Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Big Books Gathering Dust on my Shelves Waiting for Me to Read Them
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is actually Top Ten Longest Books I’ve Ever Read, but I’ve already done a post like that recently and haven’t read any longer books since then, so I tweaked the topic a bit to focus on big books I own but haven’t read yet. Today I’m sharing a list of 10 Big Books Gathering Dust on my Shelves Waiting for Me to Read Them. Some of these, like IQ84, have been sitting on my shelves for years and I just keep bypassing them for shorter and less daunting reads. Others, like the Maas books, are newer additions that I’m excited to get to, but still tend to side eye and skip over in favor of shorter reads.
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10 Big Books Gathering Dust on my Shelves
Waiting for Me to Read Them
IQ84 by Haruki Murakami (1,157 pages)
A DANCE WITH DRAGONS by George R. R. Martin (1,051 pages)
THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON by Tom Clancy (1,028 pages)
A LITTLE LIFE by Hanya Yanagihara (814 pages)
EMPIRE OF STORMS by Sarah J. Maas (693 pages)
THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL by Philppa Gregory (661 pages)
QUEEN OF SHADOWS by Sarah J. Maas (645 pages)
THE NAME OF THE ROSE by Umberto Eco (535 pages)
MUSE OF NIGHTMARES by Laini Taylor (514 pages)
THUNDERHEAD by Neal Shusterman (504 pages)
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I only recently bought The Other Boleyn Girl!! I fell in love with Philippa Gregory’s writing last year and have been looking to build my collection of her different series.
Oh man, I wish I had Muse of Nightmares! I haven’t gotten around to Strange the Dreamer because of that haha
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I’m glad to hear that you enjoy Gregory’s writing. I’ve actually never tried anything by that author before, but won The Other Boleyn Girl as part of a Giveaway a few years ago. I’ll have to give it a try at some point since I do hear good things about it.
You have some big books on your shelf!! I will say A Little Life is always tempting me but ugh so many pages!
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Right? I keep telling myself to just get it on audio, so I may do that at some point because it does sound really good.
I read The Name of the Rose and loved it. These days, the books that are piling up on my shelves have manageable lengths, but I still have books on my selves that I’ve read from back in the day ready to re-read in case of a Zombie Apocalypse.(lol) Happy Tuesday and Hugs! RO
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed The Name of the Rose. I picked up at a book fair years ago and always mean to get around to it but just haven’t quite gotten there yet, lol.
Whew the page counts I am seeing on this TTT are just blowing my mind — and making me realise how much I avoid long books like this (blushes)
LOL! I don’t blame you. Wnenever I do stop to read one, even if I’m enjoying it, I always have this little voice in my head saying “You could have read 3 other books in the amount of time it took you to read this one.”
Love your list! The one I’ve read is The Name of the Rose, which I loved. And I so much envy you The Muse of Nightmares as I have only just finished Strange the Dreamer and LOVED it – she writes so well! I’m hoping to get hold of it as soon as I’ve whittled down some of the other books on my shelf!
Yay, I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed Strange the Dreamer. It was, by far, one of my favorite reads from last year. Taylor’s writing is gorgeous.
Great spin on the topic, this makes me want to take a look at my shelves because I know I have a bunch of dust covered, huge books😁 I also have a copy of IQ84!
It’s embarrassing how long I’ve had IQ84 and haven’t even attempted to read it, lol.
The Other Boleyn Girl is probably my favorite Gregory book. A Dance With Dragons is so dense, I can see why you would put that off!
Angela recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: Longest Books I’ve Ever Read
Right? Plus, I have plenty of time to get to it before we get Martin’s next brick, lol.
Great twist! I still need to read Queen of Shadows and Empire of Storms as well, so you’re not alone! I also need to read Thunderhead! Happy reading.
My TTT: Longest Books I’ve Read!
Thanks!
I haven’t read any Sarah J Maas, but I’d like to. I also have a couple of Philippa Gregory’s books on my shelf that I haven’t read but hope to read soon. Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
I’ve read Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses series and those books were huge too, possibly bigger than the ones I have listed here.
Cool list! Very diverse. Haruki Murakami has been on my “I swear I’m going to read another book by him soon!” – author for years. I don’t even remember the title of that one book I read.
Haha! I hear you on Murakami. So far I’ve only made it through one of his books and it was also huge.
Love the spin – I had a look at the doorstops on my TBR last autumn and I’m entirely unsurprised that I’ve only managed to read one of them in the twelve months since. Maybe I’ll make knocking one off the list each year a goal to keep chipping away – I do find it takes some motivation to get stuck into books this long these days!
imyril recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: dedication to the cause
I agree with you and usually I lack that motivation, lol.
I loved 1Q84, but it is quite a big one! I also loved The Other Boleyn Girl, but then I’ve really yet to meet a Philippa Gregory book that I don’t like–her historical fiction is the best. I also really enjoy the Throne of Glass books. I still really need to read A Little Life also!
I’m really looking forward to starting the Throne of Glass series soon.
I cannot see myself reading a book over 1000 pages. It’s actually scary to me, but way to go! SJM has quite a few spots on my list, which is pretty much dominated by SFF books.
I believe it! A lot of the SFF books are real bricks, lol.
I’ve always been curious about The Name of the Rose, and can’t wait to see what you think of A Dance with Dragons!
Greg recently posted…Top Ten Longest Books I’ve Ever Read
Same here so I really need to make myself buckle down and read both of those, lol.
I loved Thunderhead. I need to read A Dance With Dragons, too, but it’s so long!
Aj @ Read All The Things! recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: Longest Books I’ve Read
Right? I’m always tempted to pull A Dance with Dragons off the shelf but then I run away and read something shorter, haha!
My gosh, I don’t blame you for skipping over those 1000+ page reads lol. But I get you. When you have so many books on your TBR, it just seems like a more tactically sound decision to choose the shorter ones so you can get through more of them!
Right! I should probably set a goal to read at least a couple of these a year though, to free up room on my shelves.
I have many of these languishing on my shelves, too! I have wanted to read A Little Life, especially, for a long time. This is a great list and definitely some long books!
I’m thinking I might actually try A Little Life on audio because I really have been wanting to read it for a long time.
Longer books can be tough to read because they just take.so.long even if the book is good. I still need to read Thunderhead – and Strange the Dreamer before I read the sequel, but that’s a long one too.
-Lauren
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Right? I really need to make myself just commit the time and get through these since they’re all books I really do want to read.
I read The Name of the Rose just after college; it was really good but also challenging to get through. I haven’t read any of the others on your list. The longest books I’ve read are probably the two Kingkiller Chronicle books by Patrick Rothfuss — but they are amazing.
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Everyone keeps telling me The Name of the Rose is really good. I just need to make myself commit the time it’s going to take to get through it. Smaller books are so much easier, haha!
I have two Throne of Glass novels and Obsido staring at me from the bookshelf, oooh and Time Convert.
Oh gosh, yes I forgot about Obsidio. It’s sitting there staring at me as well, lol.
Oh I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one that hasn’t read these books yet! 🙂 I think the only one not on my TBR is IQ84! Wow these books are loooong LOL
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Right? They look like doorsteps sitting up there on my shelf, lol.
I have a number of unread chunksters on my shelf waiting to be read. They often get passed over for the shorter books. Some of these are on my TBR pile too! I have read The Other Boleyn Girl. I hope you have a great week.
Thanks, you too!
Queen of Shadows and Empire of Storms were on my list this week too, I hope you enjoy them.
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Thanks, me too!