Top Ten Tuesday: The Neglected Books

Posted April 23, 2024 by Nicky in General / 16 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is all about the unread books on your shelves that you want to get around to soon. Like many readers, I have plenty of those… I’m going to stick to books I haven’t even peeked into yet, and exclude the (too many) books I’ve read a little bit of… and I’ll try to pick some older books instead of the ones that’re top of mind because they’re recent purchases!

Cover of System Collapse by Martha Wells Cover of The Cactus Hunters by Jarden D. Margulies Cover of The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood Cover of The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard Cover of The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang

  1. System Collapse, by Martha Wells. And Witch King, to be honest. I got both of these as ARCs, not realising how very busy my studies would keep me. I’m currently listening to the Murderbot books on audio, which should make a great on-ramp into System Collapse without me getting distracted by rereading the older books…
  2. The Cactus Hunters: Desire and Extinction in the Illicit Succulent Trade, by Jared D. Margulies. I mostly requested the ARC of this because I have a friend who loves succulents, and I wanted to see if it would be worth getting for him once it was out. And then it was in an awkward format and I didn’t get round to putting it on the ereader that can cope with that, and… and here we are and it’s been forever. And I’m still curious about why people go so mad for some succulents that they might drive them extinct.
  3. The Love Hypothesis, by Ali Hazelwood. I read Loathe to Love You, and enjoyed Hazelwood’s style… and just on principle I own several of her novels, because geeky ladies in STEM being heroines of romance novels sounds awesome. Buuuut I actually have to get round to reading it. You know, eventually. I mean. Soon!
  4. The Red Scholar’s Wake, by Aliette de Bodard. I enjoy de Bodard’s work quite a bit, and have wanted to read more of her Xuya stuff, but the hardback intimidated me and then shuffled to the back of a shelf or something. I want to dig it up and give it a shot soon!
  5. The Water Outlaws, by S.L. Huang. This one’s even sat close to my desk, tempting me, but somehow I’ve never cracked it open. Why? Who knows!
  6. A Restless Truth, by Freya Marske. I really liked the first book, and then when this came out I grabbed it and — got distracted. I think you might be sensing a theme. Anyway, I want to reread the first book, dive into this one, and proceed onward to A Power Unbound as well. And like I said, I’d like to do that soon.
  7. Murder in the Basement, by Anthony Berkeley. It’s rare that a British Library Crime Classic gets to sit unread on my shelves, and I think I must just have forgotten I picked this one (and Jumping Jenny) up. I’ll have to hunt it down and crack it open soon!
  8. The Missing Lynx: The Past and Future of Britain’s Lost Mammals, by Ross Barnett. I’ve been meaning to read this for quite a long time, though I haven’t had a copy for that long. I know a fair bit about bringing animals back in places like Yellowstone, but not much about it in Britain, other than beavers. But I’m interested to learn!
  9. At the Feet of the Sun, by Victoria Goddard. I adored The Hands of the Emperor, and really shouldn’t dawdle about picking this up. Though maybe it’d be nice to reread the first book and spend some time with Cliopher again first. You know, just for context.
  10. Eight Detectives, by Alex Pavesi. This is a modern mystery, so perhaps a little out of my comfort zone, but it seems rather puzzle-box-y in a way that sounds more like a classic type mystery than modern blood and gore. High time I got round to it and gave it a shot, in any case.

Cover of A Restless Truth by Freya Marske Cover of Murder in the Basement by Anthony Berkeley Cover of The Missing Lynx by Ross Barnett Cover of At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard Cover of Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi

So that’s a random mix, as usual for me — bit of non-fic, bit of sci-fi, bit of romance, bit of fantasy. And will I actually go ahead and read these soon?

Well… that’s a solid maybe.

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16 responses to “Top Ten Tuesday: The Neglected Books

  1. My Shelf of Shame, that is, the ARCs I’ve received and not read, is rather daunting. These are not NetGalley books. It’s either giveaways from other platforms, or actual physical ARCs I got during the first two years of the US Book Show. Those latter are extra hard because I didn’t request any fun books – almost every last one of them is serious, heavy reading about racism, capitalism, and/or disability. The “lightest” book I got was about an abortionist in Gilded Age New York, and that’s full of corpses!

  2. The Cactus Hunters sound really interesting. I’m also curious, and baffled, at why anyone would hunt them to extinction. Based on my very limited experience with plants, I feel like succulents are so easy to prop, I can’t imagine them ever going extinct. It’s definitely piquing my interest!

    • I’d guess there are some that live in really weird habitats or something, or were identified from a small number in the wild, or… something like that. I really need to get round to reading the book and finding out!

  3. I need to read Martha Wells’ recent releases as well. I loved The Love Hypothesis, though I haven’t enjoyed Ali Hazelwood’s other books quite as much. I hope you enjoy these!

    • I feel so bad being so behind on Martha Wells’ books, I usually love them. Though I have heard some mixed things about Witch King

    • I prefer Murderbot in novella format, so I think that’s been holding me back a bit! But I really do want to get to System Collapse soon.

  4. Quite a range of interest. Except for the mysteries, all these are new to me. Hope you enjoy them, Thanks for visiting my blog earlier and leaving your link. Would love to see you again. Take care.

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