This is my worst bunch yet. I have only read two of these: POISONWOOD BIBLE and HOUSEKEEPING. Both of which I love. I tried to get Phil to read POISONWOOD for years. But once I told him it was about a missionary and his family in Africa, I lost him every time. It is truly a brilliant book and Kingsolver, a brilliant writer. I think it is one of my book group's favorites too. Also HOUSEKEEPING, about a semi-deranged by well-meaning women taking care of her two nieces. Another great writer. When we were in Paris she was speaking at Shakespeare and Company and so many people wanted to hear her that they put a speaker out on the street.
I have started BRIGHTON several times but something always gets in the way. Same with the rest of these. I would not still have them if I didn't know they were well worth reading.
Now I bought CALL ME BY YOUR NAME after admiring the movie. And I have yet to open it up. Same for PNIN by Nabokov which was recommended by more than one person.
I still haven't learned how to schedule so this may go right up.
What percentage of the books on your shelves have you read? Ballpark. What makes up read some right away and others-never?
19 comments:
HOUSEKEEPING is the only one I've read. It was made into a movie with a great starring performance by Christine Lahti.
Percentage of books read? Ha. Well, that depends. I have a small (three shelves) bookcase in the hall that I could say at one time I had read over 90% of the books. It had all mysteries I have kept by favorite authors - Crider, Pronzini, etc. - plus Crippen & Landru short story collections (I have read them all) in trade paperback. But the last time we had the hall painted we emptied the shelves and when I put them back, it wasn't the same group. I know I have about a dozen Peter Turnbull books I haven't read, for instance.
In the den we have an old secretary with three shelves. These are mostly favorite things I've read and plan to keep and maybe reread - Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time series. Leon Edel's 5 volume biography of Henry James. Shirley Jackson's Life Among the Savages & Raising Demons. Several time travel books, including Jack Finney books. But there are also series I am in the middle of (Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Retrieval Artist series, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series), and others I have but haven't read (Trollope's Parliamentary/Palliser series). The shelves are only nine inches high, so these are paperbacks and smaller hardbacks. It is a little more than two feet wide.
It was a very good movie. I have always meant to read the Powell, always urged on me by a friend who was a real anglophile, but I only read the first volume.
I know what you mean, Patti, about books one hasn't read yet. I've got several of them, too, and am slowly trying to work my way through them...
Diane and her Book Club read HOUSEKEEPING and POISONWOOD BIBLE. I've read PNIN.
I'm estimating I've read 10% of my book collection. Thousands of books are waiting to be read. The Coronavirus Pandemic provides plenty of reading time. And, because the bookstores and thrift stores are still closed here, only books from AMAZON arrive to be added to the collection.
10% sounds about right. And yet, I am buying and downloading rather than reading them even now. I have a bookstore that will deliver books to me so that's what I have done.
I have bought a few things via ABE, but mostly we are buying ebooks or borrowing ebooks from the library. The last new book I bought was the new Andrea Camilleri.
I've probably read 15-20% of the books here. I've been reading from my own shelves all this year, having cancelled all my library holds before March, but lately I've been rereading old favorites instead of the things I've yet to read. I've been buying a few things, but not many, perhaps a dozen this year. Two of those are children's books which will go as gifts soon. I do have a couple of preorders that will show up one of these days.
We returned all of the library books we had, and today Barbara is going to pick up one that's been on hold forever, a Grisham. I'm going to stay clear of the library and try to read even more of what's on hand.
I don't know what is going on with my library.
I'm going to say 20% but that's probably too high. After seeing the terrific movie "Shirley" I decided to reread the two Jackson books I read long ago ("Hill House" and "Castle") and then read the others. Has anyone read the early Kingsolver novel "Pigs in Heaven"? It's wonderfully funny and entertaining, and I probably like it more than some of her more ambitious later novels. Jeff, I'm also hoping to work in a reread of the Powell sequence one of these days.
Probably about 20%. I read Brighton. Can't remember what it was about. Read Pnin about 40 years ago and don't recall it either.
The Royal Oak library is still closed but you can drop off books in their lobby. Driving by today they had a book sale sign out but it doesn't mention it on their website. I did notice when I brought up my hold list that one request is now in transit.
Oops! The early Kingsolver novel I meant to mention was "The Bean Trees", not "Pigs in Heaven", which was a sequel to it.
My library still isn't open and I've more or less given up on it.
I read it years ago.
SHIRLEY was pretty amazing. It has sort of haunted me since seeing it. Have you seen Madeleine's Madeleine (Josephine Decker). I think it is available somewhere. Decker directed an episode of DARE ME, which was excellent.
My favorite Jackson is CASTLE although I haven't read them all.
10-15% read in entirety. 90% in whole or in part.
I agree entirely about "Shirley". I saw "Madeline's Madeline" on Amazon before "Shirley" had appeared.It was quite watchable although I must confess I couldn't make much sense of it, and after seeing "Shirley" I'm tempted to give MM another look. Decker has made two other films, and at least one of them is also available on Amazon, although not for free. I ordered "Hangsaman" from Amazon but it's out of stock and won't be delivered until next month.
By the way, I'm Michael Padgett and I've seen your comments on George Kelly's blog. I have no idea why I registered with Google as MP, but I don't know how to change it. So MP I'll be.
I had the same reaction that Phil did to Poisonwood when I heard about it. But you have convinced me; someday I will read it.
My guess on how many of my books I have read is somewhere between 10 and 20%. I don't keep many of my books after reading them and I buy more books than I read (well maybe not this year so far). My husband is the opposite. He shelves books he likes and has a much smaller backlog of unread books than I do.
That was also true with Phil. He read books as he got them. (Except the ones I picked out for him, which I never seem to get right). And, of course, most of them were part of his scholarly library.
Oh, I am glad you told me that, Michael. I have been wondering for some time. When they rerun DARE ME on Netflix this summer, watch episode 6 CODE RED for her direction of a TV show. Of course, TV directors have much less discretion than movie directors. In TV, the showrunner is queen.
Thanks, Patti, for letting me know "Dare Me" is coming to Netflix, and I'll certainly watch it. I'd loved the book and must have had a momentary lapse of paying attention when it was on tv and didn't know about it until it was too late. It's comforting knowing that nearly anything good on "regular" tv will make it to one of the streaming services eventually.
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