Monday, June 22, 2015

Top Books We Don’t Finish

This one is making the rounds again, so let’s have another poke. I mean we love lists, right? But since the article is pretty much without qualification or meaningful explanation, it’s tempting to write off The Telegraph’s list of “Top Ten Books We Never Finish” but, honestly? The list resonates for me. What about you?

1. Hard Choices by Hillary Clinton
2. Capital by Thomas Piketty
3. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
4. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
5. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
6. Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
7. Flash Boys by Michael Lewis
8. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
9. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
10. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

I mean, the Clinton. Obviously. You want to, but you just can’t get there. Infinite Jest is one I’ve been taking runs at for years and, though I love the writing I read, I just can’t seem to make myself read all of it. A Brief History of Time, if you haven’t gotten to it by now, you might as well free that shelf space up. I don’t think Fifty Shades of Grey was ever meant to be gotten through. The Great Gatsby is another I’ve made valiant attempts at. Truly. But something in the writing fails to hold me. Am I deficient? Honestly: does it hold you?

You can see the list and The Telegraph’s explanations with regards to the individual novels here.

1 Comments:

Blogger Sue Bursztynski said...

I only have the last two in my collection. I certainly HAVE finished - and loved - Catching Fire, in fact, I read the entire trilogy in three days over my summer break. I confess to not having finished my ebook of Gatsby, as yet, but it's more because I have so many unfinished books on my ebook shelves than because it's not worth finishing. When I overheard my teenage niece and her cousin, my nephew, discussing it seriously(they are such nerds, bless them both!) I thought it might be time I had a go. And I fully intend to finish it.

Saturday, July 18, 2015 at 4:14:00 AM PDT  

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