Play Book Tag discussion

What book or author have you always wanted to read but haven’t yet?

How do you feel about classics? Do you think they are important to read? Do you enjoy them as good stories or enjoy them because of their influence? Or do you just read them because they are classics but don't like them? Maybe you just don't read them at all. (I'll watch the movie)

What author would you wait in line for their new release?

Nice topic.

Author want to read but haven't - not that I can think of at the moment, mostly because my reading has been so eclectic. Even in college I took classes that included very broad reading. Maybe Trollope - for some reason I have yet to read any of his works though I have read probably all his contemporaries.

Love classics. Currently reading The Odyssey! In fact, the Emily Wilson translation of The Odyssey is so accessible and fun, reads like an adventure story, teens would enjoy it.

Only books I can ever in my life remember waiting on line to get the minute they could be sold were the last 3 or 4 Harry Potters. A friend and I would have late dinner in her apartment a block from Barnes and Noble, then join the line about 11:30 pm - store would open to sell the new HP at Midnight. It was such fun. I have stood in line many times at author signings. Being in NYC those are often on release day. Some of those: Amor Towles, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Angie Thomas, N.K. Jemisen, Nigela Lawson (cookbooks), Barbara Kingsolver, George R.R. Martin, Jean Auel, Bob Newhart, Erin Morgenstern, Juliet Grames, many more. Author signings are preceded by readings, interviews and Q&A, with the signing at the end.

I love classics and have read many of them - American, English and French. I enjoy Dickens, Dumas, Trollope, Balzac, Hugo, etc.
(If anyone else does, you are always welcome in the GR group The Readers Review.)

Someone I haven't read and don't especially want to but think I should is Anne Frank. As a teenager, when my friends read her, I didn't think I could deal with it and I still have trouble with books about Nazis.

I don't think I would wait in line for a new release but I have snapped up audiobooks by favorite authors the day they come out. I like author readings but have no real interest in having books signed ( I rarely keep books after I have read them anyway.)

Jason wrote: "What book or author have you always wanted to read but haven’t yet?

How do you feel about classics? Do you think they are important to read? Do you enjoy them as good stories or enjoy them because..."

I’ve read a lot of classics and enjoyed most of them. Now I’m more likely to read them if there is a personal hook - to a new interest, another book, current events, a play I saw, etc. Chekhov has been mentioned in several books, most recently The Cherry Orchard. (In Snow Road Station.).

I’m hearing a lot of contradictory or paradoxical language related to change, so it might be time to revisit 1984. There is a book with social commentary about prewar Germany that was recommended recently. (I’m blanking on the title.)

I love pairing new and old books. I read the Odyssey last year (which was a surprisingly fast read), and The Penelopiad by Atwood, which had some fun dark humor.

I've never read (but have always wanted) a James A. Michener book. I have slated to read Centennial as part of the Going Long challenge.

I have to admit I don't think I've ever read a Classic that was assigned reading for school. I'm not proud of this and really, probably, maybe...should start to weave them into my reading challenge, we'll see...

I've never waited in line for a new book, but I have bought many a book on it's first day of release. I think the last time I was that religious about wanting to read a book was when Stephen King originally released The Green Mile in serial form. That was great fun.

Hands down it’s Sally Rooney. People love her books and extole her virtues. I simply haven’t tried her yet. But lately, I’m thinking she’s the one to try. Normal people and intermezzo.

Charlie wrote: "I've never read (but have always wanted) a James A. Michener book. I have slated to read Centennial as part of the Going Long challenge.

I have to admit I don't think ..."

Michener is very readable, good storytelling. Often the first chapter is about the formation of the area or the prehistoric creatures there, but then it moves to people's stories.

Authors whose books I want to read right away - though I rarely buy new hardbacks, I wait for a paperback or a sale, reserve at the library and wait, or get them from Audible where all books are basically the same price if you have credits.

Michael J. Sullivan
Robert Galbraith who I know is actually JK Rowling - I'm not thrilled with her personal opinions but I love the series
Spencer Quinn - Chet and Bernie series
C.S. Harris - Sebastian St. Cyr series

What book or author have you always wanted to read but haven’t yet?

I hadn't read any Chris Bohjalian until I recently read Idyll Banter: Weekly Excursions to a Very Small Town which is a book of essays about his life in rural Vermont. I have any number of his books on my tbr but can't seem to move them to the top. Theresa and I have tentatively agreed to a buddy read of one of his at some point this yearl

How do you feel about classics? Do you think they are important to read?

I read many classics in my younger years and thought they were important to read and quite good stories and had great influence. However, I must admit that I no longer appreciate reading them. I've given up on a number which I have recently attempted.

What author would you wait in line for their new release?

Well, I am not at all into lines any longer, but I do preorder from any number of authors. I have a preorder shelf and it is a mix of authors I love and books that I read about before their release and really wanted to read them.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

James McBride - because I've loved everything of his I read.

Martin Walker - I love Chief Inspector Bruno

Robert Thorogood - Love the Marlow Murder Club

Jussi Adler Olsen - The Department Q mystery series is excellent. I think the last one I read is indeed the last of the series. I'm heartbroken.

Qiu Xiaolong such an excellent series set in Shanghai which gives you great understanding of the development of China over the years. The first one isDeath of a Red Heroine and they get better and better. So much culture, food and cooking with excellent characters and mysteries to boot.

Richard Powers - love his work.

There are others but I will stop gushing at this point.

I read a lot of Michener starting in my teens and really liked them.. I have Poland on the TBR. Most of his later works I have little interest in.

@Amy - hope you are not disappointed by Sally Rooney.

Preorders might be a modern day equivalent to waiting on line for a new release.

The longest I waited for a preorder was nine months, for Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. Everything was on sale at Audible that day, even preorders. 15 more days to go.

Do I like classics? Yes and no :)

There are some I love, some I like, some I dislike and some I loathe, which probably comes as no surprise to those who have known me for a while. ie I don't like a book just because it's a classic; some classics I've waited years to get to have been enormous let downs.

I just thought of an author that has been recommended to me by several people that I haven't read - Tana French. I do like mysteries but somehow never get to her.

Authors I have not read but want to read:
Like Theresa, I have not read Anthony Trollope.
Also, maybe Émile Zola.

The classics:
I love, love, love the classics! When I was in high school, my teacher assigned us to read 3 classics from a list she provided. I enjoyed them so much I read the entire list. I've always been a history buff, and the classics provide insights into different historical periods, showing how people lived, thought, and faced challenges in other times and places. I find it enriches my appreciation for modern literature. Classic literature also challenges me intellectually, which I always appreciate and is part of the reason I read so much.

On waiting in line...
I doubt I would do that these days with all the online access to books, but I have fond memories of waiting in line with my son for the latest Harry Potter books to be released. He was at the right age for those release events, and it was fun seeing all the kids dressed up as their favorite characters.

I have a long list of favorite authors, so I'd be waiting in lots of lines if I still had the inclination to do so.

Joy D wrote: "Authors I have not read but want to read:
Like Theresa, I have not read Anthony Trollope.
Also, maybe Émile Zola.

The classics:
I love, love, love the classics! When ..."

Zola is great fun though I have not read any of his works since college - and those were in French. I still have those books - with all my highlights and notes in the margins. My French reading now is too slow, but I do think about picking up ones I haven't read - translated.

Theresa, I figured you would have read Zola. Do you have a recommendation on which one I should try first?

In thinking about authors I have not read but want to ... I only really started reading SFF in the last 10 years in any volume, and that is mostly due to my IRL book club. The majority of the members are much younger and more tied to reading the new writers or at least ones publishing in the last 15 years or so.

I however have a lot of interest in reading older works, especially the women who battered their way through the glass ceiling, but also the men like Isaac Asimov. I pick one up now and then - there are still plenty to read.

Speaking of Asimov - I have yet to read any of his work - but I did meet him multiple times in the 1980s. He was a regular at the mystery bookstore I favored (we had 4 indies dedicated to mysteries in those days) - he was also friends with the owner as I was - and he liked reading mysteries. He was a funny, quirky, rather charming man. He never knew I did not read his books.

Theresa wrote: "Speaking of Asimov - I have yet to read any of his work..."

You have to try him Theresa! He really is one of the greats. His shorts are excellent and his mysteries, particularly the robot ones, are great. My favorite of all his work is probably The Gods Themselves, but I also love Asimov's Mysteries, his Daneel Olivaw series starting with The Caves of Steel, his Tales of the Black Widowers, and the Foundation series if you are into sci-fi. I also enjoyed his two mystery novels, A Whiff of Death and Murder at the Aba. He started my love of sci-fi as a teen. I would have loved to have met him!

Asimov had a great sense of humor and he wrote a book in every category of the Dewey Decimal System. My brother was a huge sci-fi fan in the 1960's and introduced me to classic writers. Of course, later Asimov was revealed, like many others, to have inappropriate behavior toward women. Many of the classic sci-fi by men were written for a male audience, so even is space or centuries in the future, there are beautiful secretaries in high heels, alcohol and cigarettes. (Though some books like Foundation have important female characters.) Several women wrote under mens' names and were only exposed later.

On Zola, I did an independent study on him as a French lit major where I read something like 8 of his novels. They are usually pretty grim, exposing the hard life of miners, farmers, factory workers, etc. I wrote a paper on the role of women in Zola. There is a scene where the peasant's wife and his cow are giving birth the same night and he is more concerned with his cow, because he needs it to survive.

If you are going to read one, I recommend Germinal (also a movie with Gerard Depardieu, which is quite good except the mine scenes are way too light) or The Ladies' Paradise about the first department store in Paris.

Thanks, Robin! I feel like I need to read at least one, but it may be a while before I get around to it.

Theresa, for Asimov, I loved The Gods Themselves.

Thanks for the Asimov suggestions! I knew I could count on getting a few. He's definitely near the top of my SFF bucket list.

On Zola - the ones I most remember reading were Nana and Thérèse Raquin. I also read Au Bonheur des dames, the Ladies Paradise in English. I do think Joy, you would like Zola.

An interesting aside, today Bonheur des Dames is the name of a very prominent needlework chain with its main store in Paris. Mostly cross stitch designs and kits, of which I own and have stitched a few purchased on visits to one or more of the Paris shops. You can order them online but I like having a needlework purchasing mission when travelling.

I absolutely have not been drawn to her, even though I have heard how much everyone seems to love her books... But, just before I left, a patient of mine told me that the way Sally Rooney writes and thinks is the ways she thinks and feels and the internal dialogue of the characters was "her." I felt maybe this summer I would pick one up. But if I didn't like it, that would be like telling her I didn't like her mind which is a big no no. Perhaps that is dangerous.

Anyway, I got on to both review a book a blab a little, so perhaps I will find the latest Kaffeklatch...

Amy, the only book I've tried of Rooney's is Intermezzo. After giving it a good try, I abandoned it. The characters and themes did not appeal to me. If you do read it, I'll be interested to hear about your reactions.

Hmm - Theresa's warning was well taken, and then yours.... I trust you both. I do not know why that one conversation with the patient made me change my mind on the lack of draw, but now we are two against one.... And a very worthy two...

I am anxious to read Christopher Buehlman's
The Blacktongue Thief. My fantasy friends are raving about it.

I have always shied away from the classics, but last year, I think I read three or four and enjoyed them all. I am no longer hesitant to pick one up if the mood calls for one.

I would wait overnight (if I bought new books) for the next book of the Mitch Rapp series. Originally begun by Vince Flynn then continued by Kyle Mills. It has now been passed onto Don Bentley, whose first book came out in September 2024. I am now #1 on the hold list for it. I cannot remember the last time I waited this long for a book in this series.

Amy wrote: "Hmm - Theresa's warning was well taken, and then yours.... I trust you both. I do not know why that one conversation with the patient made me change my mind on the lack of draw, but now we are two ..."

Normal People was the one I read - after no appeal and finally seeing too many accolades and thumbs up from friends. I gave it 2 stars - here's the opening of my review: The only thing I can say with any certainty about my reading of this is that I am not in the 'loved it' camp. In fact, I've not been sure how to rate it, finally deciding to leave at 2 stars because in truth I cannot recommend this.

I happily retreated back into my 'not appealing' mode.

Robin P wrote: "Asimov had a great sense of humor and he wrote a book in every category of the Dewey Decimal System. My brother was a huge sci-fi fan in the 1960's and introduced me to classic writers. Of course, ..."

Actually, it was every category EXCEPT Philosopy. Nine out of 10 is pretty good though!

Amy wrote: "I absolutely have not been drawn to her, even though I have heard how much everyone seems to love her books... But, just before I left, a patient of mine told me that the way Sally Rooney writes an..."

I liked Normal People by Rooney, BUT the characters are very dysfunctional. As a therapist, you might find that disturbing - or just too much like real life. What I liked about it is that it seems to reflect the messiness of some people I know.

Yes, I am pretty well convinced…. No need for that. I’ll try to see if I can come up with somebody else. I haven’t read, but I think is a really wonderful author to try.

Amy wrote: "Yes, I am pretty well convinced…. No need for that. I’ll try to see if I can come up with somebody else. I haven’t read, but I think is a really wonderful author to try."

I think if you read my review of Normal People, you would know all you need to know to see what your patient relates to -- especially look behind the spoiler.

My Review

Theresa wrote: "In thinking about authors I have not read but want to ... I only really started reading SFF in the last 10 years in any volume, and that is mostly due to my IRL book club. The majority of the membe..."

I agree about the Robot books. That starts with The Caves of Steel and has 4 official books; they focus on a pair of detectives, one a robot, one a human. I didn't like I, Robot although many like it (not about the same robot as I recall.)

Karin wrote: "Theresa wrote: "In thinking about authors I have not read but want to ... I only really started reading SFF in the last 10 years in any volume, and that is mostly due to my IRL book club. The major..."

What's the setting on the Asimov Robot series? Is it recognizable as existing in the world? I'm wondering if I can work it into my The Compass challenge since I am reading crime fiction at whatever locations I end up. I think it would be fun to slip in a SFF into that if I can. I could do J.D Robb's In Death series or Scalzi, but I'd kind of like something by an author I've not read.

Charlie wrote: "I've never read (but have always wanted) a James A. Michener book. I have slated to read Centennial as part of the Going Long challenge..."

Ditto


As for classics ... I read some of the one assigned in high school and loved them; Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Crime and Punishment are two of my favorites. But for many of them I relied on the Cliff's notes. I do still enjoy reading classics, but don't do so very often.

Wait in line ... not really, but I DO preorder on occasion. And I attend author events at my local indie bookseller. I'm a very good customer there. I first realized how good a customer THEY thought I was came in the mid '80s. When I wrote a check for a book and went to pull out my driver's license (ID was often required for such transactions back then), the clerk said, "Oh, Tessa, we know who you are!" (Note that Tessa is the diminutive of my middle name. My real first name, as printed on my checks, is completely different.)

Theresa wrote: "Karin wrote: "Theresa wrote: "In thinking about authors I have not read but want to ... I only really started reading SFF in the last 10 years in any volume, and that is mostly due to my IRL book c..."

The first one is set on earth, but later ones are not.

Karin wrote: "Theresa wrote: "Karin wrote: "Theresa wrote: "In thinking about authors I have not read but want to ... I only really started reading SFF in the last 10 years in any volume, and that is mostly due ..."

Definitely going to look into at least the first.

I've always read or been read to. My mom read to my sister and I when we were very young and it was not just children's books. We heard Heidi, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Swiss Family Robinson and others.

When our road was plowed we would climb on the berms and pretend they were mountains and we were Heidi and Peter(which always caused an argument.)

I've always had something to read and it has enriched my life in so many ways.