So like a lot of you I'm constantly adding books to my collection. Some I read right away; some I get around to later rather than sooner, and some just sit there. For ever. These are the top 10 oldest books in my TBR pile, as determined by where they sit in my LibraryThing catalog.
I've been a LibraryThing member since May of 2007; all of these books were entered in my catalog during that month, so all of them have been hanging out for almost ten years!
1. Palestine, by Joe Sacco. I love Joe Sacco's work and have read a couple of his books, but this one, about the time he spent in Palestine, I have not gotten to yet. I know it's controversial and I think that's kept me away. But I'm still hoping one of these days I'll get there.
2. Libraries in the Ancient World, by Lionel Casson. This book was a gift from my husband, who is a classics buff, given to me when I was still in library school.
3. The Houses of Belgrade, by Borislav Pekic, and 4., The Fortress, by Mesa
Semilovic, are books I bought at the same time, novels from the Writings from an Unbound Europe series which features novels from Eastern Europe. Both of these are from the former Yugoslavia, at one time a subject I read a lot about. I haven't gotten to these but I have hesitated to weed them because books from the series are hard to get a hold of if ever I wanted to find them again.
5. Babel Tower, by A.S. Byatt. Byatt is one of my favorite authors and I really have no good excuse for my I not having read it. I really should!
6. Librarians of Alexandria: A Tale of Two Sisters, by Alessandra Lavignino. Another book someone gave me while I was in library school.
7. Enemies, A Love Story, by
Isaac Bashevis Singer. I read his book The Slave and really loved it, so I picked up Enemies, which I have not read.
8. Tito: Moscow's Trojan Horse, by Slobodan M. Draskovich is a history book with an amusing title that I picked up while I was reading a lot about the Balkans. I haven't read it, but I can't bring myself to part with it.
9. The Fairy Gunmother, by Daniel Pennac, is a French crime novel with an amusing title. One of these days!
10. The Known World, by Edward P. Jones, is a literary novel I found at a library book sale and keep swearing I'll read soon. Anything's possible!
And these are just my ten oldest. There so, so very many books in my collection that I haven't read- definitely more than I have. And I never seem to stop accumulating them!