To Be Read (TBR) piles are a popular subject: the first page of Google search results provides a wide variety of tips for "managing" or "getting through" the books one hasn't yet read. My own strategy is to make periodic lists of them--my last one was in 2022--and to use the list as an aide-mémoire when I find myself in a bookstore or library. Listing the book puts me under no obligation to read it, now or ever, but it's exciting to gather all the possibilities of what I might read.
Which of these books would you pick up first?
1. C.J. Cherryh, Hammerfall
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On the list because the title is cool, and becayse Cherryh is one of the many famous and well-regarded science fiction authors whose works I have yet to read.
My sister enthusiastically recommends this book and the larger series of which is a part, The Saint of Steel. Apparently, this features an angst-y paladin who knits socks. My interest is piqued.
3. May Sarton, The Small Room
I loved The House by the Sea, one of Sarton's journals, and I've enjoyed a number of her poems, but I don't know her work as a novelist. I'm not immediately attracted to campus novels but this one seems worth a try.
4. John Darnielle, Devil House
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I know John Darnielle from his music (one of my goals in life is to see his band, The Mountain Goats, live). I don't usually read or want to read horror novels but this seems like it could be strange and weird and gripping in all the right ways.
5. Lynn Flewelling, Casket of Souls
This is actually the sixth of seven book in the Nightrunner series, so for completness, and because I hate starting in the middle of series, let me note that the first book is called Luck in the Shadows. A series of heroic fantasy novels with a bisexual spy as a protagonist? Color me interested.
6. Joan D. Vinge, The Outcasts of Heaven Belt
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Vintage science fiction? Vintage science fiction!
7. John Truby, The Anatomy of Story
In an interview, he did a few years ago, the novelist Victor Lavelle recommended this as his favourite book about the craft of writing.
8. Vaslav Nijinsky, The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky, edited by Joan Acocella
The unexpurgated diary of the one of the twentieth century's greatest dancers.
9. Evelyn Waugh, A Handful of Dust
I bought a copy of Helena (Waugh's novel about the life of the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine) a few months ago; this also sounds intriguing.
10. Joy Chant, Red Moon and Black Mountain
A high fantasy novel, now out of print, which went on my list entirely for its evocative title and beautiful cover.
11. Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Diving into the Wreck
Exploration, salvage, and tourism of abandoned spaceships is a new to me science fiction premise, and one I think I would enjoy.
12. Ellen Klages, Passing Strange
Ellen Klages' short story collection Portable Childhoods is one of those books I recommend to people with the glittering eyes and trembling voice of an addicted fanatic. I love her work so much and look forward to reading this.
13. Emma Sterner-Radley, Snowblooded
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A beautiful cover and an assassins' guild. This sounds rather fun!
14. Omaima al-Khamis, The Book Smuggler
I love historical fiction and this seems like a corker--a novel about a scribe who smuggles books around the medieval Islamic world.
15. Alan Garner, Treacle Walker
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This book was added to this list due to its euphonious title and a short page count.
16. Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company
Apparently, the creator of Sherlock Holmes also wrote Arthuriana!
17. Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
Having watched and adored the two parts of Les Trois Mousquetaires, I want more. More. More! And what better place to get it than the original novel.
18. Alexandre Dumas, La Reine Margot
This sounds like a wild ride through a dramatic period of history.
19. Rafael Sabatini, Bellarion the Fortunate
Listen, Captain Blood, The Seahawk, and Scaramouche, are three of my favourite works of historical fiction--especially Scaramouche, which has some of the most perfect opening lines ever written. More Sabatini in my life is always a good thing.
20. Samuel Shellabarger, Prince of Foxes
The entire premise of this novel reminds me of my favourite bits of Dorothy Dunnett's House of Niccolo series.
21. Christopher Soto, Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color
I love anthologies of poetry and this one seems like a great way to encounter work that is new to me.
22. 100 Knitted Tiles
I am not sure what one does with a knitted tile--sew them together to make a blanket? Use them as coasters?--but I do love knitting squares in lots of different designs.
23. Victor Lavelle, The Ballad of Black Tom
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Retellings and reimaginings of the work of H.P. Lovecraft fascinate me.
24. Lord Dunsany, The King of Elfland's Daughter
Tell me something is a classic, or especially that it is a book that fell into obscurity and has been rediscovered, and I am very likely to file it in my memory--or my blog post--as something worth reading.
25. Mervyn Peake, The Gormenghast Novels
I borrowed these from the library as a teenager and never finished them. I remember absolutely nothing of the plot other than an atmosphere of melancholy strangeness.
26. Laurie J. Marks, Fire Logic
The first of a four-book series of fantasy novels, with a unique and intriguing premise.
27. William Wright, Harvard's Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Pursuit of Campus Homosexuals
Apparently Harvard was ahead of the curve, having a Lavender Scare of its own decades before the United States government decided to get in on the act. The main source for this book was Harvard's own archives of proceedings against its students.
28. Katherine Rundell, Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne
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I've read the complete poetry of John Donne and I love it; it would be a great delight to learn more about the poet and his life.
29. John Steinbeck, Cup of Gold
Did you know that John Steinbeck's first novel was a work of historical fiction about an early modern privateer (Henry Morgan)? I didn't either! There's another Sabatini link here, too--the titular character of Captain Blood is also based on Henry Morgan.
30. Hana Videen, The Deorhord
I loved Videen's book about daily life in early medieval England; this book, about Old English words for animals, seems equally fun.
31. Seán Hewitt and Luke Edward Hall, 300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World
As I wrote a few years ago, Frank Wynn's otherwise excellent anthology Queer: LGTBQ Writing from Ancient Times to the Present, contains a gap of fifteen hundred years; 300,000 Kisses seems like a book to fill in that gap. And the illustrations look beautiful.
