Top Not-Quite-Ten Books I Haven’t Read

I only have about 20 minutes to spare, and debated going for a walk outside, spending time on the treadmill instead, reading an extra 20 minutes of The Passage, and then I happened to pull up my iGoogle page and glance at the newest posts in my Google Reader. Allie over at A Literary Odyssey posted the top ten books she hasn’t read. Of course, I instantly thought of a few books that I can’t believe I haven’t read, at least not yet, and I decided to give this a try. I’m flying by the seat of my pants and have no idea if I’ll even reach ten. By the way, this meme is hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish, a blog I’d never seen before but hope to check out again soon. 😉

1. The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. I consider myself a feminist, and I graduated from Smith College, same as Ms. Friedan herself. I didn’t even own a copy of the book until a few years ago… shame, shame!

2. Anything by Gloria Steinem, and I have three books by her. Another groundbreaking feminist writer who graduated from Smith, what kind of jerk am I that I haven’t read even one of the three books yet?

3. The Odyssey by Homer. Allie’s blog title reminded me of this one. I’ve read parts of this, but not the whole thing, not even half of it.

4. The Complete Tales of Washington Irving. The thing about this one is, I got it when I subscribed to the International Collectors’ Library, i.e. classics in bindings that appear to be higher quality than they really are. I think I stopped getting them before 1992. I don’t think I’ve read even one of the tales in this book! And yet I never think of weeding it from my collection. I just know that someday I’ll read it and love it!

5. Time in Its Flight by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer. I’ve mentioned a few times before how much I love love love nearly all of the books I’ve read by SFS. Of the ones I have but haven’t yet read, I think this is the oldest.

6. Manufacturing Consent: the Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward S. Herman & Noam Chomsky. I’m pretty sure I bought this around 1997, after seeing a video about Chomsky that was also called Manufacturing Consent, when I was in grad school. This is one I’ve thought many times, I should either try to read it (at least SOME of it!) or give in and weed it, and still it sits on my shelf, I can’t let it go.

7. Walden by Thoreau. Long on my shelf, and I listened to a couple hours of the audio, but didn’t finish.

8. Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck. Some of the books everyone read in high school, I never got to because I dropped out. This one slipped through the cracks. I did read East of Eden for a book group meeting, though, and that one’s a LOT longer. 😉

9. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. This was never on my radar until I saw the Winona Ryder movie in early 1995. Love that Christian Bale! * sigh *

There are far too many more of them, I’m sure! And now I’ve typed too long, need to call my grandmother and check in, before Jeff and the boys get home. But this was so much fun! And also a trifle guilt-inducing … but I’ll think about that tomorrow … and yes, I have read Gone with the Wind. 😉