We all have a list of books we’ve told ourselves we’ll read ‘one day’, this is the most ambitious of TBRs filled with books that need our full and undivided attention. Perhaps they’re the classics that you’ve been told over and over that you need to read or just really long and you haven’t had the time to read them and suddenly now YOU HAVE TIME. SO MUCH TIME.

So here, for your perusal, is my of aspirational reads that I now know for a fact that I was never going to read.

The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton

I have the Kindle edition of this book, the ARC and the audiobook but it’s not going to happen. Peer pressure and the beautiful cover drew me in but it’s sooooo damn long and didn’t lure me in fast enough – I give myself bonus points for actually having tried this one though! I’ll keep it in my Audible queue for another couple of years though… in case another pandemic happens and I’m more motivated on the second turn of the wheel.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

I bought the hardback edition of this book because the cover was gorgeous, the synopsis seemed like my kind of thing and I’d heard of the author before… but nope. Of all the stupid things to have to admit, the book was physically too big for me to hold properly so I ended up buying the Kindle edition which I proceeded to not read.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Dammit, did I try to read this one. I took a run up at it and got about 300 pages into this 1463 page monstrosity but it’s like it doesn’t want to be read. It crushes you will to keep your eyes over at every turn… but I have to appreciate it for inspiring the name of my blog!

I’m just going to accept that seeing this on the West End is going to be my peak Les Mis experience and move on.

The Once and Future King

I’ve had the paperback of this one for about 20 years now, it’s graced a bookshelf in every house/flat/caravan I’ve ever lived in and I still haven’t read it. Of course, the tragically funny thing is that the type is so small that I’d have to get a different edition if I wanted to read it now. I am the once and future procrastinator.

The outlier I have on my aspirational TBR list is:

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

I feel like there’s still a chance that I might read this book, sure it’s been living on my bedside table for three years now and I’ve not made it past the first twenty pages but that’s better innings than poor T.H. White got!

If you’re feeling brave and ready to ‘fess up – what books are you ready to admit that you own but will never actually finish?