I love my little night table--it is old--it was my grandmother's who also loved reading and kept her books on it as well. On top sit all my current reads (sorry I cropped that off--too messy to share at the moment), and beneath (on the shelf) lie my abandoned books. Actually not all of them are unfinished reads. Some are books that either don't fit anywhere else comfortably, or they are books that I had planned to start right away, but obviously didn't. The books that "I really plan on getting back to" are The Last Kashmiri Rose (a mystery I had started, but then I chose mysteries for my Summer Reading Challenge, so it ended up here while I make my way through my summer reading list), Vanilla Beans and Brodo (it got kicked down here when I picked up the Mary Wollstonecraft biography), Reading Lolita in Tehran (not sure how long this one has been down here--I'll probably have to start it all over again), Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight (this was really good, but I bet I checked something out from the library and this ended up on the shelf--it's been so long I don't even remembr), Snow (a victim of having too many books on the go at once--it was really good, but I'll have to get back in the mood for it now), and yes, the newest Harry Potter book. I had planned to read it over Christmas break, started it, didn't finish it, and now I will have to start it all over again. That's not too bad, is it? That's only six. Of course I just added Beyond Black to it as well. Okay, seven. And then occasionally I weed the books on the shelf and some get reshuffled back onto my regular bookshelves (good as new--as if I had never opened them and started to read them). I won't even begin to think about how many library books get started and then get returned unfinished--I would say the rate is much higher.
Under my night table and on the side are (some of) my TBR piles. I have not been choosing many books off it lately to read. I keep looking at the books knowing I want to get to them (reason #62 not to buy anymore new books...), but always seeming to have something else that needs to be read first. So I chose one from the top. I have decided to read The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland (I read The Girl in Hyacinth Blue and loved it). I had several books in mind, and it is always so hard choosing. But I have wanted to read this one for a long time, and it has been recommended, so I hope it will be more engaging than the Mantel book.