Top Ten Tuesday: I Can't Believe It's Not Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where a new topic is given each week by the host blog and participants write up a corresponding list of ten things. Simple, fun, and great for those obsessed with lists. This week's topic is: Top Ten Books I Can't Believe I Haven't/Want To Read From X Genre (for example I feel like I'm pretty well read in contemporary YA but there are some STAPLES I can't believe I haven't read. Or if you just want to books you WANT to read in a particular genre..not necessarily long overdue)

This time around, since I've recently posted tons of lists regarding fantasy and science fiction books that I want AND after going through all my TBR books and discovering what genres I have the most of, I've decided to go with unread classics. Of which I have several. And they should really all have been read by now. Really. (Doubly helpful for me since I challenged myself to read ten classics this year!)

 

(1) Emma by Jane Austen - As soon as I knew that Clueless, AKA one of my favorite go-to movies of all time, was loosely based on this I knew I had to read it. I spent months watching for it and waiting for it to appear in my library's used bookstore and snatched it up eagerly the second that it did. I read the first page. And then I set it aside DESPITE LIKING IT. Rinse and repeat. 

(2) Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare - OH THE SHAME. This was assigned to me my freshman year of high school and I read parts of it but I was so bored out of my mind when it was read aloud in class that I just completely cast it aside (AND SOMEHOW STILL GOT PERFECT SCORES ON THE DAMN THING). And I still have never gone back and read it. Even though I've quoted from it and referenced it in numerous papers.

(3) Villette by Charlotte Bronte - Another book that it seems like I spent forever watching for and I immedietly sat down and read part of it (in the store) when it finally came in, enjoyed it, then set it aside when I got home because I was reading something else and never came back to it. (You'll find this to be a common theme.)

(4) Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell - This is without a doubt the book that I've had on my TBR the longest. I've had this on my shelf since I was like twelve or thirteen. I saw it in the bookstore on a trip with my Mom, read the back and the first page, decided I wanted it and promptly drove her crazy until we purchased it. And then never read it.

(5) 1984 by George Orwell - I have officially lost track of how many people have told me that this one of, if not their absolute, favorite classics and that I have to read it. I have a copy, buried somewhere in the depths of my TBR of course, but I've never even skimmed the first page though I have put it on at least one monthly TBR I'm pretty sure.

 

(6) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - Another book I was assigned in high school. I tried reading this one back then and I never made it further than the often-quoted first line. I've since read other works by Dickens and enjoyed them but I haven't gone back to this one yet.

(7) Mrs. Dalloway by Virigina Woolf - I keep telling myself that if I can just read this book in one sitting then I will not only understand it but have it off of my TBR pile. I decided this because every time I've tried to read it and had to set it down for any reason, even for a short period, I end up confused as heck because of the writing style. So I've tried numerous times and then something always comes up and I have to restart it.

(8) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - I even chose this as one of the reads for the IRL book club that I'm in and I STILL haven't read it. In all fairness, I think only one person in our book club actually did read it (I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure I'm correct).

(9) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - My Aunt, one of the few people in my family who is actually a reader, once told me that this is her favorite book so I hunted down a copy. The size is daunting. Steinbeck is daunting. (I've only read one book of his before and that was for school, though I really did enjoy it, and that was Of Mice and Men).

(10) The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner - I have been assigned this book TWICE, at least twice, and I still haven't read it yet. I know I didn't even try really when it was assigned in high school and when I did in college I was so confused I pretty much immediatly had to set it aside. Way over my head. 

Are there any on this list that you've read? Any you would recommend? Tips? Tricks?