Therese’s Top Ten Dust-Gathering, Side-Table-Hogging Books
By Therese Walsh | December 11, 2007 |
Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside a dog, it’s too dark to read. –Groucho Marx
I have a confession to make: I haven’t read a novel in months. Months! I’ve been pushing hard to finish the final draft of my wip (new goal: end of the year or bust) and I just haven’t allowed myself to reach for anything on my side table except my Nite-Writer Pen and paper. And while, in Kathleen’s words, I’m “beasting it”–making great strides with my revisions and edits–I feel deprived. Everywhere I turn another must-read-books list is coming out. I put a few of these luscious morsels on my Amazon wish list–including Keith Donohue’s The Stolen Child–and my sisters told me to forget it: No books until I’ve read the ones on my side table.
I think it’s tough love, but the cut went deep and I’m bleeding ink.
So here’s my public pledge: Once I’ve finished this draft of my wip–BY THE END OF THE YEAR–and sent out the first batch of queries–a week or so after–I will read the Best of the Side-Table Offerings. And here, because I know you’re dying of curiosity, is my list:
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
By the Light of My Father’s Smile by Alice Walker
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
The Color of Light by Karen White
What’s collecting dust on your side table?
Therese Walsh (she/her) co-founded Writer Unboxed in 2006 and is the site’s editorial director. She was the editor of WU’s only book, Author in Progress, and runs the Writer Unboxed UnConference.
Her second novel, The Moon Sisters, received starred reviews and was named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal and Book Riot.
Learn more about Therese on her website, and sign up for her newsletter to be among the first to hear about any new projects.
Ahah! We share the feeling!
I have a million things to study because my final exams are in mid January. So right now I absolutely can’t afford to read anything else that Seeley’s “Anatomy & Physiology” or something like that (as long as it’s related to Nursing).
On my bedside table, collecting dust, are currently José Saramago’s “The Cave” and Isabel Allende’s “Eva Luna”.
They are great temptations! After studying for about 5 hours, I can’t help but look at them and sigh sadly! I’d love to lose myself in those books… but my conscience is too powerful!
Good look on finishing the draft! :D
I’ve already read ‘A Spot of Bother’ it’s a fabulous read. For the moment, one of my current ones is Send in the Idiots, which I also heard reviewed on the radio with the back story.
Cheers
I loved “A Great and Terrible Beauty,” a fun read with a historical setting and a bit of magic.
Good luck with the WIP!
Atonement by Ian McEwan. Must. Read.
Oh, I am HORRIBLE about leaving books on my night table. I think I’ll read them when I go to bed and I end up leaving them there, untouched. And then the next night I forget about them and bring another book into the mix.
I don’t even know what’s on my table anymore, to be honest. Time for a good cleaning…
Best way to read a book is to carry it in your bag. Beds are for sleeping in.
*No, I didn’t have The Far Pavillions on my table for a year. Not me, no how*
(And I totally don’t have a Dresden Files there either)
I just checked my “book journal” and the last novel I read was “On Chesil Beach” by Ian McEwan in JULY.
Holy Hannah- July!
Does it count that I have a whole list of books I want to read? ‘Cause I’m not gonna lie- I haven’t gotten to the point of actually getting them to my bedside table.
How did you get your dog to stay still for the photo? He or she doesn’t look fabulously comfortable surrounded by books!
Juliet, I just put her on the chair and said “sit,” and she smiled up at me. The treat in my hand may have helped, though. ;-)
Cath, you don’t even want to know how many books I have near the bedside table on a shelf. It would’ve taken to long to list them all.
Good luck getting through your dusty reads, everyone, and thanks for good wishes on my wip.
Therese, off to beat said wip into submission…
I’m in the same boat–trying to finish an Nth draft by the end of the year. I haven’t written any really good prose in ages. I must read some good prose before I start the final revision, just to get back into the feel of it! I have no specific books in mind but I’m thinking something by Judith Ivory or Laura Kinsale.
what to read, what to read. cute doggie. doing cold turkey ala artists way chapter 5. must push on. no reading for pleash til after midnight
Reading Ghost Brigades by Scalzi right now. Been slowly trudging through Lucifer’s Hammer for about 4+ months. It’s one of the slowest novels I’ve ever read.
I think I have to bump James Rollins up in the list. I need some fast action pulp that isn’t front loaded with 200 pages before the inciting incident.