Beth Carswell has a great article "Remaining Unread: The Top Ten Reasons We Don’t Get to Certain Books" on AbeBooks.com. I don't get to a lot of books, but I usually think it's a time thing as in Too Many Book, Too Little Time, but I think Beth has a big point here. There are several books.. and mysteries... that I just don't get to. I'll save my list for now, but I'd love to hear from you on which books you haven't gotten to and why!Read Beth Carswell article HERE!
Hat Tip to Bill Crider.
8 comments:
It is interesting, isn't it? My shelves, probably like everyone else's, are groaning. I did a "holiday cull" over xmas and found books that had been there since at least 2004, and nobly took them down to the charity shop. I don't really understand why one accumulates so many unread books, but it is certainly true in my case that most of them seem to be books that I have been sent on spec by publishers, authors, etc, or which I have weakly accepted when offered them, rather than those which I have actively chosen to read myself.
I can identify with almost all of the suggestions in that article...I still don't know why I have a copy of THE LOVELY BONES because I know it is not my cup of tea at all and would make me vomit if I read it...but all the hype made me acquire a copy (at least I didn't pay for it). As for bargain bins...they say that a definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results yet I always check the bargain bins and when I buy something it is invariably junk. Sigh.
I have one extra reason which wasn't mentioned - ever since I joined the bookmooch bookswapping webiste I've ended up with several dozen books I never really wanted. It always seems to be the way that when someone has a book I want they also have a stipulation that you have to mooch at least two books from them to make postage economical so I end up mooching some other piece of dreck just so I can get the one I want.
Oh well, I guess there are worse problems in life to have.
I'm hoping, Bernadette, that you have lots of other books, you ARE reading. :-)
Loved the article. It was mentioned in The Rap Sheet blog and I had thought to blog about it myself. I think we can all relate, but I keep hoping that "someday" I'll read every single one.
Hope springs eternal. There was a reason, whatever it was, for buying those books in the first place.
Wonderful reasons and here are a few more:
When I bought the book many years ago, the print was larger.
I know I have this book but just can't find it and don't want to buy another one yet...
I think I read it but I am not sure..
Bill Gottfried
Excellent reasons, Bill
Length deters me. With fiction, I worry I'll want to read with a red pen, cutting all the extraneous stuff. Fortunately, the older I get, the cheaper I get about buying books I really don't think I'll like. Might try the library where I'm forced to read within a time frame. However, I still think my TBR pile holds up the house. Maybe that's why I don't get to it...
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