Top Ten Tuesday- Shelf of Shame

Friday wasn't a great reading month for me, so it seems appropriate that today's Top Ten Tuesday topic deals with those books I just had to have. The ones I carried around Barnes and Noble and told myself I didn't need, yet somehow still left with them, only to hide them on my shelf of unread shame.

This list was a little harder than I expected because my bookshelves in Michigan are filled to the brim with books I haven't finished, or even started, but my Chicago shelves are about 90% read. Regardless, here are the books I came up with.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because they are particularly fond of lists over at The Broke and the Bookish. I'm sure they'd love to share your lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten list.

This week's topic: 

Top Ten Books I Just HAD To Buy...But Are Still Sitting On My Bookshelf

1. Water For Elephants - Sarah Gruen - I got this when it was first published and everyone was talking about it. I think I read all of the first page and a half before setting it down. I's one of the books I brought with me to Chicago in hopes that I would eventually get to it, but no. Not even the upcoming movie, which I'm interested in, seems to motivate me to read this book.

2. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao  - Junot Diaz - I've heard good things about Diaz. I've heard good things about this book. It seemed like a no brainer to pick up a copy and read it. Only I only did half of that. I have The Breif Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and now when I look at the description I'm not interested in it.

3.Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami - I read Norwegian Wood last year and really enjoyed it. I was proud of myself for reading Asian Literature, as it is really out of my comfort zone. I had assumed that one short Murakami book was enough to change my entire reading pattern and open me to a world of Asia books that I'd love, so I bought Kafka on the Shore. It's considerably larger than Norwegian Wood and it was just moved from a semi permanent home on my floor to it's new spot on my shelf of shame.

4. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman - I actually haven't had this very long. Really, this is a combination of all of my other excuses, I like Gaiman, I didn't really look at the description, blah blah blah. I really do plan on getting to this in the next few months though. We'll see how that goes.

5. Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace - In my defense, I bought Infinite Jest knowing I wouldn't read it right away. It always seemed like that book you tackle right after you graduate college. I've had it for two years now, and every few months when things get slow I think about picking it up. I never do. I tried to read it once and found it was to much work for an average pleasure read for me. I'm graduating in May so I'll run out of my weak excuses to not read it.

6.The Postmistress - Sarah Blake - I feel like I've had this for ages, but I don't actually think the book itself is that old. I'm actually really interested in reading this. I know, I'm not showing it. Currently it's at the bottom of my historical fiction tower (yes, tower, I ran out of shelf space) and I tend to forget it's there.

7.One Hundred Years of Solitude  - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Earlier I was talking about expanding my horizons into Asia Lit. This was my attempt at Latin American Lit. I must say, I am painfully stuck in my American/European ways.  I actually did start One Hundred Years of Solitude, and I remember enjoying the little that I did read, but for some reason I didn't continue .

8. Atonement - Ian McEwan - I wanted to like McEwan, so I bought a few of his books. I got halfway through Saturday before getting so frustrated with his style that I gave up. I've heard Atonement is different, better, but still the movie tie in edition sit son my shelf of shame, untouched.

9. The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton - Amazon recommended this to me. Seriously, every time I'd start looking for new books Morton was always one of the first on the list. Eventually I broke down and bought it, and then never touched it again. I'm not even sure where my copy is right now. I may have left it in Michigan over Christmas.

10. The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson - I had a love/hate relationship with the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Overall I really enjoyed it, and was happy to find it not entirely predictable. On the other hand I was annoyed with the style of writing and the unnecessary length. I've heard from people who have both loved and hated the second book in the series, and I bought it for a vacation read. I didn't get to it then. It's on the shame shelf.