So, what are the 10 most important books you've never gotten around to reading? In addition to many of the ones acknowledged in this post and the post it links to, I'd have to admit to at least:
"The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." I always get to the point where we learn that Hitler was a failed Austrian painter named Schickelgruber, put the book down and decide to pick up again in a day or two. I don't, then pick it up in a year or two to start all over again.
"Moby Dick." Honest, I've tried and tried and tried. But's it's as boring to me now as the first time I ever picked it up. Gregory Peck was OK, but I didn't even like the movie.
"The Wealth of Nations." I've read lots of excerpts, followed the debates of people arguing back and forth about it, but I've never actually read THE book. I don't feel too bad. I suspect this is the most quoted book actually read by the fewest people.
"On Walden Pond" or whatever the name of the book actually is. See "Moby Dick" entry.
Comments
Not being one to blindly accept other people's notions of what is "important," I honestly wouldn't know what unread books to list.
Oh, I could rattle off some of the usual suspects, from War and Peace and The Brothers Karamazov to Joyce's Ulysses, none of which I got around to, but I'd be guessing.
What I can say is that I've read Twain's Letters to the Earth and Huckleberry Finn, and Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, and Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and a host of other favorites that still reside in my own personal library. I found these by trial and error, and I'm thankful I had the necessary curiosity to pick them up.
Thirty-five years ago, while living in Los Angeles, I wrote the New Haven Public Library a letter to thank them, saying that my library card was by far the most important credit card I've ever owned. That is still and ever the truth. And God bless Hyde Brothers, too....
Oops. I probably meant to say Crime and Punishment rather than War and Peace. Yes, I'm sure I did.