Popular Books I Still Want To Read

A poll for you....which book should I read first?

I’m not going to lie, I continue to have new releases on my reading mind…but…and this is a big but…never far from my thoughts are those specific books—the ones I’ve wanted to read for so long, yet they continue to linger on my tbr as well as the periphery of my mind. Those specific books are what I think of as the “popular” books others used to rave about (and often still do) that I’ve wanted to read for quite a long time (sometimes years) and for a myriad of reasons just haven’t prioritized them. They are always there though, patiently waiting and quietly reminding me that I did want to read them and in the case of two of the books,¹ I’ve tried them, but found that I wasn’t in the mood at the time.

Backlist has been a huge success for me so far this year which is one of the reasons I continue thinking about these books. Per my Storygraph stats, so far this year I’ve read 15 backlist books and 14 new releases and my average star rating is 4.41 which is crazy I know but I’ve been loving my reading this year. So you can see why I keep thinking that it’s time to start dipping into my list of backlist “popular” books—I have a feeling there’s gems in the list that might end up a 2025 top read or maybe even a lifetime favorite (dare I dream?!)

I would love your help in choosing which one I should read first. I’m going to share my list with a sentence or two about what the book is about and then following the list I’ll have a poll for you to vote for the book(s) you’d like me to read and review first.

I really wanted to include six books and not sure why Substack limits poll options so I had to include my extra pick separately. If you’d like to share any additional thoughts, feel free to in the comments. Thank you in advance for your help:)

**Scroll past the list for the poll

The Books

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant--and that her lover is married--she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations

A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

This is the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known . . . of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect—a man divided in his soul . . . of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame . . . and of a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state and brother against brother.

A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza

As an Indian wedding gathers a family back together, parents Rafiq and Layla must reckon with the choices their children have made. There is Hadia: their headstrong, eldest daughter, whose marriage is a match of love and not tradition. Huda, the middle child, determined to follow in her sister’s footsteps. And lastly, their estranged son, Amar, who returns to the family fold for the first time in three years to take his place as brother of the bride. What secrets and betrayals have caused this close-knit family to fracture? Can Amar find his way back to the people who know and love him best?

The Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher

The story of one family—mothers and daughters, husbands and lovers—and of the passions and heartbreak that have held them together for three generations.

Extra pick that should be in the poll but it will only let me choose five - tell me in the comments if this is your choice

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Stevens, a butler at the end of three decades of service at Darlington Hall, spending a day on a country drive, embarks as well on a journey through the past in an effort to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving the "great gentleman," Lord Darlington. But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington's "greatness," and much graver doubts about the nature of his own life.

Poll is open for one week. Can’t wait to see what you think I should read first!!

The Poll

1. A Gentleman in Moscow and Remains of the Day