Aerynn’s List of Guilt: Books I Own and Still Haven’t Managed to Read Yet

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  1. The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide by Douglas Adams
  2. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
  3. Diary (or any other book) by Chuck Palahniuk
  4. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
  5. City of Dreadful Delight by Judith R. Walkowitz
  6. Anarchy, State and Utopia by Robert Nozick
  7. Five Dialogues by Plato
  8. The Elements of Moral Philosophy by James Rachels
Biblical-size

I haven't read either of them, but I've read quite a bit between the two and that should count for something.

Aerynn’s List of Excuses: See Previous List

1. It’s 6 Douglas Adams books in one biblical looking tome and was left in my care by a friend who has been checking in for the last five years or so to see if I have read it yet. The answer is *mostly*. I think the first time through I got all the way to So Long and Thanks for All the Fish before life happened and I set it down for too long.

Since I’ve been informed that I really can’t let too much time lapse between one book of the collection and the next I started re-reading it. There are actually multiple bookmarks in it now from my repeated attempts to take in all 6 books in rapid succession.

2. Bought this at a garage sale where I scooped up an armload of books and was then asked if I’d like to buy the small bookcase as well (I did). Everything else I picked up from these folks was fairly fantastic so I really don’t know why I haven’t made a serious attempt at this one yet.

3. I’ve read the first few pages of this book several times and have always set it right back down – sometimes to re-read favorite parts of whatever I had just finished reading before it. I’ve also checked out some of Palahniuk’s other books from the library and returned them unread. I just can’t get into his stuff.

I don’t know what my deal is. Palahniuk has written a number of popular books, had work adapted to the screen, and I still just can’t find a point of interest in the first few pages of any of his books that I’ve picked up.

4. I haven’t read this yet because I always get tremendous pangs of guilt when I pick it up because I completely klepto-ed it from a friend. Wouldn’t the best solution be for me to read it and return it? Yes, but I haven’t yet.

5. A really neat looking social history on sexual violence in late-Victorian London (think Jack the Ripper), this was a Christmas gift a couple of years ago. I set it down due to typos or some such thing in the introduction. The gift giver has read the book and reassured me that it is well worth the read – I just need to skip over the introduction. I’m not very good at skipping anything so this book has just been sitting on my shelf.

6. I stole this from my parents’ bookshelves so I could read it and no longer have to hear my dad say, “What you really need to do is read that book – Anarchy, Sate, and Utopia – because then you’ll start to understand…” I guess I still need to read Anarchy, State, and Utopia.

7. Picked this up from a used bookstore a year or two ago because philosophy is one area in which I am desperately uneducated and I wanted to remedy that. It sits gathering dust on my shelf and I remain a dunce.

8. Yes, it’s just a textbook but when I started reading it in high school it really opened my eyes. I got it for free from a box of books a college professor had culled from office shelves to be discarded. I made it a significant way through the book before some folks from the church I was attending at the time gave me a lot of grief about reading a philosophy book. That’s completely disgusting, I know. After several threats to chuck the book in the lake I set it aside. Now I mostly want to pick it back up again because I am so irate about why I set it down in the first place.

If anyone has thoughts on any of the listed books or advice on how to get through them I would love to hear it. Some are clearly a matter of just making the time and picking my priorities but others seem like real hurdles. Any thoughts on what I should tackle first from this list? Any guilt books beating like a telltale heart on your shelf?