To-Be-Read Lists

Blogs and newspapers and magazines love to make long lists of books, from award nominees and winners to new releases and recommended reads in various genres. Well, I’m simply curious what’s on everyone’s TBR piles.

It’s probably unsurprising that I have numerous TBR piles around my home. I try, periodically, to stop the flow, but I’m a book buyer both by nature and by vocation, so it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon. Still, you can see by this example of just one of the many stacks of books I’m anxious to read that I have plenty to keep me busy. There are about four more piles this high, plus what’s on my Kindle, and another dozen or so titles that have bookmarks in them already.

Lately I’ve been reading more submissions than anything else, but I’m eager to hear what all of you are reading and excited about. Please share! Leave a comment with some of your favorite recent reads, or books you’re looking forward to getting your hands on.

 

25 thoughts on “To-Be-Read Lists

  1. I just finished Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver and Cinder by Marissa Meyer.

    I’m in the middle of Fire by Kristin Cashore. (It’s awesome, by the way)

    And in the queue are Possession by Elana Johnson and The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson, and Fever by lauren DeStefano.

    I’m attempting to get to book zero this year. Wouldn’t that be great?

    CV

    1. LOL! The only way to hit book zero is if people stop writing books, and even then I don’t think I’d ever work my way through everything I want to read. Good luck with that!

  2. My TBR pile has a ton of books in it. Primarily because there just aren’t enough hours in the day to read and still devote the time to writing, and wast… er, spending time on various blogs, Twitter, etc. And I must rather painfully admit, it has some “how dare you not have read that already?” books.

    I think top of the pile is Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. That to me is what losing weight after Christmas is to everyone else. I know, right?

    Anyway, that blasphemy aside, there’s also some King, and Gibson, and Card, among the last quarter or so of the “Century’s top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books” I have yet to read. And some others who have more recently piqued my interest, such as Cherie Priest, Neil Gaiman, and Ed Kurtz.

    But first I gotta ram through Chuck Wendig’s Double Dead. That guy is an evil genius!

    1. Chuck Wendig is fantastic. I love his straight-talking blog.

      Sounds like you have some great reads coming up. I hear you on the time crunch though. Just never enough hours in the day.

  3. I have at least three piles that look like that one! There is never enough time to read.
    Some of what’s in my stacks tbr:
    -Russka: The Novel of Russia by Edward Rutherford
    -Baudolino by Umberto Ecco
    -The Gift of Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
    -Russia and the Arabs by Yevgeny Primakov
    -The Pirate Queen: Queen Elizabeth I, Her Pirate Adventures, and the Dawn of Empire by Susan Ronald
    -Natasha’s Dance by Orlando Figes
    -Arthur by Stephen Lawhead
    -The Ayatollah Begs to Differ by Rory Stewart
    -Country of Origin by E. du Perron

    1. Some great reads on there! And long. I loved Russka. Rutherford’s books are wonderful tours through history. Enjoy!

  4. I have a terrible habit of downloading sample chapters from bn.com to put on my Nook, then not looking at them when I’m thinking about a new book. Also, I prefer series, so half the TBR books I have have follow ups. The rest of Rachel Vincent’s Soul Screamers series is on my list (I just finished book 4). Also Little Women and Me (Lauren Baratz-Logsted), Angel Unraveled (Tamela Buhrke), and The Girl of Fire and Thorns (Rae Carson), among many, many others. And that’s not including the books from the series I’m currently reading that will be released this year.

    It really is never-ending.

    1. I do the download thing too. But I love always having something hidden away, waiting to be discovered. Happy reading!

  5. I’m trying to get back to my fantasy/sci fi roots by reading the classics. Right now I’m reading The Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin. I think after that I’ll go with Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card and The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss.

    1. Good stuff. I’ve been holding off on The Kingkiller books until he’s finished, but I’m so behind with all my reading it probably doesn’t matter. I’ve heard great things though. Enjoy!

  6. I just finished The Knife of Never Letting Go, which pleased me until about the last fifty pages. I told myself I’d continue with the series if the end made up for it, but alas! I shall not be reading the next book.

    I’m reading The Fault in Our Stars while waiting for the sequels to The Looking Glass Wars (which I loved!) to reach me. One of the good things about being home sick is a little extra time to read between naps. 🙂

    1. Ah, the perfect kind of illness. Too sick to work but healthy enough to manage reading time. 😉 Enjoy, and feel better!

  7. Dangerous question, asking people what books they love or are waiting to read. 🙂 At least, dangerous to my wallet….

    I think I probably have somewhere between 100 and 150 books in my various TBR piles, all paper. I spend so much time on the computer that I haven’t been able to bring myself to read books on any sort of screen yet unless it’s my MS or someone else’s.

    Most recent read was Marilyn Brant’s A Summer in Europe, which I enjoyed. Vast majority of titles TBR are women’s fiction and romance, mostly British, Canadian, and American authors. Some of the TBR books I’m looking forward to reading are Susanna Kearsley’s Marianna, Jo Bourne’s historical romances, Evan Mandery’s Q, and Karen White’s Falling Home.

    1. LOL! I think it’s safe to say that I’m not taking pictures of all my TBR piles. It’s a little embarrassing, though you make me feel better. 😉 Glad you enjoyed Marilyn’s book. I have some of Susanna Kearsley’s in one of my other stacks. Looking forward to them.

  8. I rarely buy books before reading them, so my TBR pile is in the form of books checked out of the library, on hold at the library, and waiting to be checked out. Right now, that includes a bunch of how-to’s on writing craft, as well as:

    Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
    Insurgent by Veronica Roth (not yet released)
    Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
    Partials by Dan Wells
    Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
    Zombie Tag by Hannah Moskowitz
    Cemetery Girl by David Bell
    Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber
    The Future of Us by Jay Asher
    The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
    When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellisen (not yet released, chosen almost entirely for the fantastic title and gorgeous cover)
    Wither by Lauren DeStefano

    Of the ones shown in your stack, I’m also planning to read The Name of the Star. I’ve already read (and loved) Divergent, and I just finished Daughter of Smoke and Bone a couple of days ago. It was spectacular. Laini Taylor is so brilliant with words that it makes me despair of my own writing. How many teeth would I give to have such genius? (That will be more poignant after you’ve read the book!)

    I also have several books I’m yearning to re-read, but I feel guilty when there are so many new books available all the time. The unread books weigh on me like unfulfilled obligations.

    Thanks for the reminder that I’m not alone in this madness.

    1. Great list! I’ve a couple of those on one of my other piles, plus more on the to-acquire list.

      It’s a good kind of madness, though, isn’t it? After all, there are worse habits in the world. 😉

  9. I just read The Midwife’s Confession by Diane Chamberlain, and it was AMAZING. She’s been described as the Southern Jodi Picoult, and I completely agree with that statement. 🙂

  10. My husband just finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, he recommended I read it. I’m not convinced.

  11. I just finished rereading Welcome to Temptation (Crusie) for the BookEnds March discussion, plus Redemption in Indigo (Lord), and Pure (Baggott).

    Just started Under the Volcano by Lowry, Melusine by Monette, and Throne of the Crescent Moon by Ahmed (I usually read three novels concurrently because I keep them in different places: bedside, gym bag, car).

  12. The book I’m simply longing to get my hands on right now is Kristin Cashore’s “Bitterblue”. I’m eager to read the sequel to Anderson’s “Ultraviolet”, as well.

  13. Reading David Chandler’s Ancient Blades trilogy right now. This guy’s good at writing a short, tight chapter. Also have Partials by Dan Wells on my list. (Cool thing: I’m listed in his Acknowledgments page for suggesting a name that he used in the book.) Then have Anne Rice’s Wolf Gift on the list to at least skim and see what she does with werewolf mythology.

  14. Oh, my reading list is so loooong…

    Off the top of my head, I know I want to read TIMELESS by Gail Carriger next, and am looking forward to Mira Grant’s BLACKOUT in a few months. And I still have SHINE and a couple of other anthologies, and I want to read THE MAP OF ALL THINGS and THE KEY TO CREATION in Kevin J. Anderson’s Terra Incognita trilogy. And then I want to read Orson Scott Card’s SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD, and Novik’s HIS MAJESTY’S DRAGON, and Leicht’s OF BLOOD AND HONEY, and Kenyon’s BRIGHT OF THE SKY, and possibly a few things by Elizabeth Bear, and N.K. Jemison’s books, and Paolo Bacigalupi’s books, and a few more things by China Miéville, and my list could just go on forever and I’m not even looking at my bookshelves or Kindle right now. Ahh!

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