I never read enough.
Which is to say, I read plenty. But it’s all essays and comics and detective novels; disposable writing. This year, I want to read some real literature. More than that, I want to read the books I’ve always talked about reading, or purchased with the plan of reading, or re-read with more mature eyes. Here’s my list, in no particular order:
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville
- Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
- Beowulf
- The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
- The Aleph and Other Stories by Jorge Luis Borges.
- Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Ulyssess by James Joyce
- Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
- Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor
- A Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
- Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
- Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
All in all, a modest goal. 13 books isn’t very much. But I don’t want to stop reading my trash fiction, so I kept the list nice and neat. With any luck, I’ll finish all of these and still have time to read that copy of Adam Hines’s Duncan The Wonder Dog that’s been gathering dust on my bookshelf and all the Robert B. Parker Spencer novels I discovered at my local library.
What are you planning on reading this year?
Excellent reading list. Other than 3 and 6 I can’t say that I”ve read the rest.
I look forward to the Axelrod translation of Beowulf.
Good list. Me, I’m planning to focus this year on reading some speculative fiction works from outside the white/Euro-centric spectrum, like Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisen, etc. and other Steamfunk and fantasy based around West African mythologies. Also, I’d like to read more of the works of authors in my *2-3 degrees of separation* circles, like Kate Elliot and PJ Schynder,
For starters.