What's in your TBR pile right now?

[ChrisG]

Having recently raced through the BGO choices Saturday, TTW and Cloud Atlas, as well as The Shadow of the Wind, I am now faced with the decision of what to read next from the TBR pile (which is quite large). Oh, decisions, decisions . . .

I thought it would be interesting to find out what BG members have in their respective TBR piles. And how do you CHOOSE which one to read next? :confused:

[Top Cat]

Too much to list here, but I'm hoping to get through a collection of Patrick Hamilton's early short novels soon; Great Expectations, The Tin Drum, Tom Perrotta's Little Children, The Grapes Of Wrath and Peter Carey's Illywacker are also in the running. That said, something far less intellectually taxing will probably come along in the meantime, and I'll bottle out and read that instead (the American humourist-turned-Carl-Hiaasen-style-comic-novelist Dave Barry's last book is beckoning). I'm getting better at choosing books, but it can still take me up to an hour of dithering in front of my shelf before I make a decision. It's particularly difficult if I really loved the last book I read, because I essentially find myself wanting every other book I pick up to mirror its plot, theme and style. Rose Tremain's Restoration was a tough one to follow up - I don't think I read anything for a fortnight after that, and when I did it was Sacred Country, also by her (and very nearly as awesome).

[bill1088]

I just read two dynamite recent novels, The Hours by Julia Glass and Bel Canto by Amy Pachett. I've also started to read Philip Roth and have just finished American Pastoral. I saved a great quote from it I'd be happy to e-mail. I am currently reading The Renaissance by Walter Pater.

[Starry]

My TBR pile is also too big to list, and I do sometimes sit in front of my bookcases despairing about what I should read next. When this happens, I draw the name of a book On my shelf out of a small tin and read that :)

I just finished Immortal in Death by J.D. Robb this morning and I haven't decided what to read next - most likely it will be The Gunpowder Plot by Antonia Fraser as I borrowed it from the library and I really ought to read it.

[Grammath]

it can still take me up to an hour of dithering in front of my shelf before I make a decision

Been there, done that!!

Nearly all the books in my bookcase are unread, by me at least.

Since I'm in the midst of two series at the moment - Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" and Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle - I've mapped out quite a bit of my reading for the next few months.

Most pressing to read is the marvellous Michael Chabon's new novella "The Final Solution" by Friday as somebody has reserved it at my local library.

From my own pile, I intend to try some Jonathan Coe in the near future based on some of the enthusiastic postings about the man's work on BGO.

[megustaleer]

This is the pile in the bedroom, there are a lot of unread books on the shelves that I haven't read yet, plus 'The List', which consists of books I'd like to buy and add to the pile in the bedroom!

Cranford -by Elizabeth Gaskell......A Spy for The Redeemer -by Candace Robb......Dangerous Davis and the Lonely Heart -by Leslie Thomas......Anthony Blunt His Lives -by Miranda Carter......Skallagrig - by William Horwood......The Swimming Pool Season -by Rose Tremaine......South Riding -by Winifred Holtby......Oscar and Lucinda -by Peter Carey......The Road Ahead -by Christabel Bielenberg......Murther and Walking Spirits -by Robertson Davies......Was I Right -by Mrs O.F.Walton......Mrs Beeton's Dictionary of Everyday Cookery......Elizabeth and Her German Garden -by Elizabeth von Arnim......Winter Queen -by Boris Akunin......And, as from today, Educating Peter -by Tom Cox, which has to jump to the top of the pile!

In a fortnight's time there will be three additions to the pile, as the books from my three bookclubs arrive, and as they are time-sensitive, that usually governs my choice of what to read next, and explains why some of the above books have been on the TBR pile for three years or more.

[BrumB]

Thought BGO would be a nice relaxing way of broadening my reading - instead am overwhelmed by all the must read recommendations - so far all worth following up. At present my main TBR pile is: The Good Doctor - Damon Galgut; The Closed Circle - Jonathan Coe; Neither Here nor There - Bill Bryson; The Eyre Affair - Jasper fforde and Pop - Kitty Aldridge. Help!

[BrumB]

Oh, and, Educating Peter!

[Darkstar]

Hmmm lessee,

There's Our Mutual Friend, Peter Ackroyd's Clerkenwell Tales. The Thirty Nine Steps (read it as a teenager but never owned a copy until now), Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, the latest Pratchett, Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. That's all at the moment, but I'm sure a whole load more will appear over the next few weeks.

[ChrisG]

Well, it has come to me that I never listed MY TBR pile when I posted this thread. Today (22nd) being my birthday, I have received a £50 gift cert. from Amazon, so the list will definitely be getting longer!

At the time of posting this thread, my TBR pile was:
Educating Peter (which I was awaiting the arrival of)
Re-reads: The Odyssey and The Iliad - Homer
The Republic - Plato
The Greek Myths - trans. by Robert Graves
The Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
New reads: Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World - Nicholas Ostler
The American Boy - Andrew Taylor
Inside Hitler's Bunker - Joachim Fest
The Last Days of Hitler - Hugh Trevor-Roper
A Darkover anthology: The Saga of the Renunciates - Marian Zimmer Bradley
The Face - Dean Koontz
Smoke Screen - Kyle Mills
Twisted - Jeffery Deaver

After reading a review in the Sunday Times Culture magazine, I also wanted to add (as soon as it is available) On Bullshit - Harry G. Frankfurt

Since first posting the thread, I have read Smoke Screen (very interesting and accurate about the whole tobacco thing in the US) and Educating Peter, which I loved, as well as making it 3/4 through the Darkover anthology and a bit into The Face (but I have stalled on that and may have to leave it 'til later). Onwards and upwards (or whatever!) :p

[Lady Lazarus]

well, a large percentage of the books in my bookcase are unread, but in the immediate "To Be Read" pile at the moment are:

John Updike: 3 "Rabbit" novels in one book (got out of the library, never read any Updike before so thought this'd be a good place to start)
Douglas Adams: The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (been meaning to read this for years! and now they've made a film of it!)
Dumas: The Count of Monte Cristo (started this a few months ago, but got distracted with other things... a good potential for my holiday reading in June)

[Justine]

I am so heartened to see that many of your To Be Read piles are bigger than mine! Well, that's the books I actually have, as opposed to the books I want -those run into the thousands........

I am going to read "Educating Peter" first :)
Then I should choose anything from The Pile -
"My Heart is My Own" John Guy
"Aiding and Abetting" Muriel Spark
"The Winter Queen" Boris Akunin
"The Victorian House" Judith Flanders
"The Symposium" Plato
"Democracy and Classical Greece" J.K. Davies

However, having just read John Buchan's "Greenmantle" again, I have a hankering for more tales of derring-do....And I must ignore The Pile under The Pile on the bedside table, or I'll just get myself all confused!
This is a kind of illness, isn't it?

[Lady Lazarus]

This is a kind of illness, isn't it?

hehe :D

[jebbie74]

I do believe that I have to live to be 200 before I could go through my TBR pile. The mountain is so tall I could naver scale to the top! And everyday, I add more to my wishlist. *sigh* What an addiction (but I wouldn't change it for the world!)

Right now by TBR pile is dictated by books I have promised to others, but I do try to sneak in a few of my own choices from time to time. So, my most recent TBR pile is:

Hey Nostradamus by Douglas Coupland
The Gensis Code by John Case
The First Horseman by John Case
Good Night, Irene by Jan Burke
Secret Prey by John Sandford
Prison Groupies by Cliff Linedecker
The Honk and Holler Opening Soon by Billie Letts
The Duchess of Bloomsbury by Helene Hanff
Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore
Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
The Acid House by Irvine Welsh
Porno by Irvine Welsh

...and about a million others!

[wordster]

I like to make lists, and so...

The Secret Life of Bees-- Sue Monk Kidd
Wild Swans-- Jung Chang
The Sea Change-- Elizabeth Jane Howard
The Crying of Lot 49-- Thomas Pynchon
The Unusual Life of Tristan Sham-- Peter Carey
The Ground Beneath Her Feet-- Salmon Rushdie
Paula-- Isabelle Allende
Enduring Love-- Ian McEwan
Vernon God Little-- DBC Pierre
Maybe the Moon-- Armistead Maupin
Pale Fire-- Vladimir Nabokov

There will be more soon, as I'm being posted lots of other good ones!

What I read next depends on my mood/if anyone is waiting to read it.

:)

[megustaleer]

I missed out 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' - by Bill Bryson from my previous list, because the pile had reached the shelf above it, so BB had been put elsewhere.

I have added the latest Gervaise Phinn, 'Up and Down In The Dale's, and 'Let Me Go' - by Helga Schneider after being unable to pass the bookshop on the way to Sainsbury's yesterday.

The two Postal Bookgroup books for May will be arriving next week, so I'm well on the way to having a double TBR pile. :o

[MissRibena]

My TBR pile is a shelf-full of disaster. I don't know why I keep buying them because by the time I get around to reading them, I find I have to force myself a little and then I wind up with "Reader's Block". Somehow I can't seem to find the discipline to remind myself of this when I get trigger happy on Amazon or play though! ;)

At the moment, there's probably around fifty books on the TBR shelf, most of which have been there, oh anything from a couple of months to five years! It's such a shame that buying in advance brings about this obligation factor because when I do get around to reading them, many are actually very good choices.

Oh dear, I just realise that of the entire shelf, I can only name two titles and I sit looking at these in the sitting room every evening!

Artemisia: The Story of a Battle for Greatness
A Prayer for Owen Meany

Rebecca

[Opal]

I'm guessing that there's no rule about dragging up old threads (I've been on other forums where you can't reopen a thread after it's been idle for a certain period of time, but I'm hoping that doesn't apply here), so I thought I'd drag this one up as I made a rather scary discovery today...

My TBR pile has suddently grown very big. I have a huge stack of (mostly) fantasy fiction waiting to be read that was passed on to me over Easter - that amounts to roughly 20 books alone. I also have the rest of the Dark Tower books (2 and a half of them), the Tall Stories Omnibus (Tom Holt book that I started a few days ago), Cloud Atlas (I know I'm behind everyone else here but it was passed on to me by another BGO-er), The Music Of Primes (recommended on here, and it was in the infamous 3-for-2 shop where I also bought...) The Jerle Shannara Trilogy (by Terry Brooks - never read anything of his before so I'm hoping it's good!) and The Treasured One (David and Leigh Eddings).

I'd better get going if I'm ever going to complete this lot!!!

[Dr. Strangelove]

To kill a mockingbird...I keep picking it up but then finding other thigns to do. The first pages aren't the most engaging...

[Opal]

To kill a mockingbird...I keep picking it up but then finding other thigns to do. The first pages aren't the most engaging...
I had to read that for GCSE English Lit. The first time I read it (voluntarily) I quite liked it... after spending a month "analysing the metaphors" it wasn't so interesting any more. :( Keep going with it though - you'll probably find it's worth it!