I've Been Meaning to Read...
Famous writers fess up about great works they've never pulled off the bookshelf. Read their confessions, then let us know what you've been meaning to read in the comments below.
"To Kill a Mockingbird—though I have seen the film. Now the shame of just admitting this has sent me to my bookshelves to find it. And I intend to read it straight away...honestly." — Andrea Levy, author of Small Island and The Long SongWhy To Kill a Mockingbird made a difference to John Cusack
Famous writers fess up about great works they've never pulled off the bookshelf. Read their confessions, then let us know what you've been meaning to read in the comments below.
"The Golden Bowl, by Henry James. I should have read all of James's major works, because I like difficult stuff, but for some reason I have a deficit here. I am really embarrassed about this, and because James is much beloved by a lot of serious high-art types of my acquaintance, when it comes up I go suddenly deaf for fear I will be found out. Now, apparently, the jig is up." — Rick Moody, author of The Four Fingers of Death and The Ice Storm
Famous writers fess up about great works they've never pulled off the bookshelf. Read their confessions, then let us know what you've been meaning to read in the comments below.
"The Catcher in the Rye. What is wrong with me? I don't know, but the more important everyone says that book was to them in their youth, the more I know I ought to read it and the less I feel like doing so. Somehow I missed the whole Salinger thing—although I did search the book for dirty words when I was 9!" — Cathleen Schine, author of The Three Weissmanns of Westport and The New YorkersWhy The Catcher in the Rye made a difference to Gwyneth Paltrow
Famous writers fess up about great works they've never pulled off the bookshelf. Read their confessions, then let us know what you've been meaning to read in the comments below.
"Finnegans Wake. There is no novel I admire more than Ulysses, and so it's inexplicable and unfortunate that I have not yet read more than 40 or so pages of Joyce's masterwork." — Joyce Carol Oates, author of Little Bird of Heaven: A Novel and In Rough Country: Essays and Reviews
Famous writers fess up about great works they've never pulled off the bookshelf. Read their confessions, then let us know what you've been meaning to read in the comments below.
"Virgil's Aeneid. My excuse is that I stupidly quit studying Latin when I was still too young to read it. I keep telling myself that I should ask around for the best translation. I plan to soon, before I forget." — Tracy Kidder, author of Mountains Beyond Mountains and Strength in What Remains
Famous writers fess up about great works they've never pulled off the bookshelf. Read their confessions, then let us know what you've been meaning to read in the comments below.
"Jane Eyre, but my trouble isn't lying about what I haven't read, it's lying about what I have (Tucker Max, and all the Twilights). My guess is I'll never get around to that Brontë novel. It's like smoking; if you didn't do it when you were young, why pick it up now?" — Kathryn Stockett, author of The HelpWhy Jane Eyre made a difference to Alice Walker
Plus: Two great screen adaptations of Jane Eyre
Famous writers fess up about great works they've never pulled off the bookshelf. Read their confessions, then let us know what you've been meaning to read in the comments below.
"David Copperfield. I've read less Dickens than I'd like to admit, and I'm even more ashamed of my reason: The books are so long. They look impenetrable, like things you'd use to pave a road rather than actually read. And yet I know, from reading Little Dorrit, that they're unbelievably fun." — Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from the Goon Squad and Look at MeWhy David Copperfield made a difference to Nigella Lawson
Famous writers fess up about great works they've never pulled off the bookshelf. Read their confessions, then let us know what you've been meaning to read in the comments below.
"Proust. When I was in London in my 20s, everybody else had read him, so I bought Swann's Way and gulped it down, underlining as I went. Then I let 45 years go by. Now, having embarked on another fictional reconstitution of my own lost time, I am finding Proust the perfect fit, savoring not gulping this time, and still underlining as I go." — Gail Godwin, author of The Making of a Writer, Volume 2: Journals 1963–1969 and Unfinished DesiresWhy Swann's Way made a difference to A.S. Byatt
Plus: How to read Proust
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