I am a bit of a reading voyeur/exhibitionist.

This is news to nobody.

I enjoyed reading Janssen’s post last week about books she gave up on.

Ah. How interesting. I have plenty of friends who just can’t give up on books! They balk at the very suggestion that instead of wasting their time on a book the so obviously do not enjoy, they might, you know, not read that book. Heck, I even have friends who read entire bad SERIES! I’m not here to slam your reading habits, though. I only rarely give up on books myself, but I try to reserve the desperate-reading-slog for books I have another incentive to finish.

Just Read What You Want.

Anyway. While I don’t have enough DNF books in my recent memory to share them with you, I do have an ABUNDANCE of unread books from my main source of non-reading bad habits: the good old, Check-out, Don’t Read, Return dance. Otherwise known as The Ones That Got Away. Or, One Librarian’s Quest to Singlehandedly and Artificially Boost Her Library’s Circ Stats, One Book At A Time.

Anyway, these books, I didn’t get to read. Allow me to exhibition them for you.

 

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

Hot summer title buzz. We ordered and reordered this one. My new-found fantasy radar dinged. I placed it on hold.

… I wondered why it was so huge and heavy looking. I think my Favorite Roommate texted me to lament over the ridiculous family tree printed on the inside cover.

Basically, I did not accept the challenge. Wimpy wimp wimp.

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

This one was huge and heavy looking, too, but OH how I wanted to read it. I did. I read the first few pages and my heart sighed. Remind me to tell you about how much I love Elizabeth Gilbert. Go ahead, judge away, you cannot halt my affections. Her writing just sings to me. And I was so sad to have to return it.

Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Look guys. I don’t want to give up on reading Gayle Forman, but if you knew how many times I have checked out her books without reading them, your head would spin. I don’t know why! Maybe I need to apply the good old Bring One Book While You Are Trapped on an Airplane technique. Or try audio, which is actually a similar tactic. “You are going to LISTEN to this book while you DO THE DISHES and there’s NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO AVOID IT.” Force-reading. Yeah, THAT’S fun…

The Yonahlossee Riding Camps for Girls by Anton DiSclafani

I got an inkling that I wanted to read a lot of summer camp books this summer, since I love summer camp books. This adult fic book popped up right around that same time, so I was excited.

Then the summer got away from me. Ah well.

I am questioning the validity of this post. Does anyone actually want to read why I *didn’t* read a random set of books? Am I making a valuable contribution to… anything? I’m afraid I’m too far into this post to worry about that now. I must trudge forth.

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid

Another Hot Summer Book that languished, ignored, on my shelf.

Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick

And a Hot Summer YA Book that I let go to pasture, as well. It feels worse when my unread books are light and fluffy. It would have taken me one Saturday morning to finish this one. ONE Saturday morning! What was I doing for all of those Saturdays? Statistically speaking, playing Skyrim. Shame shame shame.