Weekly Geeks 2010-35

The books I waited too long to read...
As readers we all have our own way of deciding how fast or how slow we add books to our TBR pile and how fast we get through them.

We make list of books, we get recommendations, we drool over the cover art or just hang around in the book section reading excerpt all under the guise of making a decision about what we will delve into next.
If you are like me YOU WILL HAVE A TBR PILE, no if, and or but about it. My print pile is just about everywhere and my ebooks are taking up too much space on my hard drive.

That said…

Once in a while I read a book I have had for years and I think “How the hell did I miss this one? Why did I not read this one before?

Is there a book that has hang around your reading pile for far too long before you got to it, A book that probably got packed away until you accidentally got to it or a book that you read a few pages in and never got back to.

If so share or ask your readers about that book that really made an impression on them (good or bad) after having it or hearing about it for far too long?

Sadly most of the books I put off for too long are books I eventually regretted reading at all, maybe I shouldn't read books that I keep putting off!

Two examples:
Twilight (yes, I read all of them)
Harry Potter (yes, I read all of them...the first was good)

There have been a few books that I put off and put off that I eventually read and loved. That for some reason I kept returning to the TBR pile but loved once I read them.

Examples:
Villette by Charlotte Brontë
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Birthgrave by Tanith Lee (I had read the Four BEE books and The Silver Metal Lover before...but this book kicked off the Tanith Lee frenzy I am still on)

Villette was atmospheric and character-driven, slightly less gothic and paranormal than good old Jane Eyreand the better for it. I had expected this to be inferior to the more famous Jane but I would highly recommend this romance to anyone who enjoys the Brontës or Victorian romances.

The Bell Jar is always touted as the girl's verion of Catcher in the Rye which I read in elementary school and enjoyed. So this kept going back to the bottom of the pile. When I did rediscover it in my TBR, I found it superior to Salinger's and far more enjoyable (I don't think it's because I'm a girl either, I think it's just a better, more adult, book).

The Birthgrave is crappy fantasy/sci-fi from the 1970s at its best. Excellent (if chronologically inconsistent in just one case) worldbuilding and characterization; readers really get into the characters "heads." While it is just a "meh" book while you are reading it, fun and exciting but nothing to write home about, you realise its excellence when you can't stop thinking about the world and characters for days after finishing it. The book acts as a stand alone, although it is the first in a trilogy.
(image from here!)

This Weekly Geeks has inspired me to re-evaluate my TBR at least!