It’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish and this weeks topic is books that intimidate us.
I’ve definitely accumulated a few books that I’m intimidated by, either for sheer size or the fact that there’s A LOT of information within… so without further adieu, the top ten books that intimidate me.
1. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes: This book is just plain big. I’ve been staring at it on my shelf for probably 5 years now. It’s so big.
2. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin: I’m so excited to read this series, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t be intimidated by the fact that the font is tiny as hell and its like 900 pages long or whatever. I’ll actually be overcoming that this month though since I’m reading it with a friend of mine.
3. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett: I really, really, really want to read this, but it’s another case of this book has a lot of pages with really tiny font, lol.
4. History of Madness by Michel Foucault: This is a big book with a whole lot of information in it, so as interested as I am to dig in, there’s definitely an intimidation factor involved.
5. Hunger’s Brides by Paul Anderson: This is a book I recently found during a trip to the bookstore and I was completely drawn in by the cover and synopsis… it’s over 1200 pages though and I bet if I put it on the scale it would weigh 15 pounds. This book is a beast.
6. The Iliad by Homer: Part of the intimidation of this book for me is the size and part of it is that I love, love, LOVED The Odyssey and I really want to love this one too!
7. The Boundaries of Her Body by Debran Rowland: This is a book that looks at the history of women’s rights in America. It’s huge and covers a lot of time and topics so there is a ton of information, a lot of it legal stuff.
8. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer: I read an excerpt of this in one of my high school English classes and ever since I’ve wanted to read it in its entirety, but I’m totally intimidated by the whole Middle English thing.
9. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham: When I first heard about this book I was intrigued and ended up ordering it right away. Then I saw it and realized its a fairly long book with really small print… so yeah.
10. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand: Need I say more? This book is just daunting to look at, but it’s sitting on my shelf so I’ll get to it someday.
Those are my top ten books I’m intimidated by. Do any of these get you? What are some books that you’re intimidated by? Feel free to share!
Among Stories 
I also have Game of Thrones, The Pillars of the Earth and the Canterbury Tales on my list. I forgot about Don Quixote- that’s a doorstopper of a book! 🙂
GREAT list! I need to read Ken Follet and Don Quixote. I’ve read GoT and loved it, despite the size. And I definitely want to read more Ayn Rand. She’s awesome! 😀
My TTT
A Game of Thrones is on so many TTT’s!! It’s gigantic, I don’t know if I’ll ever get to it. I admire you for tackling that giant thing.
Emily from Blue-Eyed Bibliophile
Lol, thanks! I’m pretty excited to dig in to A Game of Thrones, I just hope it lives up to the hype in the end.
I have the first two books in the Game of Thrones series. They don’t intimidate me per se but I’m not looking forward to lugging them around for the 2-3 weeks it’ll take me to read each one!
I have 5-6 Michel Foucault books which I haven’t looked at yet. I do like the French philosophers. They seem to have a down to earth edginess and practicality that I can relate to.
I have the mass market paperbacks of A Game of Thrones so its not heavy, it’s just long and I’m sure it’s intense.
I haven’t really read much from French philosophers but Foucault discusses a lot of topics that interest me so I figure its a good place to start.
Don’t let the size of Don Quixote put you off, it truly is worth the trouble. I read it over a long summer, a little at a time. SD