Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday! This is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where a new top ten list hits the web every week!

This week we have a great topic to explore …

TEN BOOKS THAT HAVE BEEN ON MY TBR LIST THE LONGEST

Honestly, I’m a bit embarrassed to even type this post.  I know it will reveal that I am an awful procrastinator who finds creative ways to put things off — even reading books.  Sure, I have reasons I haven’t read this or that novel, but the simple fact is that I have novels on this list which have languished on the shelf for decades.

10. The Briar King by Greg Keyes

Imagine it is 2002.  An an avid reader is scouring the new release section at Barnes & Nobles for a gripping, epic fantasy, searching for some novel which suggests it might be similar to George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones.  This reader picks up The Briar King, takes it home, and sets it aside after losing interest in it.  Now fast forward sixteen years, and you have me with this novel still on the TBR list.

Purchase The Briar King at Amazon

9. The One Kingdom by Sean Russell

This first book of a high fantasy trilogy was first published back in 2001.  It had a cool cover, a nice blurb, and I had some spare money to spend.  Unfortunately, I have never even opened this one up, tried to read it at all. Not sure why my interest in reading this story evaporated as soon as I took it home, but it has found a nice home on my bookshelf with lots of other pristine friends.

Purchase The One Kingdom at Amazon

8. The Eternal Champion by Michael Moorcock 

As a long time reader of Michael Moorcock, I can’t tell you how excited I was back in the mid 1990s when White Wolf Publishing came out with their Eternal Champion series with omnibus editions collecting all of Moorcock’s famous stories.  Every time one of these was released I immediately purchased them.  The set looks great in my study, but I have never gotten around to reading this volume.

Purchase By Michael Moorcock The Eternal Champion at Amazon

7. Beyond Ragnarok by Mickey Zucker Reichert

Having enjoyed Mickey Zucker Reichert’s first Renshai series, I was very excited when this book came out, proclaiming another trilogy involving this land and similar themes.  I must have been excited because in 1995, because I was in graduate school and had almost no money, so I only bought books I definitely intended to read.  For some reason, I never read this one though and still have not.  No idea why.

Purchase Beyond Ragnarok  at Amazon

6. Past Imperative: The Great Game   

Back in the 1990s I went through a Dave Duncan period.  I literally tried to find and quickly devour every story the author had ever written.  I enjoyed more than a few of them.  Past Imperative was one I was excited to find and eager to read, yet it has remained on the TBR list for two decades, collecting dust as I’ve passed it over for hundreds of other books.

Purchase Past Imperative at Amazon

5. The Eye of the Hunter by Dennis L. McKiernan

Back in the 1980s when I lived and breathed The Lord of the Rings, I stumbled on McKiernan’s Iron Tower trilogy and Silver Call Duology.  Yes, I noticed the similarity to Tolkien’s work, which only served to make me love the books more.  I tried to continue on with my reading journey in Mithgar, but after buying this book, I lost my way with the series and have never returned to it.

Purchase The Eye of the Hunter at Amazon

4. Stronghold by Melanie Rawn

I read Dragon Prince back in the late 1980s, enjoyed it, and have been buying all Melanie Rawn’s fantasy books ever since.  Nothing wrong with that except I have yet to read any of these books that I have so dutifully purchased over the years.  No idea why I keep doing this, but, honestly, my TBR list is littered with three decades of Rawn books.  God that makes me sound quite mad and more than a little old.

Purchase Stronghold  at Amazon

3. The Deceiver by Louise Cooper

Louise Cooper’s Time Master was a favorite trilogy of my teenage self.  Probably all the angst, romance, back-stabbing, and vengeance spoke to my immature self who was caught up in high school nonsense at the time.  Due to my fondness for its predecessor, I picked up this 1990 sequel trilogy, but I could not get interested in it, put it back on the shelf for another day, and still am waiting to read it decades later.

Purchase The Deceiver  at Amazon

2. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

I started reading fantasy avidly in the early 1980s.  Naturally, I picked up the classics of the time: The Lord of the Rings, Narnia, and the Earthsea Cycle.  While I fell in love with Tolkien’s world and his characters, I struggled with both Lewis’ creation and this book by Le Guin.  Not sure why, but I’ve held on A Wizard of Earthsea telling myself I’d read it eventually.  Hope springs eternal, I suppose.

Purchase A Wizard of Earthsea at Amazon

1.  The Breaking of Northwall by Paul O. Williams

One of the first speculative fiction books I ever purchased, I’ve held onto Paul O. Williams book for thirty years or so.  Nope, I’ve never read it.  Even worse, I’ve never even tried to do so.  I really need to read it at some point though, but even if I don’t I think I’m going to hold on to this novel, because it is almost like a part of the family at this point.

Purchase The Breaking of Northwall at Amazon

Well, that is my list.  Read any of these books yourself?  Agree with me about them?  Disagree?  Let us know your thoughts.