NB: Zombie posts today and Friday, while we are in New York!
Do you have a bedside table or bookshelf groaning under the weight of masses of unread volumes? I do, but at least I can say that the books have been recently dusted and re-organized. I culled the ones I have read, and a few goners (why did I ever buy Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home? I never got past the picture of a pig on the front.)
Then there were the ones that have been sitting there for a long time–sometimes for YEARS– unread. They have survived several cullings because I think I ought to read them, or someone gave me the book, or I found the cover copy intriguing. I can’t bear to give up on them. And yet, I’ve never managed to read them.
Jigsaw: An Unsentimental Education, by Sybille Bedford. “The narrator, Billi, tells the story of her apprenticeship to life, and of her many teachers: her father, a pleasure-loving German baron; her brilliant, beautiful, erratic English mother; and later, on the Mediterranean coast of France, the Huxleys, Aldous and Maria.” Shortlisted for a Booker Prize. This one is the longest resident on my shelf. It survives every purge, but I never actually read it. What am I waiting for?

A novel/memoir of growing up in Germany, Italy, England and France during the 1920’s and 30s.
The House at Tyneford: A Novel, by Natasha Solomons. “It’s the spring of 1938 and no longer safe to be a Jew in Vienna. Nineteen-year-old Elise Landau is forced to leave her glittering life of parties and champagne to become a parlor maid in England. She arrives at Tyneford, the great house on the bay, where servants polish silver and serve drinks on the lawn. But war is coming, and the world is changing.” The book promises a romance between Kit, the heir to Tyneford, and parlormaid Elise. But can it come to anything?

“Fans of Downton Abbey will absolutely love this.” Maybe I can’t get myself to read it because I have been disenchanted with Downton since the second season?
The Thoughtful Dresser: The Art of Adornment, the Pleasures of Shopping, and Why Clothes Matter, by Linda Grant. From my mother, I learned why clothes matter and how to appreciate beautiful clothing worn by other people. But I did not inherit her interest in sewing, shopping, and “the art of adornment.” In fact, I detest shopping and I grudge time spent on fussing over how I look, when I could be doing something more important like… reading.

I NEED to read this book!
Baudolino, by Umberto Eco. “Born a simple peasant in northern Italy, Baudolino has two major gifts-a talent for learning languages and a skill in telling lies.” Set at the beginning of the 13th century, it’s the tale of Crusades, troubadours, the Holy Grail, Prester John… very intriguing. Then why didn’t I manage more than a few pages? Eco recently passed away, causing me a spasm of guilt that I hadn’t managed to read the guy’s book while he was still around. You never know, I might have loved it enough to write him a fan letter.

“The Name of the Rose” it ain’t!
The Dream of Scipio, by Iain Pears. “Acclaimed author Iain Pears intertwines three intellectual mysteries, three love stories, and three of the darkest moments in human history. United by a classical text called “The Dream of Scipio,” three men struggle to find refuge for their hearts and minds from the madness that surrounds them in the final days of the Roman Empire, in the grim years of the Black Death, and in the direst hours of World War II.” Intellectual mysteries and love stories? I’m in! Darkest moments in human history? Ummm, not so much.

This fellow is praised to the skies. But I couldn’t get through “An instance of the fingerpost” either.
The other “iffy” books are the ones I made a start on, and got bogged down in. I like to finish a book once I start, but I’m very fickle from one night to the next. If the book doesn’t lasso me right away and keep me engaged in the story, I tend to turn to something else. What grabs me is unpredictable. I loved John Banville’s The Sea, a book many other people found boring and plot-free. But I couldn’t manage to finish Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, which drew comparisons to Dickens for its storytelling.

Nope. I got about 50 pages in, and came to a dead stop.
An Echo in the Bone, by Diana Gabaldon. I think this is number six in the Outlander saga. Book One, Outlander, is one of my all-time keepers. I read it when it first came out, and raved about how it reversed all the conventions of the romance novel while delivering a gripping, moving, funny story that was impossible to put down. Installments two and even three were acceptable. But lately the writing has become unbelievably turgid and bloated. I kept waiting for her to give Jamie and Claire’s story a beautiful ending and write something with NEW characters… it never happened.

Even her most devoted readers give this terrible ratings. But, it’s Jamie and Claire! Will I end up hating them and praying for them to die, die, die?
A Dance with Dragons, by George R. R. Martin. “In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance—beset by newly emerging threats from every direction…” This is Book Five in the series. I began reading these before the television show, and found them mesmerizing at first, if a little too ample. But Martin seems to have no ability to create a story arc. He kills off the sympathetic characters, constantly adds new characters, and drags out the plots endlessly. About 5,000 pages later, he still has not explained the nature or origin of the ice zombies who appear in the first pages of Book One and seem to be the ultimate threat to the Seven Kingdoms. At this point, I’m having trouble caring.

Where have all the editors gone? Looooong time reading. When will they ever learn?
So, fellow readers, what about these books? Should they go back on the shelf for another try, or should they be donated to the Friends of the Library book sale?
I’ve only read the first 4 Gabaldon books but will probably eventually try to read the latest several just on the force of my love for the first three. I’ve stuck with the GoT series. It’s hard to have to wait so many years between, though, and with sooooo many characters and plot lines it’s impossible for me to remember from book to book. However, the last one ended on a major cliffhanger that I DO remember and MUST find out what happens next, though it’s looking like watching the HBO series will answer it for me so that might work against GRRM when he ever gets around to releasing the next installment.
Yes, I think part of my problem with GoT is that I have forgotten so much of it through having to wait a long time. I might eventually plow through, if only to see what happens to Mance Rayder in the books (Ciarán Hinds’ character). As to Gabaldon, I loved the first few so much that I never thought I would give up on her. I don’t think I’ll toss this last one, but it might get demoted off my bedroom shelf, and saved for some long vacation when I have time on my hands…
I wouldn’t waste time on THE GOLDFINCH.
Haha! You’re not a lover of Dickens either, as I recall. I wonder why this book got so many glowing reviews?
It’s a mystery to me. I was hugely disappointed in it.
Ha, I too have a few books that I have started and not got back to or have had but not yet read. If I recommend that you ‘donate’ I must get off my backside and sort through my pile. So, ummm, I am sure you will get to read them….one day?
So you vote for me to keep them all, just in case? It’s not bad advice, since over the years I have given away many a book that I wish I had kept. At least I have space now, though not on the bedroom shelf. So, the “maybes” will have to go to the Purgatory of the basement until their fate is decided!
This is a tough one. I’ve got all five volumes of Winston Churchill’s War Memoirs (inherited from my late father) and George Trevelyan’s three volume biography of Garibaldi (also inherited from my Dad). These books seem to look owlishly at me every time I walk past the book shelf. One day I’ll read them. One day…
It reminds me of the dialogue about “Finnegan’s Wake”.
A – Have you read Finnegan’s Wake?
B – No, I’m waiting till I get old.
A – If you read it you WILL get old!
good one Rob. i bought F W many (many (30+)) years ago, tried to read it twice since then. am trying, not too hard now. (i recently (this past Jan.) decided to “start reading” again). i plan on trying a little more, then IN BIG BLOCK LETTERS will probably summarize my review: THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES. TOTAL GIBBERISH! (and Rob and Linnet know that my frequent ¿writing? style might be a little like JJ’s)
Finnegans Wake is a great book! My advice is to just enjoy the music of it and don’t worry about it making sense like a regular book. With Joyce’s Ulysses, it makes sense but only if you work very, very hard. I much prefer FW because you can sit back and let the language just flow. There is a book called *A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake* by Joseph Campbell (yes, that Joseph Campbell) which explains the structure underneath and all the mythic allusions. It’s quite helpful.
I only got through half of FW but it was well worth the time.
i thought so … when I read a review by “that” J Campbell — I still might think he’s “in” on the “emperor” thing …
Haha! I’ve read *half* of Finnegans Wake. I guess that makes me middle aged 🙂
Inherited books are a bit different–with me they get a permanent visa whether I read them or not.
Let’s see… First those I wouldn’t bother to read
– House of Tyneford (that plot… ouch!)
– Thoughtful Dresser (same reasons you gave)
– Gabaldon’s (After watching first season of Outlander definitely not my cup of tea. I liked very much chapters 1-8 but afterwards I just wanted to see Claire dying as Mme. Bovary. I find her really irritating and Jaime too unreal)
I’ve read A Dance of Dragons but I remember very little of it. I’ll put it in the “I’ll think about it tomorrow” shelf together with The Goldfinch
I’ll try Jigsaw. I think it can be a masterpiece or a complete waste of time. Umberto Eco deserves a try, although he’s a very tough reading. But I think he repays the effort. And I will give a try also to “The Dream of Scipio”, only because it has Scipio in the title.
Thank you! I am glad you vote to keep Jigsaw. Maybe it is a masterpiece, let’s hope 🙂 Today I saw a book catalogue with a painting by Aldous Huxley for sale. It was a nautilus shell with purple hydrangeas in it, quite lovely. So I took that as a sign to read the book!
I thought the same about the Scipio book, but it’s tough going, like Eco.
You gave me a laugh with your opinion of Claire. I think the TV character is more irritating than the one in the books, but I can definitely see your point. It’s a hazard of romance novel heroines, to be very smart and yet suffer sudden bouts of stupidity, for the sake of moving the plot forward.
“sudden bouts of stupidity” hahahaha!!!! 🙂
I love Gabaldon but I haven’t read all her books for the French translation is a real mess. So I started all over again in English – much better. Well, maybe too many books in Outlander stories.
About “The Goldfinch”: I really liked it as the previous books from Donna Tartt.
What else?
G.R.R Martin: I’ve read all the GoT books yet published but, for sure, there are loooong parts… (and we’re still waiting for the “Winds of the winter”). Same as Outlander: French translation is quite awful.
I’m not a big fan of Iain Pears (I gave the book I had).
Ah, a vote for Goldfinch! That is encouraging 🙂
This is too bad about the French translations. I wonder whether the books simply don’t translate well, or whether someone more talented could have done a better job?
I also have Umberto Ecco on my list and try to get ready for number 2 Hillary Mantle (so difficult to read) 🙂
Ah, yes–Wolf Hall! Well worth the reading. We were just in New York and saw the two famous portraits by Hans Holbein, of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell. They are in the Frick Museum. Very moving to see them, after reading the books.
I meant “Mantel”, yes beautiful portraits that I have never seen in real 🙂
I’ve been listening to a lot of audiobooks recently, from Audible, and that gave me a great way to enjoy The Goldfinch and its distant ancestor Dombey & Son. So I would vote for the Goldfinch. On the other hand, you could probably read two or three other books in the time it takes to finish that one.
On a completely different subject, somebody mentioned on Twitter today that my Townlands of Ulster posts are covering the area where The December Bride was set. Now I don’t know if they mean the setting of the novel or the movie location, but I did find this page which refers to an uninhabited island, and I thought you might be interested if I do find anything which looks like the movie. http://www.ciaranhinds.eu/movie.php?cle=mov12
Thank you Karolyn! That website is my favorite, the first one I visit every morning! Highly recommended for CH fans. If you find places that have “December Bride” connections, I would love to know so I can add them to my wish list for my trip to Northern Ireland 🙂 I love that film, and the cinematography in it is stunning. The book is very special too.
Yes, the audio version of “Goldfinch” might be the way to go, especially if the reader is a skilled actor. That does liven things up!