We’ve all seen the lists, we’ve all thought, “I should really read that someday,” but for all of us, there are still books on “The List” that we haven’t actually gotten around to reading. Even though we know they’re fabulous. Even though we know that we’ll like them. Or that we’ll learn from them. Or just that they’re supposed to be worthy. We just … haven’t gotten around to them yet. What’s the best book that YOU haven’t read yet?

Finnegans Wake by James Joyce

I read the passage from Finnegans Wake by James Joyce in one of the many Norton Anthology books I’d acquired through school. Some of it was lovely toward the end but I didn’t understand what Joyce was trying to say. It was a lot of wordplay with names of rivers and religion. I’ve been officially scared off from Finnegans Wake because I’d need to turn on my critical thinking cap and slog through pages of what reads like pretty nonsense. I know I managed to come up with some analysis in lecture when I read it but that was about four pages and the class never came to a conclusion. It was a very muddled explanation we came up with. I’m still sad I’d forgotten my book when the teacher brought a recording of Joyce reading the text.