The Terror of Knowing

Welcome one, welcome all, to Top Ten Tuesday! For those who are unaware (or who might need a reminder) Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by book bloggers and list lovers, The Broke and the Bookish, and is now hosted fantastically by Jana from That Artsy Girl! Each week a topic is chosen for bloggers to respond to.

This week’s topic is Books By My Favourite Authors That I Still Haven’t Read. You might know the feeling: you’ve read an amazing top ten best of all-time book by an author so you call them one of your favourite authors and you enthusiastically track down, buy, or put on your TBR all of their other books. Then, time passes, and you realise you still haven’t read that book by them. Can you still consider them your favourite author? The guilt spirals…

But to bring it back to an optimistic tone, just think of how great it is that you still have books left by your favourite author to experience reading for the first time! Let’s see my list, shall we?

I should point out I only managed to think of 8 for this “Top Ten”, which is pretty good going… but I did only pick one book for each author as sort of stand ins for the ones where I have multiple books as of yet unread. Clearly, I need to get reading!

8) Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

I’ve read everything else Leigh Bardugo at this point so what’s one more book? I’ve heard mostly mixed reviews about the DC Icons series which is probably why I haven’t picking this one up yet. I’m also much more of a Marvel gal than a DC one. However, I did enjoy the recent Wonder Woman film so clearly I’m not completely adverse. Plus it’s Leigh Bardugo and I trust Leigh Bardugo with most things, so I’m sure this is wonderful.

7) Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

I’m a big fan of Matt Haig and I enjoy his fiction (though, again, I’ve only read The Humans and How to Stop Time, both of which I loved) but his non-fiction is what I often keep an eye on. Despite this, and despite buying a signed edition of this as soon as it was released, I still haven’t got to Notes on a Nervous Planet which is a little bit silly considering it’s a short, easily digestible book.

6) The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier

Rebecca is one of my favourite books of all-time and whilst I have re-read that a fair few times, and also tried out some other du Maurier for size (Jamaica Inn, Frenchman’s Creek, and My Cousin Rachel), I somehow haven’t read this novel which is silly because it sounds so intriguing.

5) The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

One of these days I’ll actually read this book and then I’ll no longer be able to include it on lists such as this one. Seriously, at this point, it’s shameful that I profess to love this series so much but I haven’t yet finished this final book. I think it’s because I have issues with letting go, and that’s principally why I still haven’t read The Raven King. But, even so, it’s getting ridiculous by this point…

4) King Lear by William Shakespeare (stands in for all the Shakespeare I haven’t got to yet!)

Despite taking a third-year Shakespeare class, and specialising in early modern literature, I managed to get along having not read every single thing (allegedly) penned by William Shakespeare (whoever he was). And whilst I’m ok with that, I do kind of want to make it my mission to read the rest of the plays I never got to during university. King Lear is one of the “big ones” that I haven’t got to, so that can definitely stand in for the rest.

3) Emma by Jane Austen

Not only is this novel my namesake, Austen is a firm favourite, and I love the BBC miniseries starring Romola Garai and Johnny Lee Miller. So, all things considered, I know I will like the story (unlike with Mansfield Park)… but I still haven’t read the book. I once got like 50 pages in but I never finished it, or even made a decent go of it. I need to correct this grievous error, stat!

2) City of Ghosts by V.E. Schwab (stands in for The Archived and The Unbound too)

Ok so this one has only been published for a few weeks but, even still, I’m ashamed I haven’t read it yet. Nowadays I tend to gobble up whatever V puts out into the world so it’s ridiculous that I haven’t got to this book yet, especially considering it’s set in Edinburgh which is a place I have such a fondness for.

1) Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (stands in for Fragile Things, Anansi Boys, Smoke and Mirrors, Trigger Warning, The View from the Cheap Seats too)

Those who are veterans of this blog will well know that Neil Gaiman wrote(ish) two of my all-time favourite books: The Graveyard Book and Good Omens (which he coauthored with Terry Pratchett, hence the “ish”). Despite this, I still haven’t managed to tackle all of his bibliography but, in my defence, he’s quite prolific (not to the extent of his previous co-author, admittedly). Even so, I adore Neil Gaiman’s way with words so I really ought to have read more of his books than I actually have.

That’s all folks, those were the Top Ten Books By My Favourite Authors That I Still Haven’t Read! What books by your faves have you not yet read? Do you ever feel weird about calling someone your favourite author if you haven’t read all their work? I do! If you have your own Top Ten Tuesday post, please link me!

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