Books From Before Blogging

I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday in a really long time. This week's topic grabbed me though. This week, the bloggers from The Broke and the Bookish wanted to know the top Ten Books That Have Been On Your Shelf (Or TBR) From Before You Started Blogging That You STILL Haven't Read Yet. Since I recently started looking back at my blogging past, having passed my 10th blogging anniversary, I started to wonder, what books have been sitting on my shelf, unread, for over 10 years? My posts on Suicide Squad and The Humans are going to have to wait, because I need to know this now.

1. Appointment with Death, by Agatha Christie - I own 4 of Christie's books, why did I stop reading at 3?

2. It, by Stephen King - What is wrong with me? King is one of my favourite authors and I've read loads of his other books, but not It?

3. The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton - I picked it up on the cheap after having reading Ethan Frome and it's just sat on my shelf.

4. Fury, by Salman Rushdie - Again, I got it on sale, after having read Haroun and the Sea of Stories, and it has just sat there.

5. Jacob's Room, by Virginia Woolf - I took a class on Woolf, but Jacob's Room was not one of the books we read. I bought it anyway.

6. Almost all of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles - My Hubby and I were both reading these books. I was also reading Rice's Mayfair Witches books. Somehow I have never made it past Tale of the Body Thief. I will soon though (maybe).

7. A Perfect Pledge, by Rabindranath Maharaj - I read Maharaj's short story collection The Book of Ifs and Buts and loved it, so I picked up this novel... and it's followed me for years.

8. War and Peace, by Leo Tolsoy (can we include Crime and Punishment & Ulysses here?) - They're long and scary. Based on length alone, I'm more likely to read Crime and Punishment than the other two.

9. The Tiger Claw, by Shauna Singh Baldwin - I don't know why. It just hasn't been read yet.

10. From Ink Lake, edited by Michael Ondaatje - It's a collection of Canadian short stories. Seems like my kind of thing, but nope. It's sat on my shelf as long as the rest of them.

I thought there would be more, but last year I started making an effort to read the books that I've had for a long time. That's part of the reason I got around to reading Tale of the Body Theif. Seeing this list has reminded me how much I wanted to read each of these books when I bought them. Hopefully, I get to at least one of them soon.

You Scare Me! Top Ten Most Intimidating Books

It's the end of the day and I'm finally getting a chance to make my Top Ten from The Broke and The Bookish.  I had a long Canada Day weekend.  It was fun, filled with family and fireworks.  I'm back home and I just couldn't resist this week's topic: Top Ten Most Intimidating Books.  Here they are in no particular order.

1. Ulysses, by James Joyce - It's HUGE!

2. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy - It's HUGER!

3. Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - It seems a little mental, and deep, and possibly violent (and LONG). Also, it's so CANON.

4. Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood - I LOVE Margaret Atwood and I've read so many of her wonderful books, but something about this one... I don't know if it's the LENGTH, that SO MANY PEOPLE LOVE IT or what, but I'm scared of it.

5. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hoseinni - I LOVED A Thousand Splendid Suns and And The Mountains Echoed. The Kite Runner was his first book that for some reason I didn't read.  It was made into a movie (which I haven't seen) and also a graphic novel (which I also haven't read).  I feel like I've internally HYPED this one up so much, I'm scared to be disappointed.

6. The Stand, by Stephen King - I watched the mini-series oh so long ago and I remember loving it.  The Stand is also supposed to be King at his BEST.  I've read loads of his work, so I don't know what this one intimidates me more than the other stories I haven't read yet.

7. The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum- What if I HATE it?

8. The Walking Dead (Compendium #1), by Robert Kirkman - What if I HATE it? (I LOVE the show.)

9. Wizard's First Rule, by Terry Goodkind - I've heard such good things about this book and series.  But ALL the books are so HUGE.

10. A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson - Again, I've heard great things about Bryson and his writing.  People LOVE his books.  What if I don't?

Honourable mentions:

Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll - Same feelings as The Wizard of Oz

Tale of the Body Thief, by Anne Rice - I started this series, but never read past Queen of the Damned.  They were great books and I've always intended to finish.  They're just so long and there are so many other books vying for my time.

So, apparently I'm intimidated by big books, in general.  I also fear being disappointed by books other people love.  Sounds pretty normal to me :)

Sorry my CAPS LOCK button kept getting stuck.

What books are you intimidated by?