Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never Read

Posted June 2, 2026 by Nicky in General / 30 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is all about books you can’t believe you’ve never read… and I’m going to steer away from the classics and 1,001 books to read before you die type choices, and look more at my TBR.

Cover of Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch Cover of Red Right Hand by Chris Holm Cover of The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey Cover of Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays by Christa Wolf

  1. Republic of Thieves, by Scott Lynch.
    I loved the first books in this series! I was very eager for Republic of Thieves! But somehow I never got round to it, and then I got sulky about being nagged to get on and read it… and of course, there’s no saying when there will be more in the series. I still technically want to read this, but it is sitting in limbo more than a little.
  2. Red Right Hand, by Chris Holm.
    I’ve enjoyed Chris Holm’s work since the Angry Robot days with the Collector trilogy, and enjoyed the book that Red Right Hand follows up, The Killing Kind. Unfortunately, by the time Red Right Hand came out, I’d forgotten too many of the details, meant to reread that one first, and somehow… never got back to it.
  3. Malice Aforethought, by Francis Iles.
    This is one of the classic mystery stories, but somehow I’ve never got round to it (in part because I’m not a huge lover of Francis Iles AKA Anthony Berkeley Cox’s work). Still, it’s a really important one in the development of the classic mystery genre, and I do want to read it. Eventually.
  4. The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey.
    I was put off by reading something else by Tey which was just hopelessly racist, but her work is very classic, and I want to get round to this at some point — particularly as people often cite it as a favourite. Plus I am kinda interested in Richard III and the mystery of the Princes in the Tower, which makes the concept interesting to me.
  5. Cassandra, by Christa Wolf.
    A copy of this has been following me around for… quite a long time, so long that I’ve actually forgotten who recommended it and why — but they were definitely very enthusiastic. The story of Cassandra is one that interests me a lot, too; the tragic possibilities of knowing what’s going to happen, but being totally powerless to convince anyone else…
  6. Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC, by Susan Fisher-Hoch & Joseph B. McCormick.
    I did actually start this at some point, so I’m also surprised I never finished it, but I think I may have got it quite early in my interest in infectious diseases and it was maybe a little too anxiety-provoking. I think I’d tolerate it better now, degree in infectious diseases behind me, and maybe appreciate some aspects of it more, too. That said, this will never be my job, even if I do switch into a career in infectious diseases. Yikes on bikes.
  7. The Tower at Stony Wood, by Patricia McKillip.
    I’ve enjoyed a lot of McKillip’s work, but there are several I still need to get to that could all take a turn on this list. I find her writing a little opaque at times; beautiful, but sometimes requires a lot of attention to fully extract the meaning. Maybe that’s just me — either way, her style takes work, and so her books always await the exact right mood. I did pick up my copies from my parents’ house semi-recently (well, at least a year ago, possibly two), so they are at least on my shelves here…
  8. The Outskirter’s Secret, by Rosemary Kirstein.
    I really like The Steerswoman, so I don’t know why I’ve never got on with it and read the remaining books. Maybe it’s knowing the story is unfinished. Maybe it’s because I know a little too much about the other books and how things work out, so one element of the tantalising mystery at least is a little bit spoiled (though spoilers don’t usually bother me, this is a bit of a special case, I’d say).
  9. A Brother’s Price, by Wen Spencer.
    This is one of several books that I got at some point or another for The Alternative World book club on Goodreads, and never got round to. I remember people being so enthusiastic about it, though, and their recommendations were definitely pivotal to quite a few of the SF/F books I loved (including The Steerswoman, actually) at that time… so yeah.
  10. Or What You Will, by Jo Walton.
    Somehow I missed when this came out, and only realised a bit later… and somehow still haven’t got round to it, which is just shocking given how much I’ve generally enjoyed Jo Walton’s work. Soon, I hope!

Cover of Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC Cover of The Tower at Stony Wood by Patricia McKillip Cover of The Outskirter's Secret by Rosemary Kirstein Cover of A Brother's Price by Wen Spencer Cover of Or What You Will by Jo Walton

I keep thinking of other potential choices — I can’t believe I still haven’t managed to read anything of Sarah Pinsker’s, for example, given she was a part of The Alternative World group on Goodreads! But this is a reasonable survey, and covers a mostly-satisfying/representative spread of genres, so let’s leave it there…

Tags: ,

«
»
Divider

30 responses to “Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never Read”

    • Nicky

      Yeah, I feel similarly about a lot of classic mysteries, particularly as my interest is… somewhat academic. (I’m not studying at the moment, but I did study the development of the crime novel, during my undergrad — and I’ve never stopped being interested in that sort of way.)

      Reply
  2. Lydia

    Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC sounds scary for sure. Ever since 2020, I can’t read books like that much anymore, but I used to be fascinated by them.

    Reply
    • Nicky

      I was in an infectious diseases MSc course from 2020 to 2025, so I find it a lot less scary now. I like doing that — following things that are scary with curiosity to help reduce some of the fear of the unknown.

      Reply
  3. Tammy

    I always hear good things about Jo Walton but have never read anything by them. That would also be a fun list: ten authors I can’t believe I haven’t read

    Reply
  6. Haze @ The Book Haze

    Aahh, I did go with a lot of the classics and 1001 books to read before you die kind of books for my list, there are waaayyy too many books I can’t believe I’ve never read and now I feel like I want to make a second list with newer books lol! I haven’t heard of many of the authors on your list except the first two, I’ll have to look into some of them, they look interesting!
    Haze @ The Book Haze recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday | Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never ReadMy Profile

    Reply
  10. Olivia

    I really understand losing the plot – literally – if there’s too much time between books in a series. I added Level 4 Virus Hunters to my TBR list. I worked in a hospital lab. Microbiology was my favorite lab section, and my friend and co-worker felt the same. We talked about how interesting it would be to work in a Level 4 Bio lab. Decided it would be irresponsible to do if you had close family in your lives, although I’m sure many do. She eventually got her doctorate in microbiology.
    Olivia recently posted…Top Ten Books I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read YetMy Profile

    Reply
    • Nicky

      Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC comes highly recommended! I definitely don’t think a high security lab would be for me, nor work in the field, but it is fascinating.

      Reply
    • Nicky

      Yeah, I generally tend to avoid it — I pretty much only put up with it in my classic crime reads, because my interest there is so close to academic…

      Reply

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv badge

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.