SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Do you have any books in your TBR that have been patiently waiting for you for months? years? decades? Obviously you want to read them because you've kept them as your kids have grown up, pets have come and gone, and you've moved from place to place. Who's been waiting the longest?

These are mine. They've all been on my bookshelf since the mid-'80s at least. The pictured covers are the editions I own.


(sorry, Allison! it's the one that first came to mind!)


(I read the first one of these three or four years ago. it was okay. notable for being musty as eff from sitting on my parents' bookshelf since I was in high school.)


(owned since the '80s, and this edition is from the '60s. venerable!)

Lucky me, I can clear three SFFBC books from my checklist once I actually get around to reading them!

Oldest e-book:

(I picked this one up not long after I got my first e-reader in 2010, and later discovered that it's part of an ongoing setting that includes at least one prior series. which I haven't yet read, so I guess it's going to moulder out in the cloud for some time yet.)

Trying to remember to be gracious and that this isn't an attack on my person. I choose kindness! XD

I think I've read most of the books I meant to read from my pre-internet days, with the exception of The Oathbound Wizard which I found in my dad's library, started and then haven't picked up again in uh...25 years?

Not sure if I have any real intention of getting to it, but I've remembered it this long so I think safe to say it's preying on my mind.

I guess I should read some of my spouse's nonfiction he likes and keeps citing >:( But I don't wanna. So then by GR count, my longest held onto books are Furies of Calderon and like all the UF ever.

I got rid of all my physical books a few years ago, so I guess I have to go by my Goodreads TBR. The oldest that I actually have plans to read is Thief's Magic by Trudi Canavan. I was waiting for the series to wrap up, and it has, and it's on my soon-TBR, when I feel like eye-reading 2200 pages of fantasy!

I surely have way older ones on my brain-TBR, but today is not the day to poke that bear.

I think the longest tbr book I own would be Emily of New Moon I think it's been on there since elementary school.

Oh, what a trip down memory lane. The oldest ones on my physical shelf that I still didn't get around to read (I bought them in the 80ies as well)


The Eyes of Heisenberg by Frank Herbert


Nightwings by Robert Silverberg


A Midsummer Tempest by Poul Anderson


The Beginning Place by Ursula K. Le Guin


Starship & Haiku by S.P. Somtow

The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett purchased May 16, 2011

Zarsthor's Bane by Andre Norton purchased July 14, 2012

The Jargoon Pard by Andre Norton purchased July 14, 2012

and a bunch of other Andre Norton books purchased around the same date.

The first three will fulfill some of the Challenges this year (J & Z in the Alphabet Title Challenge and Brett's series is set to fulfill the Fantasy block in the Series Challenge. Andre Norton, I'm slowly working my way through.

Yes! I have many books that have languished for up to 20 years. A year ago I read the one that had been on since 1997 (Otherland no. 1 Tad Williams). I’m not sure exactly what’s been there the longest actually. I’ll have a look at report back.

The oldest for me is definitely The Sorrows of Young Werther (though in the German original). It’s been on my shelf for about 8 years now.

Mine is Cyteen pretty sure I bought it after it won the Hugo so 30 years?

That will be on next year's TBR clean.

Cyteen's another one for me, Hank! It was added to my bookshelf a few years more recently than the others I listed in the OP. Our household even has two copies of it: my "book club" edition (anybody remember those?), and my partner's three-volume paperback version.

Gabi, old covers are great and there's just something about them that takes me back to certain times of my life. Not nostalgia necessarily, more like memories that only rarely come out from long-term storage to the front of my mind.

Oh, I have stuff that I had completely forgotten about, as well, and that I still have on my TBR because they're actually very interesting still!

Gonna post the actual old covers/German editions I have:

We got rid of almost all of our physical books when we moved a couple of years ago so I don't have any older ones waiting to be read. I can't go by Goodreads because I've only been using it for maybe a year and half. I'm trying to remember the books on my list that I've intended to read for the longest time.

I've been saying I was going to read this since the 90s.







I love Cyteen but I still, years later, haven't read the sequel.





This might be more historical fiction than fantasy. I'm not even completely sure what it's about, I just like Mike/M.R. Carey. I read an interview or something where he was talking about the new book he was writing and I'd finished reading his UF series so I put it on my list.

On a positive note, I read City of Pearl and Six Wakesthis year and they've been on my tbr list for years.

is the oldest on my to-read and it is a reread

is my oldest to-read that I have never read

Beth wrote: "Cyteen's another one for me, Hank! It was added to my bookshelf a few years more recently than the others I listed in the OP. Our household even has two copies of it: my "book club" edition (anybod..."

I have the bookclub version too!

This is a bit of a sad topic for me. I started looking through the books that have been on my shelf for the longest (definitely decades) and it turned into a "whatever happened to" investigation. Given how long I've had many of these books...

The oldest appears to be The Glass Teat: Essays of Opinion on the Subject of Television . This edition was published in 1975 and given to me by a fellow Harlan Ellison fan 40 years ago. I still haven't read it. There's some guilt here but at least I've kept in touch with the friend who gave it to me. Yay.

I guess I'm doing fine since these oldest ones were added in 2017:

The Birthday of the World and Other Stories
Diving into the Wreck
Gunpowder Moon
and some stuff from all those bundle sales like Saffron and Brimstone: Strange Stories

I move every few years, and so I try hard to keep things going out, either by reading or by weeding. But with series it's more difficult.

I really really want to read the seven primary books in The League of Peoples series. I own them all, and have read some... but to set aside a month or two to read them all *and* allow time to savor and digest each before moving forward has been nigh on impossible since, erm, 2008.

Oh, which reminds me, I also own the complete Animorphs collection, but I suppose that doesn't count because when they were new my older sons were the right age and we all read all of them.

The list (and stacks here at home) are too big, but it’s the classic literature and nonfiction that stymies me. War & Peace (given my copy in 1986). Moby Dick, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Sci fi/fantasy will always rise to the top of my list, but I have yet to get through Silmarillion or Cloud Atlas, despite a few starts.

I have to wonder if I really don’t want “to read” these at all.

Liane,

I am listening to The Prancing Pony Podcast, which tackles The Silmarillion one chapter or part of a chapter at a time early in its run. It will take longer than just reading the book cover to cover, but you get thoughtful analysis and friendly banter that may make the book come alive for you a bit more.

All of my TBR got loaded to Goodreads a relatively short time ago, but I have been interested in The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan for a long time, and I even have it on my Kindle from when Tor gave it out for free one month.

I’m with you Liane. I have a lot of half read non-fiction and GenFic novels that I’ve had forever.

In the fiction category, I'd have to say Hammerfall; but my non-fiction TBR has been on my intention list for many years longer : Summa Theologica, 5 Vols.

the book that has been the longest on my TBR list is The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams. I finally have the whole series.
others are:
Interview with the Vampire
want to read all of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles
Hidden Empire
The Mists of Avalon
Ender's Game
Lord Foul's Bane
Wizard's First Rule
Leviathan Wakes

I had a look at my GR shelf, and my modest and relatively recent list (only goes back as far as 2016) is here:

Hominids by Sawyer


The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Chambers


The Fifth Season by Jemisin


Arkwright by Steele

For my physical list, I don't know what's the oldest. I've got too many. As for my TBR - pile on Goodreads that's The Prodigal Mage

There are definitely books/series that have been on my TBR list for decades. Probably quite a lot, and for most of them I have no idea when I really made the decision to want to read them, so I'm not gonna start naming them all, but just a couple examples that I can date accurately:

The last Shannara book I read was Talismans, literally like the eighth book of the series, published (and read) in 1993, and I've spent the last nearly 30 years (!!!!) fully intending to continue the series, and just never did. I've re-read the original trilogy at least once in that time.

I read Tad Williams' Dragonbone Chair in 2001 or 2002, and just never continued the series, though again, I've always intended to, and even now I still intend to (though by now a re-read of the first book will be required).


I was into fantasy long before I got into sci-fi, and at some point in the last 10-15 years that dynamic shifted completely, and I haven't been into fantasy as much. So most of the books that have been on my TBR the longest will be fantasy. I started reading fantasy in 7th or 8th grade with Shannara and the Drizzt series. I think it was college before I started getting into sci-fi.


EDIT: How could I forget Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I think I first read Gunslinger in the late 80's/early 90's, and never continued, though I have always intended to, and still do. I've reread Gunslinger at least a few times since then in an effort to build momentum, and I always fail.

Hopefully this year's the year to at least make progress though because the second book is on my alphabet challenge list this year so no excuses.

I feel like there are tons ...

The Best of L. Sprague de Camp

The Best of Henry Kuttner

The Well of the Unicorn

The Blue Star

Incarnate

I'm another vote for The Desert Spear (and the rest of that series after book 1). I added it 10 Dec 2017 and somehow always find something else to read. I'm currently using 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and other Classic Novels as my excuse.

Michelle wrote: "In the fiction category, I'd have to say Hammerfall; but my non-fiction TBR has been on my intention list for many years longer : Summa Theologica, 5 Vols."

The Aquinas is a full backlog all by itself, by my reckoning!

The non-fiction that's been on my bookshelf the longest are:

recommended by a college professor, iirc. it was too difficult the first time I tried, and I've been holding onto it against the day I was ready for it.

Probably , in the early 1970s paperback edition pictured. I like Lafferty, I’ll get around to it one of these days.

Like Randy, I also have an unread copy of . Mine seems to date from the ‘80s. As I recall I once started but failed to finish a library copy. I guess I must been interested enough to pick up my own copy at some later time. I don’t know why I never read it. Maybe I will yet.

The Buy $25 get $6 credit deal is on again

https://www.amazon.com/b?node=1749591...

and it worked on both my linked accounts

Chessie! You are trying your hardest to perpetuate those decades-old TBRs, aren’t you? 😆

ah, I wondered what thread I posted that in and no, it's negatively impacting my TBR pile as well

LOL!

Just the first added on my GR TBR list:
The Lady Astronaut of Mars
To Say Nothing of the Dog
Man Plus
We Need to Talk About Kevin
...

I now feel like this should be fixed STAT. It sounds like easy enough an idea...

The "first book I added to TBR on GR" is a little difficult to figure out because of the way I organize my shelves. At a best guess, since The Killing Moon was one of the first books I reviewed when I started here, The Shadowed Sun would have been added very soon thereafter.

Beth wrote: "The "first book I added to TBR on GR" is a little difficult to figure out because of the way I organize my shelves. At a best guess, since The Killing Moon was one of the first book..."

I think you can look at all and sort by the added date (oldest to newest) and get your oldest unread

Actually, I think I have a very old SF still on my shelves: Shikasta by Doris Lessing has been eyeing me for a very long time (22 years maybe?) somewhere around the turn of the century is when I acquired a used paperback of it.

Chronicles of the Black Company - Added it to my TBR back in 2010. I have the physical copy on my bookshelf and already tried starting it a few times over the years, but I always lose interest after a few chapters.

That's one of my favorite series. I think this was the first book by Glen Cook that I had ever read.

Decades. De-CADES.

Red Mars
I've started this more than once. Only excuse is that once it was a copy at someone else's place, so I couldn't bring it home. Later I owned the paperback for 15 years. Never finished it. My screensaver is of the planet Mars. I hope to live long enough to see a colony on Mars. Dumbest thing ever that I have not read the entire award-winning trilogy.

When Gravity Fails
Picked it up many times, had it recommended many times... never grabbed me enough. Now I even own a copy.

Neuromancer
Finally finally finally, I made it through. This month. I have read it!


Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Inspiration for fave movie Bladerunner! Why not read the book? Yes, WHY NOT?


1984
When people say in a shocked voice 'You haven't read 1984?!' my stock answer is 'In our high school we did the other one, Brave New World ' so it doesn't sound as bad.

I had the Eurythmics soundtrack even though I haven't seen the movie either. This is foundational stuff right? Resonant to the times. The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
I need to read it, and I *am* going to read it... just haven't gotten to it yet.

Bonnie, read it!! I had this on my audible queue for years because I was intimidated. Then I wondered why I hadn’t read it sooner!!

Bonnie wrote: "Decades. De-CADES.

..."

Ok, of books I intend to read, known in my mind, I've had War of the Worlds on my shelf for nearly 1/2 century. For example.

But I have gotten around to Around the World in Eighty Days (not very good), Invisible Man (pretty cool), The Time Machine (disappointing), Frankenstein (yeah, not quite what I expected, but very good), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (again, so different, not in themes so much but in presentation), and Brave New World (different and richer than I expected).

I thought War of the Worlds was pretty good. Better than the Time Machine and on a level with The Invisible Man.

CBRetriever wrote: "I thought War of the Worlds was pretty good. Better than the Time Machine and on a level with The Invisible Man."

Thank you. I will try harder to prioritize this. :)

I have the entire short stories of Ray Bradbury. I have read some of them elsewhere but I have still not opened this book.

Jerry-Book wrote: "I have the entire short stories of Ray Bradbury. I have read some of them elsewhere but I have still not opened this book."

Read no more than one a week. A surfeit would sicken, as the saying goes.

According to the receipt I found inside it, I bought this book in 1975
Words of Science and the History Behind Them. About time I got to it I think:)

AndrewP wrote: "According to the receipt I found inside it, I bought this book in 1975
Words of Science and the History Behind Them. About time I got to it I think:)
[bookcover:Words of Science and..."

Ok, you might have me beat with that one! I hope it's worth the wait!