You know how sometimes you’ll be talking to a group of people and someone will be like, “Dude, how great was that part in Harry Potter when such and such happens?” and you’re the one person in the world who hasn’t read Harry Potter and you quietly admit this and they’re like, “YOU HAVEN’T READ HARRY POTTER??? What is wrong with you?!?!”
Yeah.*
We all have our “gap” books, those books that everyone in the world has read and talks about all the time and look we are really meaning to read them but we’re all very busy and there are a lot of books to read and no one could possibly be expected to read them all and why do I have to defend myself aha;sldkjf;aj
Anyway, my name is Nathan Bransford. I have not read The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Yes. I know.
What are some of your gap books?
(*For the record I’ve read Harry Potter.)
Readerly Person says
Lord of the Rings is overrated. For a more entertaining read, look to The Hobbit.
karen m says
Well, I finally made myself sit down and read the Harry Potter series a month ago. Took me a week. They actually weren't too bad. I could see why the woman was so successful.
But there's nothing on God's green earth that'll get me to read J.R.R.Tolkien's books. They bore me to tears.
And one of Dan Brown's novels was enough. Pass on them, too.
And I wouldn't have read the Twilight books if my daughters hadn't insisted. I disliked them intensely. Good basic plot but in my opinion you had to hunt too much for it.
Shell says
You haven't read Lord of the Rings? I can't say any of the things in my head right now. That's…wow…I'll keep my mouth shut.
As for books I haven't read, that's easy. Classics and/or literature. My husband makes fun of me about it all the time. Though last year I finally read To Kill A Mockingbird and LOVED it. It now has a place of honor on the shelf right next to LotR.
MJ says
The Catcher in the Rye is sitting on my desk at this very moment for the peer pressure placed upon me to eradicate it from my gap list.
Basically if it's a modern piece of literature and it is not Christian Historical Fiction, I haven't read but a few biggies. Not even sure I'd recognize them if you waved them in front of me.
I do feel ashamed that I haven't read Jack Kerouac's On the Road since one of my college professors was a Kerouac expert/biographer and referenced him every class, but amazingly never assigned the author.
As an English major and English teacher, I was quite ashamed that the first time I ever read Romeo and Juliet was when I had to teach a homebound student my third year of teaching, I read it for the first time with him.
As a member of the homeschooling community many are aghast they I have never read Anne of Green Gables. The movies were forced upon me. One day I'll get to them.
But for all my classic novel gaps, I can say that I have read everything ever written by Tolstoy, so that's gotta count for something right?
Now if you'd asked me for gaps in movies and television, I think most of America would be ashamed of me.
Sara says
Lord of the Rings. (No desire to either.)
Ender's Game.
Catcher in the Rye. (I started to, but Holden annoyed me too much.)
John Mangels says
The book I started, and never finished, but always thought I would read, is "Ulysses." I not only have the book, I have a commentary to help me make sense of it. And have had since college. So maybe it won't happen.
But I've got to say, on a personal level, it almost hurts to hear you have never read "The Lord of the Rings." But to each their own …
Layne says
1. Twilight.
2. Harry Potter.
3. The Secret.
Tara says
Well. I was the only person of the sixty taking Honors English my junior year to actually finish Moby-Dick, but somehow I never finished One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, even though I wanted to. I still intend to eventually.
annerallen says
I've read most of the classics mentioned here, and I've been rather proud of not reading Sparks or Meyer, so I don't consider them gaps. (Thanks anon 12:15 for the link to Mr. Ebert's beautifully written review of New Moon: a tractor driven in low gear through Brylcreme, indeed.) I have not, however, ever been able to get through Joyce. Or Pynchon. And I admit to not liking Updike much, although I read all the Rabbit books.
How about that rabbit named Angstrom on LOST last night? How's that for a nod to the book-addicted community?
the wordy gecko says
Hello, my name is Sue B and I haven't read The Lord of the Rings either, nor Harry Potter, Twilight, Da Vinci Code, Grapes of Wrath, Lord of the Flies, and I've only read one Dickens.
lexcade says
i haven't read harry potter, LOTR, any nicholas sparks, any jane austen (this from an English major!), and i pretty much avoid romance (no offense to romance readers, it just happens), so i haven't read the time traveler's wife. or confessions of a fourth grade nothing…
i live in a sad, sad world, apparently.
Ted Cross says
Ah, now I understand why Nathan doesn't pick up fantasy clients – he hasn't read the fantasy bible! You need to get cracking, Nathan.
I haven't read The DaVinci Code.
Simon says
I tried to read one of those wildly popular books recently and didn't like it all.
I haven't even attempted a Dan Brown, a Harry Potter or a Twilight, and have absolutely no intention of doing so.
shoshana says
To not read Lord of the Rings is a heinous crime (ooo) – how can you understand Stephen King without it? I haven't read Chronicles of Narnia or Twilight or much of the current genre.
Ken Hannahs says
I don't know why TWILIGHT is on the top of everyone's list… it should be a book that we are proud to have not read.
In other news, I've been spending the better part of a year flipping through old classics… working my way through THE IDIOT right now. I can't think of many classics that I haven't read…
Er, that may sound snobby, sorry. A one-two punch of condescension and egotism doesn't usually work for anyone, I suppose. Anyway, in closing, this was a fun thing to read through! I guess what I'm trying to say is that when someone says to you "Have you not read LOTR?" you can respond, "No, but have YOU read Yates' REVOLUTIONARY ROAD?" or some other book that they haven't read. It helps to soften the feeling of inferiority 🙂
kerem mermutlu says
Lord of the rings too, and i guess some of the classics like great expectations. I know i will read them one day….but when??
http://www.keremmermutlu.tumblr.com
A. E. Anderson says
No LOTR! I can't even imagine. Mine gap would be a lot of classic, like Alice in Wonderland and Moby Dick. Thankfully or sadly, a majority of my friends would never have book discuss so this situation would never arise.
However there is one friend and we got going one day on the works of Phillip K Dick…. That would be the exception.
A. Lockwood says
The Colour of Magic – Terry Pratchett
Kate Evangelista says
Mine would have to be Lovely Bones. All my students have read it, and there I was, knowing nothing about it.
Anonymous says
The Bible – Though I have read Genesis 27 times.
Anonymous says
Never picked up Harry Potter or the Twilight series or any book by Nicholas Sparks. These are my three mainstream "gaps."
Clueless says
Lord of the Rings? They made a book out of that movie?
Disgruntled Bear says
Great topic, Nathan! It made me think, and that made me write:
https://thedisgruntledbear.blogspot.com/2010/04/novel-approach-to-dating.html
Anica Lewis says
Despite being a huge fantasy fan and a writer of MG fantasy, I have never managed to get all the way through LotR. The sad thing is how close I've come. I read The Hobbit, which I enjoyed, then read something like the first 2.75 books of the trilogy, but I was bored almost the whole time. I only got that far because I forced myself to bring only those books to work, so I had nothing else to read on lunch breaks. When work stopped (it was a summer job), I simply couldn't make myself finish the last bit of the last book. Kept meaning to sit down and do it, but could not.
The funny thing is, I can only roll my eyes so much at people who are frantically upset by this, because I understand where they're coming from. I am frantically upset when someone hasn't read Harry Potter.
A.M. Kuska says
I've read Moby Dick, Chronicles of Narnia, Huckleberry Finn, Shakespeare, the first Twilight book (New Moon is my official spider-killing book) etc.
I have not yet read the Harry Potter series. I read exactly one page of Emma, and told my professor he could flunk me cause I wasn't contaminating my eyes with the rest. (I think I was too young to get anything out of it. When the memory fades a little bit more I'll try again.)
Anonymous says
Your not having read the LOTR reminds me of how I came to the books way back in the late sixties. I was in the dorm and the younger brother of one of my friends was this total geek who had gone so far into the books he had the book posters on his walls and wore the eponymous tee so popular at the time: FRODO LIVES. He waxed poetic over these books. It totally turned me off. I refused to read them though Sci-Fi and Sword & Sorcery books (Edgar Rice Burroughs/Robert E. Howard were my gods in those days). It wasn't until I decided to stay on campus during the spring break rather than fly home to my parents that I suddenly found myself with too much time to kill. Desperate for something to read one of my girlfriends had long ago left the first book with me so I reluctantly picked it up. I read and read and went out and got the other books and the Hobbit. I spent spring break immersed in Tolkien's world. I suspect that there have been fantasy series written since then that are likely better. I can't say so definitively because I eventually went on to read other genres. But LOTR pretty much kicked it off. You should read them. You won't be sorry.
Lisa R says
Wow, I can't believe how many people haven't read Harry Potter or Twilight or the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I haven't read any of them either!!! But now I don't feel so badly about it. I did read the Hobbit which was excellent but couldn't get into the Lord of the Rings trilogy. However, the only books I actually feel guilty about not having read are Huckleberry Finn, Anna Karenina and Crime and Punishment.
Sonya Bateman says
And I see the first comment echoes my own gap book: Twighlight (and the ensuing sequels). No sparkles for me, kthxbai.
Jil says
Harry Potter. I have one on my shelf but never got beyond the first chapter. And Rushdie – tried one of his and it just annoyed me.
My friends all loved Marnie but I can't read anything where the dog dies in the end -and I know Marnie does. Racing in the Rain, though I liked-that was different.
Debbie says
Never read Narnia, Chick Lit or made it through Moby Dick. I also haven't read most of the children's, YA books a lot of people talk about (Sendak, Judy Blume, etc.), because I went from Dr. Seuss to adult fiction. Like LOtR.
Kathy says
All of the Twilight series. I refuse.
Dara says
Well I'm one of the ones whose never read Harry Potter. I've only "read" them now thanks to listening to the audio books on long car trips. We have all the books and hubby keeps pressuring me to read them but yet I haven't…
Also haven't read Lord of the Rings.
And I was an English major. 😛
Cherie says
Nabokov. One day…
Kristi says
The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy. I did see the movie, and I think it probably makes a better book (not that the movie was bad, but it definitely felt like I was missing something that probably would have gotten in the book).
I think I have friends who would disown me for admitting that outloud, or else shove five copies of it into my hands.
And yes, I'm writing sci fi. Bad, bad Kristi.
The Wicked Lady says
Funny you should ask. I'm about a third of the way into Anna Karenina (and loving it — way more than War & Peace). So that gap's about to close.
For anyone who knows they have gaps, but can't remember what they are, I highly recommend Hallie Ephron's "The Bibliophile's Devotional". Not only will it encourage you to pick up and read those canon texts you must get to at some point in your life, it will point you towards books you'd otherwise look at. And you will be greatful!
Watery Tart says
The buzz one is Twilight, but I did read the first and just can't. Catcher in the Rye, I intend to read.
My big gap is the 'current hot names'–the James Pattinsons. (I'm on the Dragon Tattoo waiting list) I just do most of my reading from the library, and those waiting lists for contemporary are so long.
You've inspired me though, to make my list of missing classics–thanks to your reader with the Fill in the Gaps blog–I am working on my list!
GerriB says
Stranger in a Strange Land. To be fair, I have _tried_ to read the book a few times, and I just cannot get into it. One of the few that I've not been able to finish.
Julieanne Reeves says
P.S. I have to admit Peter Jackson stayed true to the books, well more so than any other producer out there. You'd not be missing much, were you to see the movies. Not the same, I know, but it's the one that you could probably get away with. Rumor has it he's talking The Hobbit.
Karen Mahoney says
My name is Karen Mahoney and I have never read The Catcher in the Rye. I blame being British. 😉
I'll get round to it. One day. I suppose…
Anonymous says
Anything by Cormac McCarthy. I tried reading The Road, or maybe it was All the Pretty Horses. Anyway, it was bleak and didn't have any quote marks. After about 10 pages I thought, This is hard and it's depressing. Screw it.
I have read the Ring and the Hobbit more times than I can remember, though.
Allison says
I might as well be confessing to a murder, since I've never told anyone this – but what is the internet for, if not anonymous confessions? I have a Master's degree in English Literature from NYU and I've never even read Moby Dick. There, I've said it. Now I just need to move through the guilt and shame of it all and try to put the pieces of my life back together. Or I suppose I could just sit down and read the damn thing. 😉
Jeni says
Okay. I finally read TWILIGHT, but I have not (yet. YET) read a book by John Green, E. Lockhart, Libba Bray or Meg Cabot. And my goal this year is to read one book by each of them.
Brian Crawford says
Atlas Shrugged. But if I took it off my shelf I wouldn't have anyting to hold up the rest of my books.
RR Kovar says
Nothing by Dickens, none of Hemingway's novels (despite my best friend being a world-renowned Hemingway scholar), no Updike or Mailer, very little Stephen King (or any other horror, for that matter), nothing by Margaret Atwood. I believe I read Moby Dick, but it was ages ago and I didn't find it all that exciting.
I don't read most popular fiction when it's popular, though the above-referenced friend begged me to read the Twilight series (save for the last – no one can make me) so we could attempt to figure out why they were so bloody popular. The fact that they got published pushed me to finish my first novel, which will not get published because it does not deserve to. I did read all the Potter books, prompted first by my children's interest.
Laura C. says
I feel that the books I haven't read yet, the ones that everyone has read already, I just can't read. Some times the characters are just so stereotypical.
I haven't read Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.
I think my gap books are ones written by men in the YA group.
Laura Elliott says
Here's my Fill-in-the-gaps-list
https://fillinthegaps100.blogspot.com/2010/01/laura-elliotts-list.html
I was interested when I compiled my list that I couldn't come up with more female authors. Since I was focusing on the classics, this wasn't a huge surprise. I wanted to include as many female authors as I could and at that I only have 40% female authors on my list.
Just read: The Stranger by Albert Camus, and 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez [my favorite novel of all time, so far], Away by Jane Urquhart [MAD love!] Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block and now I'm reading The Wizard of Oz [centennial annotated addition and LOVING it]
So, don't feel bad, Nathan. I never read The Wizard of Oz!
Sarah says
Mainstream Gap:
I've never made it to the end of any of the classic Russian novels. Lots of Russian short stories, and most of Chekhov's plays, but no War and Peace.
Genre Gap:
Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy. All the friends who know my taste tell me I'll love at least the first volume. It's sitting on my shelf, haunting me.
Compensatory Geekery:
I've read Tolkien's Silmarillion four times, and included some excerpts on the syllabus for an Intro to Mythology class I taught. That's got to count for something.
The Red Angel says
Gone With the Wind, Anna Karenina, half of Lord of the Rings, A Christmas Carol, and others.
annie says
I haven't read Harry Potter either. I think we are a bigger group than we think. Perhaps we should shed the stigma and unite?
I also haven't read Eat, Pray, Love. I think this means I have to turn in my card and resign from womanhood.
Kay says
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.
I've been meaning to. I should.
I haven't.