written. I would much rather read the whole series at once : )
Joe Beam is on my mental to-read list, as well. He spoke in chapel once while I was at OC, and I was thoroughly impressed with him. For one thing, he unashamedly knelt on the stage and sang “Amazing Grace.” Someone willing to make himself that vulnerable is someone I’d like to read.
I enjoyed Night of the Living Dead Christian a lot. Of course, I’m the author. 🙂
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel is spectacular. Starts a bit slow, but it’s really, really great.
I dunno, Matt — do we authors always enjoy reading our own works? I’m not sure I like hearing the sound of my own voice…. ; )
Okay, just kidding. I love reading my own stuff. Characters are old, familiar friends, and reading them is always like coming home.
Anyway, thanks for the visit and the comment! I’ve heard that about Jonathan Strange. But I don’t mind slow starts. They make good appetizers.
Okay, I find that I do have a few comments.
First, on your bookshelf is a Koontz book Your Heart Belongs to Me. I was so incredibly disappointed and disturbed by this book that I skipped whole chunks of it trying to get to the redeeming sections. I didn’t find any.
On your written list, Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings is the first of a series that I have re-read numerous times. The book was clearly a first novel, but there is a charm to it. The entire series resides on my shelves as a “comfort read” – something I turn to when I want to read an old friend of a book. It’s a coming of age story that doesn’t bring you down.
I thoroughly enjoyed Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind. I ended up reading the whole series of 10? 11? books. Some I didn’t enjoy as much as the first, but the story did capture me and I wanted to know these characters and their stories.
The Worthing Saga was an enjoyable read by Orson Scott Card. Engaging.
Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon…I have loved this series but for some reason I can’t seem to finish this book! I keep picking it up and trying to read it and I end up losing interest. Very weird.
I’ll stop there. 😉
Thanks for sharing, Pam! You make me especially keen to read Eddings. I can always use a good “comfort” story — especially at this time of year when the post-holiday blues tend to set in. : )
I’ve since read the Koontz book and didn’t enjoy it a whole lot. It just didn’t seem to hang together very well. I didn’t feel like skimming or skipping parts of it, but I did feel like there wasn’t as much “Koontz” in it as in most of his other works. This one just didn’t have the special touch that I look for in his work.
I own Boneshaker, Steig Larrson, Patrick Rothfuss, Ernest Hemingway, Ken Folloet, and The Time Traveler’s Wife if you ever want to borrow any of them.
Jes, I will want to borrow all of them eventually. Provided I ever have to to read for fun again. ; )