Books you want to have read, but don't want to actually read

[Queen Michael]

Like the subject says: Are there any books you want to have read, but don't feel like actually reading? For instance, I'm interested in the Horus Heresy series of Warhammer 40,000 novels, but since it's written by so many authors, it seems like the quality's going to shift wildly. Not to mention that it's about 50 books long, so I'm not sure that it's worth the time investment. I'd really like to get the understanding of the W40K lore that it'd give me, though.

Oh, and one rule: No classics. At all. See, then every reply would be whatever old novel you guys have to read for school. I want books that you personally are interested in as a thing but don't find fun to actually read for whatever reason. Basically, any motivation is okay except for "People expects one to have read it."

(Picking one specific classic is okay, but it has to be out of personal interest, not to meet the expectations of society or curricula.)

 

[Fox12]

I really want to read Ulysses and Moby Dick. They sound like weird, interesting books to crack open. I would probably enjoy them. And yet... I haven't. Maybe I'm intimidated. I don't know, but for whatever reason I never seem to feel like starting them. I always mean to do it later, but I never bother. They're both sitting on my desk as I'm typing this. I guess I could go ahead and start reading one of them right now, but... nah. I'll do it later.

 

[jademunky]

"Berserk", the Manga, Oh so very much.

Love the anime, love the Golden Age remake films (think I even liked them a little better, more streamlined) and I REALLY want to see what happens after the Eclipse but....... just no. I am not generally a fan of Manga vastly preferring western comic books and also, most importantly: Berserk is LOOOOOONG, like really long, like still going on today long. Way too intimidating for me to actually buy the books and sit down with them. One day I might just read the cliffnotes version.

 

[JoJo]

Beowulf. I have a strong interest in Anglo-Saxon culture, and the stories they used to tell, but when I tried to read a translation I found the verse style hard to enjoy and only got about a quarter of the way in. Maybe I should give it another go some time.

 

[Ogoid]

Right now, Alan Moore's Jerusalem.

I'm sure I'll get around to it eventually, but every time I look at the sheer size of that thing, it drops a couple of positions on my reading list.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Beowulf. I have a strong interest in Anglo-Saxon culture, and the stories they used to tell, but when I tried to read a translation I found the verse style hard to enjoy and only got about a quarter of the way in. Maybe I should give it another go some time.

I've had a similar thing with Dante's Divina Commedia. I enjoyed the imagination that went into the world Dante pictures, but found the archaic prose hard to digest.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

Hey now, I liked reading all those old books back in school - it was just doing the assignments on those books I didn't want to do.

But, serious answer now - most fantasy books, honestly. I love fantasy novels, but... fuckin' christ, are so many of them just riddled with 100-year old cliches. Nothing takes the wind out of my sails faster than picking up a fantasy novel, reading a chapter of it and going 'Ah, Heroes Journey #1137, excellent. And I'm guessing Lord DeathMurderSkull is the bad guy nobody suspects, right?'. I remember a friend loaning me a bunch of fantasy novels to read and I didn't even get half-way through any of them, since I could tell exactly what was going to happen from the get-go because of how cliched they were.

It's incredibly frustrating, since I'm always excited whenever I see a new fantasy series is out and about but have zero desire to actually read any of them since odds are they're probably not actually going to do anything interesting with all the old tropes and cliches that've been banging around since The Lord of the Rings.

(Weird thing is? David Eddings Belgariad is one of my favourite series of books, despite being nothing but Standard Fantasy Cliches. At least he's honest with 'em, or something.)

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

I see Moby Dick above, and that's a good answer. I do want to have read it, but it seems so long, plus I do of course already know how it ends. At least when I read A Tale of Two Cities I didn't actually know much about the plot and could be surprised by it.

I'd also like to know all the events in the Mass Effect novels, but I haven't heard many positive things said about them. I'm such a fan of the games and I want my experience of the lore to be complete but I won't force myself to read 3 crappy novels to get what I want out of them.

 

[maninahat]

I really want to read Ulysses and Moby Dick. They sound like weird, interesting books to crack open. I would probably enjoy them. And yet... I haven't. Maybe I'm intimidated. I don't know, but for whatever reason I never seem to feel like starting them. I always mean to do it later, but I never bother. They're both sitting on my desk as I'm typing this. I guess I could go ahead and start reading one of them right now, but... nah. I'll do it later.

Yes, both of those are on my lists of books I will occasionally get out of the library and then not read.

I'm part of a reading group and I have to start Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings at some point if I hope to finish it before the end of the month for the discussion. But I don't really want to. It's a thousand pages, and I've only just finished another one of his last week.

Speaking of libraries, has anyone here used a library recently? Outside of studies, specifically.

 

[Queen Michael]

Speaking of libraries, has anyone here used a library recently? Outside of studies, specifically.

I average three library visits a week, purely for pleasure.

 

[Erttheking]

I really want to read Ulysses and Moby Dick. They sound like weird, interesting books to crack open. I would probably enjoy them. And yet... I haven't. Maybe I'm intimidated. I don't know, but for whatever reason I never seem to feel like starting them. I always mean to do it later, but I never bother. They're both sitting on my desk as I'm typing this. I guess I could go ahead and start reading one of them right now, but... nah. I'll do it later.

From what I've heard from friends, Moby Dick is an absolute fucking slog, so your hesitancy is far from unfounded.

 

[Fox12]

I really want to read Ulysses and Moby Dick. They sound like weird, interesting books to crack open. I would probably enjoy them. And yet... I haven't. Maybe I'm intimidated. I don't know, but for whatever reason I never seem to feel like starting them. I always mean to do it later, but I never bother. They're both sitting on my desk as I'm typing this. I guess I could go ahead and start reading one of them right now, but... nah. I'll do it later.

Yes, both of those are on my lists of books I will occasionally get out of the library and then not read.

I'm part of a reading group and I have to start Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings at some point if I hope to finish it before the end of the month for the discussion. But I don't really want to. It's a thousand pages, and I've only just finished another one of his last week.

Speaking of libraries, has anyone here used a library recently? Outside of studies, specifically.

My university library was great, and I would use it all the time. My local library is a disgrace, though, so I don't waste my time. At this point I either go to Barnes and noble or get out my kindle.

 

[Saelune]

I mostly just do not like reading books. I am not against reading, but I usually read wikipedia entries about history.

Lord of the Rings, cause Im a fantasy and DnD nerd, so I clearly should.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms, cause I love Dynasty Warriors and history. I did start reading it but...IT IS SO FUCKING LONG! I mean, its a heavily fictionalized historical novel about a time of about 100 years, but still.

Everything by Kurt Vonnegut I havent already read.

Everything in the Redwall series I havent already read.

The last half of the Harry Potter books. I read the first half, but then the films came out. I kept saying I'd read them before each film came out, but never did.

 

[Scarim Coral]

The Lord of the Ring franchise.

I mean I did bought the Fellowship of the Ring many years ago (when the first film came out) but I was competely put off reading more after chapter 1. I just couldn't get into it due to it's writing styles.

 

[Worgen]

For the longest time, Fallout Equestria. But I finally read it a month ago, really good. There is a printed version, it counts as a book.

 

[Baffle]

Dean Crawford's Apocalypse. It's just fucking terrible. I want to know how terrible it gets, but I'm sick of reading it. If any keen fiction writers out there want to know how to not write a book (while being simultaneously destroyed by the fact that this one got published), pick it up, you'll thank me (you won't; Jesus it's bad). I honestly cannot think of a good thing to say about it. Oh, most of the words are spelled correctly (though used inappropriately).

 

[King Billi]

I've done this to myself a couple of times, I'll find or hear about a book that really interests me but when I learn that it is part of a longer series I'll hold off until I have them all with the idea that I can read them all one after the other and not have to be left in anticipation.

Only problem is that once I finally have them in front of me all I see is this huge intimidating time investment that turns me off.

 

[Zhukov]

Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces.

Seems really interesting. Never got around to it.

 

[hermes]

The brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevski.

I want to read it, and I had it in my backlog for years, but I am intimidated by its sheer size and never got around to actually start it. It has just been staring at me, mockingly, for all this time.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

All of Shakespeare. I have read some of them, don't particularly want to read the rest. But it is some of the most popular literature out there, so it would be useful to at least know the gist of most of them.