What's Sitting On Your Shelf?

Over the years many avid readers and book lovers manage to accumulate quite an extensive library. Some books are read once and stored on the shelf, others read multiple times, and still other books are sitting on the shelf waiting to be read.

The question of the day over at Booking Through Thursday is: "What tomes are waiting patiently on your shelves?"

Sadly, there are quite a number of books waiting to be read on my bedroom bookshelf. Here are just a few:

The History of the American Revolution by Dr. David Ramsay. Since writing a paper on Founding Father Henry Laurens during my senior year of high school I have been fascinated by Laurens and his family. Laurens' daughter Martha married a doctor, David Ramsay, who later published her journals and letters (which I own). Ramsay also wrote a two-volume set about the American Revolution. I've always wanted to read these books because I believe they are some of the most accurate information available. What better than to read a book by a man who LIVED during the war? And yet... I've never made it past the first two chapters. Some day!

Another historical book is the biography John Adams by David McCullough. I've enjoyed some of McCullough's other works and truly wish to read this one... I just haven't, yet, but I really should, especially now that the miniseries is available on DVD.

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. I picked up this two-volume hardback novel on sale at Borders a couple years ago. This book is on one of those "Must Reads Before You Die" lists and I've been curious ever since I heard it mentioned in the film Becoming Jane and have seen it mentioned in various other books. Like so many of the really old classics (Aesop's Fables, Paradise Lost, The Mysteries of Udolpho, etc.), this book was an influence to authors that I've read and enjoyed. Some day I'll get around to it.

Recent acquisitions include: The Princess Bride, Mrs. 'Arris Goes to New York, Memoirs of Geisha (my book swap win), and One Hundred-And-One Dalmatians.

Ok, so maybe not all of these can be considered "tomes" by the dictionary definition, but I'm still planning to get around to reading each of the aforementioned books, as well as those I didn't mention, but which also sit waiting on my bookshelf. Happily, one book that was waiting for nearly a year is now on my nightstand... Charles Dickens' Bleak House -- now that's a tome!