Readers On Tackling Their Ultimate TBR Book

Posted by Cybil on March 27, 2020


Well, here we all are, sheltering in place, buying canned beans, and generally trying to figure out how to stay inside and keep our minds busy. We thought it might be a good time to ask Goodreads members on Twitter and Facebook to share the book that's lingered for far too long on their Want to Read shelves that they finally going to get around to cozying up with.

The answers were as varied as our members, ranging from long, immersive reads, to classics, to newer books that have come highly recommended from friends and family. Thank you to everyone who shared your reading plans. We've rounded up a sampling of those books below and we hope it might inspire even more readers to pick up a book that they've always wanted to read.
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What's the book you're going to find time to read now? Share your list book with us in the comments!

Check out more recent articles:
Goodreads Members Suggest: Favorite Comfort Reads
Glennon Doyle's Books for Challenging Times
7 Great Books Hitting Shelves This Week

Comments Showing 1-50 of 67 (67 new)


message 1: by Chris (last edited Mar 27, 2020 12:28AM) (new)

Chris Crime and Punishment
A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution
The Pillars of the Earth

These are very large books but I am literally just sitting in my room these days lol.


message 2: by Jeffery (new)

Jeffery Lee Radatz Yes, I find myself having more time to read, now that everything is closed.


message 4: by Anastasi (new)

Anastasi Plus, great quarantine reads list of books about pandemic and post apocalypse:
https://backpacksnstuff.tumblr.com/po...
Shortly:
- "Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel
- "The Book of M" by Peng Shepherd
- "Borne" by Jeff Vandermeer
- "MaddAddam" trilogy by Margaret Atwood
- "Slapstick" and "Galapagós" by Kurt Vonnegut
- "Doomsday Book" by Connie Willis
- "Chew" comic-series by John Layman and Rob Guillory
- "Sweet Tooth" comic-series by Jeff Lemire
- "Wittgenstein's Mistress" by David Markson
None of them are depressing:)


message 5: by TMR (new)

TMR These are an interesting collection.


message 6: by Leena (new)

Leena Salmi Korona have at least this good side. Can finally sink in to good books and find new ones.


message 7: by Crystal (new)

Crystal Yes! War and Peace has been on my list for ages. Can't think of a better time to dig into this one!


message 8: by Sasha (new)

Sasha Ambroz Nine of them are on my to-read list.


message 9: by Jaymee (new)

Jaymee The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. Just finished Crime and Punishment!


message 10: by Jan (last edited Mar 27, 2020 05:23AM) (new)

Jan I just finished The Count of Monte Cristo! Next I would like to read Lonesome Dove. I have read 19 on this list.


message 12: by Samantha (new)

Samantha Pron I would like to read Anna Karenina and Watership Down this year. Atlas Shrugged would be good, too.


message 13: by Alison (new)

Alison Holliday The Secret History


message 14: by Nicole R (new)

Nicole R I literally started Dune last night and have Wolf Hall up next!

Though, I am a bit nervous about Dune...it is much longer than I anticipated!


message 15: by Jasmine (new)

Jasmine I've been wanting to read Vanity Fair for a long time.


message 16: by Kelly (new)

Kelly I don't know that I have more time to read because of being at home per se (I'm still working and I never was huge on going out) but avoiding social media right now gives me more time for sure.

I went from three books behind to all caught up on my challenge (52 books).

I am reading as I always read, what I want, mostly for sheer pleasure. Not tackling anything I wouldn't be reading anyway beyond the tackling of my own shelves versus checking out a ton of books.


message 17: by Jessica (new)

Jessica Izaguirre I finally started 1Q84 which I've been meaning to do for a while!


message 18: by Kelly (new)

Kelly Jessica wrote: "I finally started 1Q84 which I've been meaning to do for a while!"

I really liked that one when I read it a few years ago. Enjoy!


message 19: by Cendaquenta (new)

Cendaquenta I've read a good few of these. Currently working on Wolf Hall, less than a hundred pages to go.

I'm hoping to get to Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe during this lockdown, and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Plus most of the books on the Women's Prize for Fiction longlist.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a good idea, that's on my owned TBR and I'm pretty sure I'll like it.
I'm also meaning to read The Rising: The Newsflesh Trilogy, although maybe right now it's not such a good idea to read a post-apocalyptic story about a mutated virus that creates zombies...


message 20: by Brittany (new)

Brittany A Thousand Splendid Suns is my favorite book, highly recommend!!!


message 21: by Jayma (new)

Jayma My son gave me David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest for Christmas, and I really want to get going on that. I think it will take me a while.


message 22: by Amber (new)

Amber I plan to read the ebooks on my ereader, and what is on my TBR with my libby app and on hoopla. Right now I am reading Crime Seen which is a pretty good read and more


message 23: by Gene (new)

Gene Borowski "Death on the Nile" has been on my TBR list the longest. As I started to get into Agatha Christie, my OCD got the better of me and I had to start reading the Poirot novels in order from #1 on.

Coincidentally, DotN is next up when my reading list rotation swings back to the top. ;>)


message 24: by Anastasi (new)

Anastasi Jayma wrote: "My son gave me David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest for Christmas, and I really want to get going on that. I think it will take me a while."

I started reading Infinite Jest two years ago...still reading...but it's a good book:)


message 25: by Erin (last edited Mar 27, 2020 09:42AM) (new)

Erin Amber wrote: "I plan to read the ebooks on my ereader, and what is on my TBR with my libby app and on hoopla. Right now I am reading Crime Seen which is a pretty good read and more"

Same here, everyone should sign up for a library card if they can. I'm currently reading The Making of You A Journey from Cell to Human by Katharina Vestre
How To Be Right in a World Gone Wrong by James O'Brien When a Scot Ties the Knot (Castles Ever After, #3) by Tessa Dare
I also have a ton of books that I have after I will finish those in a week.


message 26: by Angrboda (new)

Angrboda Can recommend Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. It's very very good.


message 27: by Mallory (new)

Mallory I'm finally getting to The Song of Achilles and plan on reading Circe too.


message 28: by Jim (new)

Jim DeVries I’ve been reading James Ellroy’s “LA Quartet”.

Really good, moves fast. It will have to, I have a seemingly endless TBR list.


message 29: by Jessica (new)

Jessica Izaguirre Jayma wrote: "My son gave me David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest for Christmas, and I really want to get going on that. I think it will take me a while."

I was not able to conquer this book, it was too dense for me, although what I read was good.


message 30: by Jessica (new)

Jessica Izaguirre Mallory wrote: "I'm finally getting to The Song of Achilles and plan on reading Circe too."

I loved both these books! they're great.


message 31: by Eliza (last edited Mar 27, 2020 11:38AM) (new)

Eliza I've read a book a day since March 20th something I've started with some of the shorted books on my TBR first then I'm going to try and read some of the oldest books on my TBR starting with The Last Nemsara and The dark days club


message 32: by Jlynn (new)

Jlynn I've set myself a mini goal: How many books will I read and listen to during this lock down? I am curious to see. I am being a voracious reader right now!


message 33: by Greg (new)

Greg Kyhn I have a copy of The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson, that I bought months ago. While I enjoy his books immensely, I've been off to a rather slow start with this one.

I have started reading The Honorable Schoolboy by John LeCarre (part two of the Karla trilogy). I re-read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy a few weeks ago and I'm determined to read the other books including Smiley's People this year.


message 34: by Lizzie (new)

Lizzie Vukovics I was finally able to finish The Lord of the Rings!


message 35: by Mikkel (new)

Mikkel Andersen Just startet reading 1Q84 today. I have this fun game when reading Murakami, whenever he mentions a piece of music, i find it and listen to it while reading.


message 36: by Roaa (new)

Roaa i've read three of these (crime and punishment, a thousand splendid suns and little fires everywhere) [all of them were amazing] and 9 of them are in the tbr list


message 37: by Kim (new)

Kim The oldest book on my TBR list is Lila Lila by Marilynne Robinson , which I actually got out from the library just before it closed indefinitely.


message 38: by Weatherly (new)

Weatherly Anastasi wrote: "Plus, great quarantine reads list of books about pandemic and post apocalypse:
https://backpacksnstuff.tumblr.com/po...
Shortly:
- "Station Eleven" by Emily..."


I have been having flashbacks to Station Eleven, it is an INTENSE book to read right now. Really amazing, but holy woof.


message 39: by Alexios (last edited Mar 27, 2020 05:39PM) (new)

Alexios Jayma wrote: "My son gave me David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest for Christmas, and I really want to get going on that. I think it will take me a while."

You might be interested in 'Infinite Summer', which breaks the book up into 10-15 page chunks and has a lot of random nice stuff that makes reading IJ easier.

https://infinitesummer.org/

Sadly, the best part of Infinite Jest is the last third, so I encourage you to push through the inevitable urge to DNF the book at around ~350 pages.


message 40: by Cheryl (new)

Cheryl Chris wrote: "Crime and Punishment
A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution
The Pillars of the Earth

These are very large books but I am literally just si..."


I recommend Pillars - great time to focus on an excellent read!


message 41: by CLB (new)

CLB Since social distancing I’ve completed 6 books. While I find these circumstances frustrating reading and writing give me peace.


message 42: by Elise (new)

Elise I don't think it's going to have much of an impact on my reading as my routine remains pretty much the same. My main book right now is Wool. I suppose it's been on my shelf for a while. Right now just feels like the time for bigger books.


message 43: by Mandr1ll (new)

Mandr1ll I've read only 1 books from this list and 15 are in my TBR pile.


message 44: by Caryn (new)

Caryn What is the What by Dave Eggers


message 45: by Jessica (new)

Jessica Robinson Had these two books for a few years now, and am finally getting around to reading them! Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, and The Journals of Sylvia Plath :D


message 46: by Gerardine (new)

Gerardine  Betancourt imaginary friend


message 47: by Cendaquenta (new)

Cendaquenta Lizzie wrote: "I was finally able to finish The Lord of the Rings!"

Congratulations! 😁


message 48: by Tanvi (last edited Mar 29, 2020 11:29PM) (new)

Tanvi Carissa wrote: "Had these two books for a few years now, and am finally getting around to reading them! Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, and The Journals of Sylvia Plath :D"

Enjoy Plath, Carissa! She was a tour de force.

I’m struggling with Sapiens - have been for months.

I’m going to get around to Anna Karenina.


message 49: by Clare (last edited Mar 30, 2020 01:59AM) (new)

Clare Mcgovern Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
And loving it. What better time to read a 1000 page novel?


message 50: by Jasmine (new)

Jasmine Cendaquenta wrote: "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a good idea, that's on my owned TBR and I'm pretty sure I'll like it."

I read it years ago and loved it. It has been on my TRR (To Re-Read) list for a while now.


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