Introduction

Yes, yes, I’ve committed the cardinal sin of having over 30 books on my To Be Read list and I still haven’t done anything about it. I am an imperfect person. I am sorry. But regardless of my less-than-stellar reading habits, here are the books that I most want to read from this book list!

1. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

I don’t CARE if Arthurian legends aren’t vogue right now, they are in my heart.

And to be honest, I had no clue what the book was about when I bought it. Other than a few reviews swooning about how great the book was on its back cover, there was nothing to give a summary about the story. The main traits that made my purchase it were its heftiness; the thin, delicate texture of the paper, and the tasteful font choice. I don’t know the font’s name, but it is the type of font that inspires you to buy a typewriter and sniff drying ink. Also, the cover has a woman with a sword on it. And she’s not even gripping the pommel; she’s holding the sword by its blade like a queen, so you already know the story’s going to be good.

I actually did read the first few chapters, and it’s good. BBC’s Merlin was the only other media I’d seen about King Arthur, and it set me up with unrealistic expectations regarding Merlin! Can a reasonable person explain to me why Merlin is not a young, attractive 20-something and is instead an old man who has indispensable knowledge of the universe?

(I know the answer, I’m just deep in despair.)

2. The 48 Laws of POWER by Robert Greene

One of my closest friends recommended it with slight awe, saying, “When I read this book, it made me feel evil,” which is about as glowing a review as a book can get, really.

It has a lot going for it, too. I skimmed the contents and some of my favorite historical baddies of all time, Machiavelli and Nixon, were mentioned, and I am a sucker for ALL of the morally-questionable things people got up to. Reading about such things is always a treat.

3. The Shortest History of China by Linda Javin

My dad always said there were two reasons to buy a book: for education, and for entertainment. Then he’d look at me reading my newest 500-page historical fantasy and say, “Light reading?”

I’m not bitter.

ANYWAY! My dad’s voracious need to learn occasionally affects me like some sort of intellectual disease, so here I am, reading the extremely condensed history of a country thousands of years old. So far, it’s very entertaining, and reading it is a reminder that sometimes, you know things you didn’t know you knew.

At one point, I read (I promise these are on the TBR shelf because I haven’t finished reading any of them; I’ve just teased through the first few pages . . . or chapters) a section on The Battle of Red Cliff. Basically, it’s a legendary battle that involved setting fire to ships and body-slamming (boat-slamming?) the ships into the enemy. That’s not important. The important part is that they mention this dude named Sun Quan.

Sun Quan? Who’s Sun Quan? you might be asking. Well, I don’t know either because I forgot, but at that moment in time, I recognized the name and agonized over why I knew it. Then I remembered a Vocaloid music video I had watched years ago without comprehension, and it clicked. I had once watched an animated music video about Sun Quan and The Battle of Red Cliff without knowing what was going out. I was just an innocent soul appreciating the art of burning ships in a random video I’d found on YouTube.

4. The Pariah by Anthony Ryan

Okay, I’m guilty, this book was only bought because I took one look at the cover and immediately put it in the basket with no regard for its substance or quality. The story was secondary to the real star, which was the piece of art that is a cloaked and tastefully bloodied man holding a sword. Feast your eyes upon the cover. Look at the details in this man’s hands. The shadows under the knuckles. The square fingers. It’s a masterpiece.

Besides, the main character’s name is Alwyn Scribe. Alwyn SCRIBE. That’s so cool. It’s like being named Alison Queen. Or John Electrician. Regardless, the surname “Scribe” is clearly a superior last name. Which may not make much sense, but we’re not here to make sense. The world doesn’t make sense. Accept absurdity.

5. Sabriel by Garth Nix

The marketing masters on Instagram got me. One ad in my feed of this book pops up stating how it is “a masterpiece” and “sets the standard for fantasy” and I was GONE. I immediately saved it into one of my many questionable Instagram collections and showed a picture to an unwitting Barnes and Noble employee the next time I was there.

I was not disappointed. The employee delivered the book to me as if it were the Holy Grail, and I took it home like the treasure it was . . . only to place it on my TBR shelf for the next six months. But it’s summer now; I’ll get around to reading it, of course. Eventually.

Closing Thoughts

There are worse things to spend your money on than books you don’t intend to read for half a year, okay. I’ve accepted that spending copious amounts of money on books for the satisfaction of having them is one of my few flaws, and I am working on it. Not very successfully, but I am trying.

(I did order three books off Amazon a few days ago, but that’s neither here nor there.)

And as a shameless reminder, my book Weathered Elements is available for pre-sale on Amazon! You can look for more information about it here.

What’s the book on your TBR list that you’re most looking forward to?