#TopTenTuesday Books I Was Excited For But Still Haven’t Read #TuesdayBookBlog

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists.
Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is a throwback to one from 2022 – Books I HAD to Have Immediately but Still Haven’t Read. I thought it would be ‘fun’ to look back at the post I did at the time and see how many of them I’ve read since then and how many still linger unread. Links from the titles will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.

The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel – Finally read in August 2025
Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee – Finally read in July 2025
Pompeii by Robert Harris – Purchased in August 2017 and still unread
Transcription by Kate Atkinson – Another one finally read in 2025
Tombland by C. J. Sansom – Yet another one finally read in 2025. I was obviously on a roll…
The Binding by Bridget Collins – I managed to get to this one in 2023
The Hiding Game by Naomi Wood – Purchased in August 2019 when it was nominated for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction but still unread
The Night Raids by Jim Kelly – Another one I managed to get to in 2023
Hammer to Fall by John Lawton – Received via Readers First in March 2020 but still unread
Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce – Purchased in July 2020 but still unread

As it turns out there are only four books I still have’t read, although given we’re now four years on I’m not sure that’s something to be proud of. To get to the required ten, I went even further back to a similar post from 2022 featuring books published in 2021 that I hadn’t read at the time. Sad to say these six remain in that state…

April in Spain by John Banville – Purchased in December 2021 and still unread
The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz – Purchased in November 2021 and still unread
Matrix by Lauren Groff – Purchased in October 2021 and still unread
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris – Purchased in July 2021 and still unread
A Net for Small Fishes by Lucy Jago – Purchased in December 2020 and still unread
How The One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones – Purchased in January 2021 and still unread