If you’re anything like me you have a “want to read” list that is longer than an encyclopedia (ha – remember those?).
Right now I’m reading the fabulous BLUE BOY by Rakesh Satyal, and I’m dying to read LOVE WILL TEAR US APART by Sarah Rainone and THE RUINS OF GORLAN (RANGER’S APPRENTICE #1) by John Flanagan and COLUMBINE by Dave Cullen and THE LOST CITY OF Z by David Grann and SINGER by Ira Sher and SUNNYSIDE by Glen David Gold and and and and (you can see where I’m going with this)……..
What about you? What’s on your shelf?
~Sia McKye~ says
I have a whole list, Nathan. In Over Her Head,Judi Fennell, French By Heart, Rebecca Ramsey, Spy Games, Gina Robinson, the latest Christine Feehan book whose title escapes me and I’m almost finished with Genius, by Jesse Kellerman. Those are the ones I can name off my head that are in my leaning TBR pile.
evilphilip says
Journey into Space by Toby Litt
Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist
INfinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
If you haven't purchased or read Pride & Prejudice and Zombies… don't waste your money. It is a book that was sold on the idea alone and it is a terrible shame that they had to kill trees to print it.
Court says
“Cross” by James Patterson
“Effi Briest” by Theodor Fontane )in German)
“The Cure” by James Patterson
“Maia” by Richard Adams
Missye says
AL CAPONE SHINED MY SHOES, Gennifer Choldenko;
SHADOW DIVERS, Robert Kurson
JOHN ADAMS, David McCollough
Mark Twain’s Autobiography
STARGIRL, LOVE, STARGIRL Jerry Spinelli
Some NF gritty cop reads for research.
I’m tired of Smokey not talking to me to let me pick their brains. 🙂
~Missye
Broadway Mouth Blog says
VILETTE by Charlotte Bronte. It’s all ready for me when I complete the next revision. I can’t wait!
Laura Martone says
Marilyn,
Same thing happened to me. I started reading SAVING FISH… and had to stop for some reason, but I’m grateful to have picked it up again. I love Amy’s writing – THE JOY LUCK CLUB is one of my favorites – and I agree with you… the inspiration for SAVING FISH… is just as interesting as the book itself. Creepy and moving and oh, how I wish something like that would happen to me!
Seizing Destiny says
Robinson Jeffers “Selected Poems”…trying not to get too ambitious as I’m already over~loaded w/ things on my “to do” list!
Kristi says
Marilyn –
I have loved all of Amy Tan’s books, and thought the premise (deceased medium) for Saving Fish from Drowning was so creative. The Alchemist on your list is probably my favorite book of all time, and The Historian was amazing. Even my friends who don’t like vampire books loved it. 🙂
Laurel says
Court:
Maia is one of my all time favorite books! Despite the length I read it in a day (as in 24 hour period). Click through to my profile and you will see it listed there under “favorites.” Enjoy.
Yat-Yee says
Lara: good to know that you loved The Space Between Us. I am so impressed, in the few pages I read, how she captures the speech and the culture so perfectly. I can so completely hear what the characters are saying, down to their inflections.
Laura says
Nathan —
Unrelated to this post– could you answer a question about agents? What’s the difference between a “nice deal” and a “significant deal” and any other “deals”?
Just curious.
Thank you!
Linda says
TBR now? I’m in the thick of MIDDLEMARCH by Eliot. Dense, but what a wicked way she has with dialogue. Also finishing up APOLOGIZE, APOLOGIZE by Kelley for my May Debut Novel review, which I’ll post in the next day or so. Next up: THE CORRECTIONS (Franzen), SILVER PHOENIX (Pon), and BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN (Bock).
TBR in the next couple of years? A bunch of us (including folks who hang here) posted our TBR 100 Books that flesh out our reading holes at a dedicated group blog Fill in the Gaps 100 Project: https://fillinthegaps100.blogspot.com/
Books are like potato chips – you can’t read just one. Peace, Linda
Nettie Hartsock says
Reading William Saroyan “The Human Comedy”, Bill Scheft’s “Everything Hurts” (client), and “Ardent Spirits” by Reynolds Price. Beautiful.
Nathan Bransford says
laura-
That’s Publishers Lunch shorthand for the amount of the deal. It goes:
$1-$49,999: nice deal
$50,000-$99,999: very nice deal
$100,000-$250,000: good deal
$251,000-$499,000: significant deal
$500,000+: major deal
Bethanne says
yikes. I’m always impressed that you read these. *thumbsupsmiley*
Right now, I’m doing anything Christina Dodd. 😀 What can I say? She struck my fancy.
Susan Cushman says
The Girl With No Shadow by Joanne Harris (Chocolat), Golden Grove by Francine Prose, One Mississippi by Mark Childress, The Emperor’s Children…. many more!
Susan Cushman says
Drives me crazy that the link goes to a ghost blog because Blogger won’t recognize my Gmail address! So, the list I just left should link back to here: https://wwwpenandpalette-susancushman.blogspot.com. We’ll see.
Anonymous says
I keep hearing things about On Writing by Stephen King. Come to think, I probably have a few to rad by him while I’m at it: Bag of Bones, this new Sunset (?) collection of stories.
I really want to read this new Barthelme bio, it’s just sitting there taunting me.
Dawn Maria says
Anom-
ON WRITING is well worth your time, but I’d pick Gardner’s ON BECOMING A NOVELIST over THE ART OF FICTION any day.
Anonymous says
I have a to-read list on the goodreads website but it’s got over 60 books on it so I won’t list them all here. The ones I’m looking forward to most (Bear in mind that I like YA fic):
The Demon’s Lexicon, City of Glass, Catching Fire, The Summoning
Drea says
Le Morte d’Arthur, The Joy Luck Club, Secret Life of Bees, Northanger Abbey, A Game of Thrones, the Lies of Locke Lamora, Name of the Wind, Beloved, Dead Until Dark, Wizard’s First Rule, Magicians Nephew, The Enchanted Forest Chronicles–
some of these are to be reread…academia has swallowed my time for the past few years, and I’m about to reclaim it this June.
Jo says
Like so many, I have a full shelf (and several piles). I’m currently reading Renfield by Barbara Hambly and waiting for the copy of Blood and Circumstance by Frank Turner Hollon to come home (loaned it out) so I can re-read it with the ending in mind. Also waiting for Rachel Gibson’s latest book to land in my hands.
Anonymous says
Just finished The Spiderwick Chronicles for Sleepy Bear’s Book Club (sleepyBear Writes.blogspot.com). I’m currently reading DOG ON IT by Spencer Quinn. Waiting in the wings are BUD, NOT BUDDY, by Christopher Paul Curtis, THE FOURTH BEAR, by Jasper Fforde, THE GRAVEYARD by Neil Gaiman, THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger, and MY LIFE FROM AIR-BRAS TO ZITS, by Barbara Haworth-Attard, and all the other books on my 7 floor to ceiling bookcases!
Kathleen
http://www.KathleenHunterWrites.com
Mira says
Whoever invited Nathan to CIC – cool. I’d love if Nathan had time to pop into Come In Character, but I’d like to say he’s very welcome there as a writer, as well as an agent.
He’s a very good writer, you know.
We really out did ourselves with that group story. It’s truly awful. Just awful. I’m so proud.
Mira says
Not that I wouldn’t welcome Nathan in any role. I just thought he might like to have fun there, too.
The First Carol says
Did I say I’d pick one? Here’s what’s laying around the bedroom: a half dozen Lisa Jackson books. She met me last fall at the library foundation dinner. I was intrigued by her clever presentation, she slung on her author’s dress-for-success attire (in front of us), her pajamas. I decided I wanted to experience how an author’s writing style evolves. I have finished three. If “originality is (somewhat) overrated,”, then publishing makes more sense to me now. Find a successful theme and stick with it.
Recently, Lilith Saintcrow traded quips with me at an indie bookstore, so I have her first book laying on the kitchen counter.
Just in time for May Vanderbilt’s birthday, I finished reading Emily Ever After and sent my gift in form of a review, and have The Book of Jane standing by, both snagged at Powell’s Books.
I am slogging through The Heart Aroused, Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America, which is getting in the way of the book I received for my birthday, The 5000 Year Leap (please don’t make me read it, I do not want to discuss politics with my brother).
And there are two sacks (three) in the hall closet and books tumbling off many (every) available surface, including those of Phillip Margolin’s, who’s run into me a couple of times around town. Oh, and I have a stack of Harlequins near the tub — if they fall in, who cares?
In the sea around the bed are also all the writing books of Elizabeth Lyon, she’s a friend of the prof from our Novel Writing Boot Camp and we (the critique group which emerged) are fairly indoctrinated. Near those are books on CD, A Theory of Relativity (Mitchard), Wives Behaving Badly (Buchan), but Picoult’s has been returned to library. I find her themes stress me out too much anymore.
Were you hoping for something more interesting? I write fiction, I could make something up. Or you could just give me a prize and I’d stop clogging your blog. I think I got first and last comment of the day, but someone will surely come and muck it up, there’s 30 minutes to go…
Jen C says
I’m a bit late today. Super motivated with writing at the moment, have managed 4000 words today at work, joy!
Anywho, I’m in Project Fill in the Gaps too, my list is here.
I had fun last weekend hitting the used bookstores trying to snare as many cheap ones as I could. I managed 6 on my list for $30. Woo hoo! Even the full, 1500 page Les Miserables was only $5.
I’m tackling Anna Karenina at the moment. It was slow getting into it, but I’m about 100 pages in now and it’s getting very good. And as an added bonus it’s so big that it doubles as a weapon for when the crazies get too close on the tram.
The First Carol says
And in the reading room a Patricia H. Rushford (met her last Saturday) and next to that Roget’s Thesaurus.
Jovanna says
Hey, I like John Flanagan’s books. Enjoy!
Scott says
To Lara:
I’ve had Valis, Divine Invasion and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer gathering dust for a few years. They’re his three final books, and I’m suddenly eager to get to them. And I agree, no one would touch him today––subject matter too arcane, paragraphs too dense, structure too challenging and experimental––and there’s too much competing for our time these days, as well. Oh, and “real” men don’t read. *sigh*
To Lisa:
Yeah, I might’ve done better on my description. *embarrassed smiley*
Thanks for the shout to Bly. Even though I connect him to that whole “Fire in the Belly” movement, I’ll check he and Steinhauer out in more depth (cheers, Lara). I guess Cormac qualifies as a heavyweight male voice, but outside of page-turner commercial thrillers and such, I just don’t see many hard-nosed/soft-hearted authors digging deep with fiction these days. But that could be partly my fault for not looking harder.
I do like Dan Simmons. And I know he thinks in the traditions of Hemingway, Twain, Flaubert, et al.
Deb Lehman says
I just began The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls because it is a highly-regarded memoir and I’m in the middle of my own; Thirteen Reasons by Jay Asher because it’s touted as an edgy YA novel; and The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett because I’ve heard good things about her writing.s
Scott says
Wow–so much. I was going to reread Brave New World for the first time in many years, and then Hemingway’s Nick Adams Stories, but then I couldn’t resist buying Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter. Of course, that one is going to keep me busy for a long time (I usually don’t read such long books) and I have no doubt that I’ll finish other books, including the two I mentioned, before I get all the way through that one–but I’m liking it so far.
Ink says
Genny,
Moehringer’s The Tender Bar is excellent. One of the better memoirs I’ve read.
My best,
Bryan Russell
Ink says
Deb Lehman,
Ann Patchett is a goddess of prose. I’d have her on my TBR list… except I’ve read everything she’s ever written. Heck, I’d watch over her shoulder as she typed, if I could.
My best,
Bryan
Joe says
Well, these are the books on my shelf that I desperately want to get to…
The Right Hand of Sleep by John Wray
The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
Humpty Dumpty in Oakland by Philip K. Dick
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Jo says
Breathers by S.G. Browne
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
and The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
Mara Wolfe says
I’ve got a large stack next to my bed, but Children of Huron by Tolkien is the one I’m after next.
Laura says
Thanks Nathan! You rock hardcore for reading and answering. 🙂
Lisa says
Scott-
Your description was just fine; really, it’s me not you. I recently had a baby, and I seem to wake up with a different emotion day by day. Yesterday it was unsolicited laughter. Who knows, maybe tomorrow I’ll wake up as a giant cockroach. At any rate, if you read poetry, I recommend Thomas McGrath.
dragon says
My reading list..hmmm… where do you start? Ok, I want to read Bloodhound and Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce/ The Door Within trilogy/ The ledgened of Doomwhyte by Brian Jaques/ Skin, Obsessed, Showdown, saint, and Sinner, by Ted DeKker (and probably more by him if I can ever find them)and… gosh there are so many more, but I can’t even remember them all! Oh, the rest of the olympian series… and… the alchemist and its sequals… and… well, if I think of anymore, I’ll let you guys know. *LOL*
Deb Lehman says
Nathan, Did you ever read Twilight? It was on your book list several months ago. I read it as a learning experience and found it a chore. Meyers is a great storyteller but her writing didn’t wow me. Deb
Nathan Bransford says
deb-
Yeah, I did. I enjoyed it, even if I am probably a bit outside the target audience.
Milo says
I’m currently in the middle of Dostoevsky’s CRIME AND PUNISHMENT and Orson Scott Card’s ENDER IN EXILE as well as the short story collection WASTELANDS. This summer, I plan to read King’s THE DARK TOWER VII and Lawhead’s TUCK. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES is a recent addition to my list . . . And somewhere in there I hope to finish another manuscript and snag an agent!
TecZ aka Dalton C Teczon - Writer says
I have a huge variety of books, but my most currently read are;
The 4 book “Twilight” series by, Stephanie Meyer
“The Host” by, Stephanie Meyer
The complete book set of “Harry Potter” by, J.K.Rowling
I could keep going. Other favorite books are written by; Steven King, John Saul, Anne Rice
Mira says
Okay, so I need a third word for the novel that I’m writing. I’m going to send it to Nathan in a few weeks.
So, let’s see, the first two words of my novel are:
The Ostrich-pickle
Okay, so now what?
Well, how should I know? What am I God, that I should know what the third word should be? There are millions of words, how do I know the right one? Sheesh.
Okay, I know when to say ‘uncle.’ I need help. I need to consult an expert.
Didn’t someone mention a book by Stephen King? Maybe he can help me.
I’ll be back.
Jill Lynn says
Mira,
Third word: conspiracy.
No one could resist reading more with a start like “The Ostrich-pickle conspiracy…”
Mira says
Jill Lynn,
WOW. That’s brilliant!
The ostrich-pickle conspiracy….
I LOVE it!
Cool. Now I’m up to 3 words! I’m booking here.
Um, I still need a fourth word though. Let’s see what Stephen King says…..
Lupina says
Scott…on male writers, I recommend anything by Michael Perry. They are memoirs that read like fiction and are manly, yet beautiful. Population 485, Truck and his new one, Coop. He’s a terrific person, too.
Patrick Rodgers says
I find it fascinating on how people get the books they plan on reading. I don’t read as quickly or as many books as I did when I was younger, Life intrudes to much the older you get. Since I know it will take me 2-3 months to finish a book I don’t use the library anymore either. I don’t think I have been in a library in more than a decade.
I like to purchase the books I plan on reading and since I know it will take me 6 months to get to anything I purchase I only usually have a book or two lying around to read. I mean it seems almost wasteful to purchase a book and not read it for a year or more.
I have been rereading all the Harry Potter books for the upcoming movie release of Half Blood Prince in July and I started before Christmas and am only half way through Order of Phoenix right now.
Also what’s all the hate of On Writing, I am only 25 pages in and have found it highly interesting so far. I will kill me a fairy or two if needs be but I am liking the book.
Jill Lynn says
Mira,
What you need next is an action verb. Has to be a strong one to compete with “the ostrich-pickle conspiracy.”
You’re right. It is time to turn to Stephen. You wouldn’t want to lose your momentum by using some pansy-a$$ verb 🙂