Welcome to a new week of Top 5 Wednesday! T5W is a weekly meme is hosted by Sam @ThoughtsOnTomes.  You can visit the Goodreads T5W group for more info.

October 5th: Books That Took You the Longest to Finish
–These are the books that you had on your nightstand “in progress” for months or years. The books that you took weeks to read because they put you in a slump. Those books that were an uphill battle. These are books you started and actually read, not books you’ve just had on your shelf the longest.

I actually really love this topic. It’s different. I had to think a bit to come up with the books that belong on this list. I have a super long TBR and sometimes I start books but don’t finish them (until I have to restart them later like A Tale of Two Cities). But I did come up with 5 (glad it’s only 5!) books that I read after a long time. And I’m glad to say I really love them too.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy // Technically, I’m still working on this one. But it has taken me most of this year to get 3/4ths through this monster. Mostly, I take it in little parts.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte // It took me forever to open this book and to get into this book. But once I was hooked, the second half flew by. One of my favorites now!

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame // I read this on my kindle when I was nursing. It took a long time because I would fall asleep in the middle of the night while reading 😉

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson // My book group read this one last year. It is really compelling but I had a hard time getting into it. But such an incredible book.

To the Rescue: The Biography of Thomas S. Monson by Heidi Swinton // This biography of the current LDS church president and prophet is beautiful. It sat on my bookshelf, unread, for over a year. And then I finally opened it. It is a really neat biography and has inspired me to read biographies of all 16 LDS church prophets to date. They are really neat reads, but I read them slowly.

What books took you the longest to finish?