unread

You know, if you look at the books tagged as "unread", the 10 books most commonly sitting unread on people's shelves seem to be:

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (239)
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (218)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (201)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (200)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (169)
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (167)
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (164)
The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien (162)
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (159)
Ulysses by James Joyce (141)

I've read at least three. A couple of the others, I honestly don't remember. Maybe 30 years ago or more when I was in my "classics" phase. I wouldn't guarantee, with the Russians, that I didn't start but not finish them. I hate to say it, but the same goes for the Brontes. I don't think I've ever finished any of them.

I read Wuthering Heights years ago and remember liking it. The only other book on this list I own is a ratty copy of The Brothers Karamazov that someone gave me. But I don't tag books unread or to be read. It's too daunting. All those books I want to read and not enough time. I prefer to mark (rate or review or both) what I have read.

Poor Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. I wish more would given War and Peace the respect it deserves, because, in my humble opinion, it is worth the time put into it. I'm looking forward to reading Anna Karenina after I touch through some of Dostoevsky's works.

I'm surprised by Wuthering Heights, though. Considering it's typically around 300 pages, it's not the door-stopper that most of the others are.

I vaguely remember starting War and Peace, but darned if I can remember if I finished it or not. Same goes for Anna Karenina and Crime and Punishment, although on reflection, I'm pretty sure I did finish C&P. So put we down for having read four.

I really liked Jonathan Strange even though it is a slog. I guess that puts me in the minority.

Unfinished isn't quite the same as Unread, so here's the top ten "unfinished" books:

# Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (38)
# Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (28)
# Ulysses by James Joyce (27)
# The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien (21)
# The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens (19)
# Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (18)
# Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder (17)
# One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (17)
# Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (17)
# The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (16)

>6 jjwilson61:

Within that list, there are a few books that are literally unfinished -- The Canterbury Tales and The Mystery of Edwin Drood being obvious examples of the author dying before completion.

I've read Wuthering Heights; it wasn't bad, but more importantly in some ways, it wasn't something you were likely to stop in the middle. I've got trenchant comments about War and Peace from my mother, who finished it for a class, and wouldn't have wadded through the tactical discussion otherwise.