Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Good Reader or Bad? - Top Ten Tuesday #5

Today's Top Ten Tuesday Topic is "Top Ten Books I HAD to Buy... But are Still Sitting on My Shelf Unread."  If perchance this is your first experience with Top Ten Tuesday, you can find more information here.

Today's topic proved to be fairly difficult for a number of reasons.  First, there is the fact that I tend to read books immediately upon purchasing them.  Well, not immediately, as that would technically require reading it while walking out of the store, but in the popular sense, I do.  Secondly, Wikipedia is of no help here at all as I have to own the books so I can't just list titles that sound promising.  Barnes & Noble might be helpful, but that would probably be cheating as I won't have owned the books long enough for them to count.  I'm not counting books that others have purchased for me as gifts either, so that severely limits the field.

Finally, I'm inventing reasons why this is proving difficult in order to put off actually trying to create a list.  Unfortunately, I've just run out and no longer have anything material prepared with which I could forestall the inevitable.

Therefore, here is my list:

1. Nanny Ogg's Cookbook - Terry Pratchett - Yes, technically it is a cookbook, but there's a section in the back on etiquette and dwarf culture and some of the recipes themselves are stories as well.

2. Collins Irish Dictionary - Can you really even READ a dictionary?  I mean, sure, it's nice to know that Magairlin means "orchid", but there's no plot there!

3. Digital Photographer's Handbook - I recently acquired a new camera and I've been meaning to go over this in order to better understand the nuances of good photography.  However, I haven't had much chance to use the camera so the book goes untouched.

4. Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman - Ha! I found a book with a plot, that is meant to be read from front to back in a single or consecutive readings!  I read the first chapter or so of this and promptly bought it... haven't touched it since.

And that's it!  I haven't been to a bookstore in a good while so I haven't gotten many new books and I read all the ones I bought already.  I'm not sure if I should feel proud of this or glad that I haven't let (many) of my books go neglected.  Either way, I'm done - I've read everything else on my shelves that qualifies.  In order to make up for this, I invite you to recommend books to read in the comments, which I will go through and see if there's anything I feel like buying... and then letting dust collect on.

4 comments:

  1. I find these top ten Tuesday posts to be interesting. I was more dubious of their value when you started. But you make them work for you. Definitely gives you some thing to fall back on to keep a schedule. I don't have a lot of books I HAD to buy and if I was that keen on it I read it, mostly I pick up a lot of discount books that I just want or think look interesting. That said Anansi Boys is on my list as well.

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    1. I can't even purchase discount books without reading them immediately - I once went and bought four used hardcover copies of some Pratchett novels at our Barnes & Noble. I'd already read them before... but I read them all in the space of a few days anyway.

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  2. You are not alone in your struggle... I didn't participate this week since I only have two books I finally qualify for the week, and one of them I bought just last week! I do like that you have a cookbook, a dictionary, and a photography handbook on your list... I definitely have a few unused cookbooks, most of which were bought for me...
    -Amy, odetojoandkatniss.wordpress.com

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    1. I actually have a paper shopping bag full of cookbooks that were given to me... but that would've made for a very lopsided list. Also, reading cookbooks makes me hungry, which isn't a good thing when you're trying to write a blog post and don't have anything to snack on...

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