Top Ten Tuesday: Bought but Haven't Read (3/19)

Image from The Broke and the Bookish

Today's Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish has put me to shame! Like most avid readers, I cannot resist the siren song of a new book, and it doesn't even have to be brand new - just new to me. In fact, I love nothing more than perusing a used bookstore for hidden gems. (I scored #2 on my list for $5 weeks after it was published - in hardback no less.) also, like many of my fellow bloggers, I have made resolutions to read everything I own and/or only buy my auto-buy authors' new releases. I'm proud to say I've mostly stuck to these resolutions, but while my shelves may not have grown substantially over the past year, they are still chock full of books I had to have but have yet to crack open. My actual bought and never read list is in the double digits, so I have imposed two limits on my list to keep it 10 entires: 1 - these are a mixture of classic and contemporary adult literature (although I do have a few YA titles on my shelf I haven't read yet, I do tend to read those more quickly); 2 - these are physical books on my physical bookshelf (I.e. this doesn't include what's on my Kindle!!).

*All links below are to Goodreads.

1. The Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard - This collection of letters chronicles the forbidden romance of a twelfth century couple. I was going to write a paper about them in graduate school, but I changed my topic. I was still interested in reading the letters, but it's hard to get motivated without a research project staring you down!
2. The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt - I haven't read a lot of A. S. Byatt, but her Little Black Book of Stories intrigues me, and I saw her speak when The Children's Book came out. Also, it's a book about a book, and I love meta-textual fiction. It's hefty though, and Byatt is dense.
3. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - This one's been making the rounds on other lists as well. I enjoyed Love in the Time of Cholera and have wanted to read One Hundred Years of Solitude ever since. One day?
4. Skylight Confessions by Alice Hoffman - I wanted to read this book so badly that I pestered bookstores for a copy before its release date. I ran across a copy in a used bookstore and immediately snapped it up, but I guess the thrill was in the chase because I haven't read it yet.
5. The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson - Even though it is written by a different author, The Tenth Gift reminds me of Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale, which I loved.  Even their covers look similar!  For no reason other than this, I had to buy The Tenth Gift, but I have yet to discover if the two novel's similarities run any deeper.
6. Diary of a Bad Year by J. M. Coetzee - Coetzee and I have an up and down relationship.  I disliked In the Heart of the Country and tolerated Disgrace, but one of my favorite English teachers at Peace recommended Diary of a Bad Year to me.  The premise sounds much more digestible, and I always trust her recommendations, so I bought it, but I haven't tested the waters yet - any incentives out there?
7. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt - What must be the most quintessential Southern novel is still sitting on my shelf.  I have the best of intentions I swear!
8. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing - That same illustrious English teacher that recommended Coetzee's Diary of a Bad Year also recommended I read Doris Lessing.  She didn't mention a particular book, so one day while at my favorite used bookstore (Edward McKay's for those of you in the Raleigh area), I looked for some of her works.  The Golden Notebook caught my eye because of its meta-textual and memory based premise, but it's a big book, and I haven't worked up the nerve to invest myself in it yet.
9. Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin by Norah Vincent - I ran across this book on Amazon one day while looking for something else.  A woman voluntarily commits herself to a year in a mental institution and then writes about her experience.  A must read...except I haven't yet.
10. The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf - This book is about child abduction, and it sounds good if totally creepy.  It's the creep factor that is keeping me from starting it.

With all these books sitting on my shelves waiting to be read, want to guess what I've been doing instead?  Re-reading some of my favorite YA books and checking books out from my library.  Oh well, at least I'm reading, and I know I'll get to these one day!

Happy reading to you and your own overflowing shelves!