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This week’s Top 5: Books You’re Intimidated By

I love to read. I have an English degree, I’ve worked in numerous bookstores and libraries,  and between home and work I’m pretty much constantly surrounded by books. Are there any I’m intimidated by? Absolutely! I love classics but there are some I haven’t even cracked the spine on. Here are five:

1. The Brothers Karamazov: Along with the length (Amazon lists it as 824 pages) I feel like this book will just really confuse me. Maybe I’m wrong? Have any of you read – and loved – this?

2. War & Peace: Speaking of long books….Amazon lists this as 1296 pages! I don’t hate long books, I swear. But this is a seriously long book. I’ve been told it’s hard to keep track of the characters and that there are a ton of really long, seemingly unrelated passages. I’ll probably try to tackle it one day. But not today.

3.Lord of the Rings: I don’t read many books of this genre and I think that has something to do with the intimidation factor. I have a friend who insists I’ll love it so I’ll try to read it eventually (maybe.)

4. Cloud Atlas: This is a favorite for many people but I haven’t attempted it yet and I’m not sure I ever will.

5. Atlas Shrugged: I actually own this one but every time I pick it up, I immediately put it back down. Now that I think about it, my friend who insists I’ll love LOTR also loves Altas Shrugged. I wonder what books she’s intimidated by…

So apparently I’m intimidated by books that seem hard to follow and/or have the word Atlas in them!

Have you read any of these books? Am I right to be intimidated? What are your Top 5 in this category?