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broodings from the burrow

September 10, 2019


ten books i’m avoiding right now
posted by soe 12:26 am

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic at That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share ten books on our TBR lists/piles we’re avoiding reading and why:

I finished Early Riser last week, six months after starting it, so that is NOT a book I’m avoiding. However, there are plenty more:

  1. There There by Tommy Orange: I started it. It’s about mass shootings. It was too much. Yes, I feel guilty, so I haven’t returned it yet. But I will.
  2. Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks: It’s about fall and I want to wait until the season kicks in.
  3. Hope Rides Again by Andrew Shaffer: Biden is running for president now and his real-life presence in my life disallows my feeling nostalgia for him. That got in the way of my caring enough to keep reading so I could determine if the author was trying too hard and had turned a fun romp into a pulp potboiler. I did return this one to the library.
  4. The Body Papers by Grace Talusan: Written by the sister of someone I went to college with, I felt like I should read this memoir, but it’s about incest and again, I just didn’t feel up to it. I feel horrible about it and will likely give it another go.
  5. My Twenty-Five Years in Provence by Peter Mayle: He’s dead and there will be no more books by my favorite Provençal transplant.
  6. Daughter of the Siren Queen by Tricia Levenseller: I just finished another book about the daughter of a pirate king and it felt too soon to read another.
  7. The Summer before the War by Helen Simonson: There’s a war coming at the end of the book.
  8. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman: Karen read it and suggested the recent adaptation is too close to the text to read it so soon after watching the series.
  9. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes: I know how it ends.
  10. Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling: I love everything of hers I’ve read, but I’ve heard this books is a downer. I don’t want to not love it.

How about you? Are there books you want to read, but just not right now?

Category: books. There is/are 10 Comments.



I thought about #3 when Biden starting getting a lot of (negative) attention in/leading up to the debates. That’s too bad — this seemed like the perfect goofy fanfiction.

OOF @ #4, that’s a double whammy of heaviness. It would take me a while too.

And good tip on #8! I don’t know if that actually makes me more or less likely to read it, but I just finished the miniseries (like, yesterday, 8 weeks after starting) and it was so fun that I’ve been debating trying the book, since I’ve never read anything by either of those authors.

Comment by RS 09.10.19 @ 1:19 am

I loved THERE THERE. There is a lot of story, with foreshadowing, before the trouble at the PowWow. It is actually pretty amazing. My TBR books I’m avoiding

Comment by Anne@HeadFullofBooks 09.10.19 @ 1:22 am

I tried to read Good Omens after watching the miniseries and had that exact reaction to it. Waiting is good, IMO.

My TTT.

Comment by Lydia 09.10.19 @ 5:49 am

I still haven’t read Good Omens either! I’m considering just watching the TV show without doing so because it looks like something I’d love.

Comment by Amber 09.10.19 @ 6:03 am

I can understand not wanting to read Casual Vacancy because you don’t want to be disappointed by an author you love. Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.

Comment by Poinsettia 09.10.19 @ 7:37 am

Even though you know how it ends, I think Me Before You is still worth reading. The path to the end and the emotions are so well done.

Comment by Deanna @ A Novel Glimpse 09.10.19 @ 10:39 am

I have a hold on Pumpkinheads at my library but they haven’t gotten it in yet. Don’t know if I’ll get it until after fall is over unless they’re ordering multiple copies (I’m 22 on the list). It sounds like a good book though.

Comment by Brooke Lorren 09.10.19 @ 12:48 pm

All understandable reasons for avoidance. I haven’t made much progress on reading all of the books on the list of Top 100 Children’s Books partly because I’m avoiding the next unread book on the list, which is “Bridge to Terabithia.” I saw the movie, so I know what happens, and I don’t want to have to cry.

Comment by Karen 09.11.19 @ 9:00 am

Good Omens is good either way! 🙂

Lauren @ Always Me

Comment by Lauren @ Always Me 09.11.19 @ 7:48 pm

Pumpkinheads DEFINITELY screams perfect for autumn! I can definitely see why you are holding off on that one until then!

Comment by Jessica at Booked J 09.13.19 @ 5:02 pm