Question: what books have you yet to read?

Slate Magazine recently asked readers “what Netflix rental have you kept unwatched the longest?” Last Friday, they published the results of the poll. By far, the “winner” was Hotel Rwanda. It epitomizes the movie which everyone feels they need to watch but cannot seem to muster the courage or energy to do so. (Ironically, I have owned Hotel Rwanda for well over two years and still have not watched it myself!)

In any case, I want to extend this same basic question to students and professors: what book have you checked out from the library or bought from the bookstore but have still not yet read? If you wish, feel free to explain why you think this is the case.

For my part, I have owned Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship for years, but I just cannot seem to get around to reading it. I think this is probably because it’s one of those “classics” that (1) people assume you’ve read and (2) are never assigned for a class. Perhaps I’ll get around to it someday.

Care to weigh in?

Comments

Ben Sternke said…
I read posts on this blog regularly but don't think I've ever commented. Your question really intrigued me, especially since I actually owned Hotel Rwanda for two years before I watched it, too. It did take some courage! After a long day, when your choices are "Hotel Rwanda" or "Anchorman", you can guess which usually wins.

As far as books, I'd name three I can't seem to get around to reading:

1. The Idiot - Dostoevsky (read Demons and Brothers K. but can't do this one for some reason)

2. Transforming Mission - David Bosch (worried that it will just be technical theological justification for concepts I've read about elsewhere).

3. The Resurrection of the Son of God - N.T. Wright (already read the first two in the series, but again, worried that it will just be background evidence for stuff I read in "Surprised By Hope")
Halden said…
Oh, it would be far easier to list the things that I have read! The list would be a lot shorter.

But one big bad omission so far: MacIntyre's After Virtue.

Though I don't think that's as bad as not reading Bonhoeffer!
Anonymous said…
It's probably approaching 8-9 years since I purchased it but Niebuhr's (the other one) Christ and Culture is still unread.
Anonymous said…
I bought Dunn's newest book, The New Perspective on Paul, but have yet to read it, although I am really interested in what it has to say as I have mostly read Wright and Hay's versions of the NPP.

I think the biggest reason I haven't read it yet is because I have been caught up in reading ANE/OT books and monographs all summer and have recently plunged into the wonderful world of Barth, which, as you know, takes up much time. Also, the first chapter of Dunn's book is 80+ pages...a bit intimidating of a start!
Anonymous said…
I'd have to echo Halden that the list of what I haven't read is way too long. I guess the one that jumps out at me is Augustine's City of God, given that I've read and re-read Confessions and On the Trinity. It's also a bit of a tragedy because for whatever reason (call it hubris) the first Christian book I ever checked out in college after my "conversion" was City of God which I attempted to read as a devotional!
Evan said…
On Hotel Rwanda, my story is just the opposite. My wife and I went to see it in the theater on our first date, in preparation for an upcoming lecture on campus about the movie and the genocide (our second date, I suppose!). Not exactly the typical romantic dating scenario, but it all worked out.

Heiko Obermann's Harvest of Medieval Theology sits on my shelf waiting for me.
Unknown said…
Küng's The Church. Why have I not read this? What am I afraid of?
Unknown said…
I keep the thinking the big three in western thought are Kant's first critique, Hegel's phenomenology, and Heidegger's Being and Time, all three are sitting on shelf holding quiet communion together (alongside Marx's first volume of Capital).
i have yet to read the book of Numbers all the way through. ;-)
Anonymous said…
Wow, Chris, you should be ashamed of yourself! As for me, I've never read Life Together or Letters and Papers from Prison. Both have sat sadly on my shelf for many years collecting dust.
Darren said…
I started "The Brothers K" about a decade ago, got 100 pages in, and haven't gotten back to it since.

On the movie front, I have to say that I picked up "The Passion of the Christ" right when it was released, but in the absence of immediate controversy I have never had the desire to watch it.
Natanael Disla said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Natanael Disla said…
Feel to read One hundred years of solitude by Gabriel García Márquez again. Got the first one-hundred pages and got confused with the repetition of names and characters... nearly thirteen years ago.
Anonymous said…
Eric Auerbach, Mimesis; Robert Solomon, The Passions.