YouLookFab Forum » Topic: Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read

YouLookFab Forum » Topic: Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read Style Advice for Fashion Lovers en-US Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:22:01 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/search.php Jenni NZ on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2367559 Fri, 09 Aug 2024 22:25:28 +0000 Jenni NZ 2367559@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Thanks Laurie! I probably should have been older than late teens/early twenties perhaps, I was such a goody-two-shoes in those days. Not sure I will try again, I have accepted that my tastes are either for fantasy or rather low-brow. April, I would like to know if you have ever heard of or tried the Duncton Wood books? I do honestly think you might enjoy them. Laurie on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2367199 Mon, 05 Aug 2024 21:13:01 +0000 Laurie 2367199@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Not sure why I haven't been following this thread!  JenniZ - re Tess of the D'Urbervilles I loved that book so so so much when I was reading Thomas Hardy during university. I went to London after I graduated, and I saw the original manuscript in a display of original works of famous British authors at the British Library, and I cried! As a kid I had no interest in Watership Down - my best friend adored it. I also have zero interest in Lord of the Rings.  I had many good English teachers over the years. Their job was to expose us to the classics, and and to teach us how to write - for our lives, as it turns out. Not many of us would have picked up Moby Dick for fun in 10th grade, but I can still visualize discussions in that class about the whiteness of the whale! Senior year we had to read Joyce Cary's The Horse's Mouth. I abhorred it. The teacher was a pip, and just threw at us as much as we could take! Decades later my father was in a class at the Oscher Institute at CMU and they read the Joyce Cary trilogy, of which THM is a part. I brought back his books, and may give it another try. Maybe you need to be much older than 17 to appreciate it? Bijou on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2367158 Mon, 05 Aug 2024 05:43:00 +0000 Bijou 2367158@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I love this thread which has made me feel not so bad about falling at the wayside when reading: <ol> <li>War & Peace - I got bored in the stuff about the Masons...and</li> <li>Paradise Lost by Milton.</li> </ol> I have not tried to read Tolkien beyond the first page and thinking there is no way I will make it through 500 pages of this! Suntiger on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2366735 Tue, 30 Jul 2024 20:06:17 +0000 Suntiger 2366735@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I did read the HP books, but don't remember book to book what happened :p Often I prefer YA cause I'd rather avoid graphic sex or violence though. In general, I don't feel any need to read things just to say I did. There are some movies (like DH says "the Godfather") to watch to get the cultural references, but nah, I'm good! I'm fine with being out of the loop sometimes :) ETA- now music is important to me to keep up with! I don't always love it, but there's always something new to like. April on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2366577 Mon, 29 Jul 2024 11:26:11 +0000 April 2366577@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Peri I would say the thing my best English professors did - and a few of my high school English teachers - was to illustrate how wonderful many classics are, even if you're forced to read them per a syllabus. I had a college friend, e.g., who was desperate to be an English major but was so freaked by the thought of being forced to read Beowulf he did a completely unrelated major: business. Um, pardon me for judging, but to someone who yearns for literature, B school is a 4-year spirit cancer. I started there myself and knew I would never graduate if I had to do the B school curriculum. I absorbed that from him and then when I reached the class that covered Beowulf, I thought, "Michael, all that fear for naught." It was actually a great read for anyone who'd ever enjoyed folk and fairy tales. rl I am adding to my list: Frank Herbert's Dune series. Anyone who enjoyed the too-brief series Togetherness will recall the wife's summation of the husband's obsession with that book: "Stupid-ass Dune." To which husband shouts from off-camera: "I heard that!" rachylou on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2366433 Sat, 27 Jul 2024 05:11:05 +0000 rachylou 2366433@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Everything by Tollkien, CS Lewis after the Narnia Chronicles and Nietzsche.. They sound so interesting when people talk about what they wrote, but the actual works are soporifics for me. Peri on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2366323 Thu, 25 Jul 2024 17:15:12 +0000 Peri 2366323@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I've been following this and it's striking that with the exception of Harry Potter and LOTR, most of the "should but don't want to" books are the weighty classics. I'm wondering then where the "should" comes from. Who told us that? HS (college?) English teachers probably. Do we truly still believe them? I might still believe them if I remembered a single one of them or even had ever had one I admired at the time. I'm curious: if you had a great English teacher that you feel had an influence on your life, do you feel more inclined to think you should be reading "literature"?  Or if not from a teacher, where do you think the "shoulds" come from? I feel "shoulds" in a lot of areas, but reading is my love and I feel no shoulds at all about it.  JAileen on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2366132 Tue, 23 Jul 2024 14:07:46 +0000 JAileen 2366132@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Hahahaha!  No, I was making a joke.  :) April on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2366116 Tue, 23 Jul 2024 11:40:12 +0000 April 2366116@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ One more tale of Harry Potter. My son was six months old when the first book dropped. At the time I had a subscription to Horn Book (HA! Little did I know what I needed was a subscription to "Industrial Methods for Removing Stains and Dried-on Foods." A little-known industry journal ). The reviewer dismissed Sorceror's Stone by saying, "There's no there there." So I put a mental cork in that bottle and went about my life. Fast forward to son age 4. We are staying with a cousin who is a huge movie watcher and has free access to her TV - neither true for my too-sensitive 4. They make it about 1/3 through and pause for lunch, at which point he pulls me into another room and says in a fierce whisper: "I DO NOT LIKE THIS MOVIE." That troll scene was far too intense for him. So he learned the concept that when one is a houseguest, one accommodates the host without necessarily participating in every activity the host enjoys. We made a face-saving excuse and did something else while cousin finished her film. JAileen - isn't it wonderful how those cringey moments can become things we laugh freely about? Love when that happens. Echo on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2366073 Mon, 22 Jul 2024 20:28:53 +0000 Echo 2366073@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ JAIleen, that is fantastic!  The Max Planck Society is so well-respected, and some of their research has been groundbreaking. I read the book  by Dr. Svante Pääbo from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, about the sequencing of the Neanderthal Genome, and it was fascinating.  With her amazing test scores and talent, I'll bet she had her choice of almost anywhere. She made a great choice with the Max Planck Society! And that is hilarious about the cosmology = hair! JAileen on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2366048 Mon, 22 Jul 2024 14:20:36 +0000 JAileen 2366048@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Echo, re cosmology:  A friend of our son’s was the only girl in the US to have perfect scores on both the SAT and the ACT that year.  A few years later I saw her at a Christmas party and asked her what she was studying and she said Cosmology.  And I said oh, hair, that’s so great!  And she looked at me and we both laughed and laughed.  She’s at the Max Planck Inst. now.   Echo on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2366021 Mon, 22 Jul 2024 01:46:56 +0000 Echo 2366021@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Sisi and Irina, you took the words right out of my mouth. Of all the things I've read and maybe disliked or not been a fan of, Dostoevsky is my line in the sand. I read Notes from Underground in High School, and vowed NEVER AGAIN would I read anything from that author. I haven't, and I feel no guilt whatsoever. For most of my adult life, I've preferred nonfiction, anyway. I am a huge fan of evolutionary biology, cosmology and other science topics. I'd rather learn something while reading in my spare time. Lots of people love fiction, but so much of it is emotionally wrenching. I don't view that at entertainment, myself; I can watch the news and get that. Sal on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2365995 Sun, 21 Jul 2024 20:01:56 +0000 Sal 2365995@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I loved loved loved Watership Down! Such wonderful characters. I also loved Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. I haven’t read a lot more fantasy though. Jenni NZ on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2365956 Sun, 21 Jul 2024 03:03:17 +0000 Jenni NZ 2365956@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Maybe, maybe April, if you loved Watership Down you would like the Duncton Wood series? The first one could stand alone if you were not sure. They are about moles in England and really added to my enjoyment of my travels in the English countryside since lots of the stone circles were referenced ( this is before Outlander!) I even made a special visit to Whytham Wood near Oxford, which the fictional Duncton Wood was based on. I tried the book because I loved Watership Down. Janet on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2365926 Sat, 20 Jul 2024 21:02:27 +0000 Janet 2365926@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Like MsMary, I refuse to feel guilty for letting go of expectations on reading something because it seems like a prerequisite or a classic. I have stopped books in various places when they started feeling repetitive or aimless, when I hate all the characters or find them unbelievable, or they feel overwhelming or make me feel like I’m trudging through them rather than enjoying them. Life’s too short for that. Currently reading The Future, a novel by Naomi Alderman. I’m kinda a sucker for a dystopian story. April on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2365883 Sat, 20 Jul 2024 11:26:39 +0000 April 2365883@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Helena I am a non-snobby reader but it's a lifelong process to overcome the lessons of college. JAileen same here. Mr. A is not Tolkien-obsessed but my little brother is and several past boyfriends were and they all insisted I shoud try again. Nope. Problem began when I was 13 or so and read Watership Down, which I adored. Was having trouble adjusting to life without WD when someone said, "Oh, then you should read The Hobbit." No, no, no - these are wizards and made-up creatures! WD is about rabbbits! FWIW, I had the same response to Game of Thrones. And have never read The Chronicles of Narnia, though I would probably enjoy that series. To me, fantasy is completely different from science or speculative fiction, which I can deeply enjoy. JAileen on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2365852 Fri, 19 Jul 2024 23:32:14 +0000 JAileen 2365852@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Another thing:  When I was a kid (junior high or maybe high school), my brother gave me The Lord of The Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit for Christmas.  He suggested I read The Hobbit first.  The first fifty pages were about the round green door.  I gave up, and never read any of them.  My husband loved them so much he reread the trilogy when the movies were coming out.  Whatever Helena on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2365849 Fri, 19 Jul 2024 23:25:10 +0000 Helena 2365849@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ April I love that bill of rights! DS is a massive manga reader and hearing him talk about the themes, art and historical parallels is far more interesting than many reflections on books I've heard. Horses for courses indeed, and what a blessing we have so much wonderful writing to choose from! April on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2365762 Fri, 19 Jul 2024 10:04:05 +0000 April 2365762@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I too abandon books if they don't pull me in. Sometimes I return if something gets a ton of accolades and sometimes am rewarded but sometimes not. Huge fan of Daniel Pennac's Reader's Bill of Rights: 1. The right to not read 2. The right to skip pages 3. The right to not finish 4. The right to reread 5. The right to read anything 6. The right to escapism 7. The right to read anywhere 8. The right to browse 9. The right to read out loud 10. The right to not defend your tastes Ooh, there's this supplement as well, from blogger Kiera Parrott: The right to read at your own pace. The right to choose whatever book you want. The right to read graphic novels and manga. The right to read magazines. The right to read non-fiction. The right to not like a book. The right to read books published for different age levels MsMary on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2365740 Thu, 18 Jul 2024 20:57:11 +0000 MsMary 2365740@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I have the Elena Ferrante Neapolitan books on my Kindle but haven't gotten into them yet. I'll do a page or two but it's not clicking for some reason. Ditto Demon Copperhead. Generally I am an unabashed non-finisher if a book isn't grabbing me. And occasionally I'll go back after giving up and find I enjoy it very much on the second try. Suz on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2365738 Thu, 18 Jul 2024 20:22:54 +0000 Suz 2365738@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Oh, Vanity Fair! I read it on my first trip to the UK and Europe when I was 19 or so and just gobbled it up, laughing out loud at all those snide authorial interventions. I have re-read it several times since.  Irina and Gaylene -- thank you for those kind words.  A great question is which classics have you re-read (or re-read more than once) and why, and how did they differ? Obviously lots of complicated answers to that!  April on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2365726 Thu, 18 Jul 2024 18:08:47 +0000 April 2365726@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Fascinated by how much overlap there is and how much utter divergence. I was an English major (in 1982 English meant English so all we read was British or American works - though I supplemented with seminars on Caribbean lit and African lit) so many of these I read not by choice. Have always adored Jane Austen, however, and was shocked and delighted by how hilarious and wonderful Vanity Fair was since it sounded dry as dust. bella on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2365679 Thu, 18 Jul 2024 08:40:54 +0000 bella 2365679@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I was in my late 20s/early 30s when the Harry Potter books came out and I simply adored them. A few years ago I read them again with my son and I still enjoyed them a lot! And it felt really great that we shared a mutual love for HP books. :)  Sal on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read/page/2#post-2365668 Thu, 18 Jul 2024 04:26:15 +0000 Sal 2365668@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Of the classics I have read all of Austen, most of Bronte and a couple of Dickens.  Jon is a Dickens fan. I have studied three Shakespeare plays and seen a few adaptations over the year, I have not read 100 years in Solitude but I have read Love in the Time of Cholera. I tend to more modern novels now, because I am often tired when reading. My favourite older "classics" are: To Kill a Mockingbird Pride and Prejudice Miss Pettigrews Day Out Love in a Cold Climate My least favourite classics that I did finish -  The Heart of Darkness Wuthering Heights I loved Harry Potter back when I read them all.  I don't know what I would think now - as time goes on you can view things differently.  I am a huge Agatha Christie fan and some of her novels are very dated now - it's hard to know how to judge novels from a different era and the views and perspectives which now can seem sexist or racist or narrow minded in many ways. Irina on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read#post-2365658 Thu, 18 Jul 2024 01:05:20 +0000 Irina 2365658@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Funny, the first time I have read  Anna Karenina, I was 13 :) Mostly thought about suicide and it’s reasons but 90% of the book flew over my teen head :) I’ve read the second time in my 30s and was shocked to find how much author doesn’t like Anna (imo, of course). At the time for me Anna’s affair, leaving a child behind was my main interest. I’ve read it the 3rd time and was mostly interested in author’s thoughts about rural life, society and how to be a “good landowner “. <div>It is a book that keeps on giving to me. Looking forward to reading it for the fourth time. </div><div>Suz, I enjoyed reading your essay a few years ago! </div> Gaylene on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read#post-2365653 Wed, 17 Jul 2024 23:56:11 +0000 Gaylene 2365653@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Suz, it is so true that connecting with a book is as much about who we are at that point in our lives as it is about the author’s skill—and that re-reading an old favorite can be an interesting experience. I recently re-read Jane Eyre for a bookclub and was totally appalled that I had ever thought of Mr. Rochester and Jane’s relationship as romantic. In 2023, my reaction was more “Yikes, Jane, that man is a total loser…run! You deserve so much more.” The connection between a reader and a book is a mysterious thing. One of my top ten best-books-ever is Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance. It’s a hard book in many ways—and left me emotionally drained—but that book pinned me to a chair for three solid days. So many of my friends gave up on it, calling it too long and depressing, but I’m eternally grateful I didn’t listen to them.<div> </div><div>And, for what it’s worth, Suz,  I’d suggest your “In Anna Karenina Furs” to anyone who wonders why Anna Karenina is on so many must-read lists. Your essay is a brilliant piece of writing!</div> Suz on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read#post-2365643 Wed, 17 Jul 2024 21:30:16 +0000 Suz 2365643@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Oooh, thank you, Style Fan. Music to my ears. :)  And Bella, you made me laugh!  It really is a case of horses for courses, right? But also timing. If we hit a book at the right time in our own lives, we will connect with it. And if not, not! I do love the experience of picking up a book I've tried with, before, and finding myself completely engaged this time round. I also love re-reader old favourites and seeing them in a completely different way.  Style Fan on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read#post-2365642 Wed, 17 Jul 2024 21:19:29 +0000 Style Fan 2365642@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I loved your book ,Suz. Irina on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read#post-2365619 Wed, 17 Jul 2024 18:30:45 +0000 Irina 2365619@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Sisi, Dostoevsky makes me depressed, too and I’m Russian! :) read him when I was younger, don’t think would try again soon. <div> </div><div>I have a huge hole in my education in terms of  classical literature. I hope to catch up in retirement on it. </div> Gaylene on "Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/books-you-want-to-have-read-but-dont-actually-want-to-read#post-2365616 Wed, 17 Jul 2024 18:18:36 +0000 Gaylene 2365616@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Despite a Honors English BA, I decided that life was too short to wade through certain literary classics simply because I was told they were “musts”. I can’t say I’ve suffered by not having read the entirety of Ulysses or In Search of Lost Time. <div> </div><div>I have read War and Peace, Anna Karenina, most of Shakespeare’s plays, all of Jane Austin’s works, most of the Brontë sisters’ oeuvre, and a ton of Dickens—but all of which I read before I went university. These stories expanded my world and fueled my imagination as a pre-teen and teenager. I loved them for themselves, NOT for being classics. </div><div> </div><div>Plodding through a book just to say I finished it makes no sense to me. Instead of appreciating the author’s genius, those books just made me resolve to never again read anything by that writer. Even a “difficult” book ought provide some reading pleasure—other than “I’m glad that’s finished!”. My current guide is to subtract my age from 100 and use that number as the approximate number of pages I should read before tossing the book aside. Right now, that gives an author about 25 pages to draw me into a work…  </div>