The Bookshelf of Constant Reproach
NPR.org has a blog series based on the idea of “The Bookshelf of Constant Reproach,” where contributors confess a list of books they’ve always meant to read but have never gotten around to. The subheading, “Best Books You Never Read” is another way of getting at the theme with slightly less guilt, but the results are interesting nonetheless.
Moby Dick and anything by William Faulkner seem to pop up quite often here, along with another one of my own (perhaps) shameful reading omissions, Charles Dickens. The great Russian novels are well represented as well, especially an imposing Big Three I’ve started and never finished myself: War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov, and Crime and Punishment.
Surprisingly, many commenters cop to never having read Lolita while on the other hand greatly enjoying Reading Lolita in Teheran. Hemingway and Steinbeck are quite well represented on the list as well, and they also appear along with Ayn Rand in more than a few comments in regard to “Books I’ve Actually Read But Wish I Hadn’t.”
Before I end up feeling too guilty on this topic, though, I like to remember the immortal thoughts of Mark Twain: “A classic is a book that everyone wants to have read but no one wants to read.”
Commenters also note a few interesting websites where readers can trade unwanted titles with other readers, like bookins.com, paperbackswap.com, and the very nicely designed bookmooch.com.
