Friday 23 October 2009

TBR list

Reading is, and always has been, one of my favourite pastimes. I was introduced to the concept of a TBR (to be read) list by The Well Read Kitty. She informed readers quite some time ago that her TBR pile is almost as tall as she is! I have a list of books and authors on my phone that have caught my eye, or books that I think "I'd like to read that" but promptly forget as soon as I enter a library. The list is made up of books I've seen in airport bookshops, read reviews about, or had recommended by friends. It works; I peruse shelf after shelf, being enticed and distracted by the endless titles, then pull out my phone and start searching for what I really want. The list constantly expands and contracts.

Here's what's left of my TBR list, in no particular order:

Books to read:
  • Enduring Love - Ian McEwan
  • The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne
  • The Color Purple - Alice Walker
  • The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • The Loop - Nicholas Evans
  • To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
  • The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
  • About a Boy - Nick Hornby
  • The Cure for Death by Lightning - Gail Anderson-Dargatz
  • The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
  • The Vintner's Luck - Elizabeth Knox
  • Look Me in the Eye - John Elder Robinson
  • The Life of Pi - Yann Martel
  • The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
  • Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - F Scott Fitzgerald
  • Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
  • The 19th Wife - David Ebershoff
  • The White Masai - Corinne Hoffman
  • The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks
  • Novel About My Wife - Emily Perkins
  • After the Fall - Kylie Ladd
  • I Know This Much is True - Wally Lamb
  • Atonement - Ian McEwan
  • Shanghai Girls - Lisa See
  • We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
  • The Cider House Rules - John Irving (actually, I'm reading this at the moment)
Authors to read (or read more of):
  • Malachy McCourt
  • Joanna Trolloppe
  • Jodi Picoult
  • Jeremy Clarkson
  • Tony Parsons
  • Kathe Lette
  • Patricia Scanlan
  • Alexander McCall Smith
  • Douglas Kennedy
  • Lionel Shriver
Biographies:
  • Life's Too F***ing Short - Janet Street-Porter
  • Things I've Been Silent About - Azar Nafisi
  • Things I Want my Daughters to Know - Elizabeth Noble
  • Almost French - Sarah Turnbull
  • There Was a Time - Dorothy Butler
  • All This and a Bookshop Too - Dorothy Butler
  • Any and all music biographies
I also have a TBF (to be finished) list, but that's a different blog post. ;-)

Do you have a TBR list? What's on it? Have you read anything on mine? What would you recommend I add (remembering that I'm not into sci-fi, fantasy, or really gory stuff)?

3 comments:

Courtney Elizabeth said...

I absolutely love To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus Finch is one of the greatest men of all time.

Jane Eyre is one of my all time favorite books. Make sure you see the BBC miniseries that came out a couple years ago (after you finish the book, of course).

The Notebook was just meh, IMO. I still prefer the movie.

Currently my immediate TBR list is The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown and Big Boned by Meg Cabot.

Anonymous said...

Wow! I love your TBR. There are at least ten books on there that I absolutely adore, and I'm half-envious that you're still to read them.

That's my TBR.

~JarieLyn~ said...

I have a TBR list but most of the books on my list are personal development type books.

The only book I have read on your TBR is the notebook and I read it long before the movie came out. I really liked it a lot. But, if you are a literary snob, which I hope your aren't then you might not like it. Nicholas Sparks happens to be my favorite author when I read for enjoyment because I can escape into a good love story and feel the emotions and usually have a good cry.

The Seceret Life Of Bees was a really good read. The movie is good too.

There is one book that I read at least once a year. It's a quick book to get through and it's just a cute fable that has many little life lessons in it. Don't let the title fool you or put you off. It really is a great book. The name of the book is The Instant Millionaire by Mark Fisher.