This is probably the fifth year I’ve kept track of all the books I’ve read, though only the first I’ve made it public. It seems this year I averaged about one book every two weeks—half my goal—and some of these are short books. Kinda sad, really. Of course, this doesn’t count books I re-read, books I read ¾ of and abandoned, or essay and story collections I dipped into once, twice, or repeatedly, but failed to finish cover to cover. Nothing’s here unless I read, for better or for worse, every word. That means excluding many fine books I wanted to pore over more closely, and at greater length, prolonging the pleasure so to speak, and collections where, for one reason or another, I left a few stories unread. Similarly, however, if I began reading a story collection the previous year, but didn’t finish it until this year, it appears here. Sort of cheating, I know.
I should make a separate list for stories, but that would involve more bookhandling than I care to deal with for a blog entry, since I kept no running record. Still, when I look back on this list and try to pick out what’ll stay with me… it’s been a year more for stories than novels. This list also excludes all reading done for work, not pleasure, and most graphic novels. In the early part of the year I went through these so quickly that I didn’t keep track.
Titles are listed more or less in chronological order of completion, rather than when I started them, though I omit all dates, which might otherwise go a long way toward explaining sudden long lapses in reading… nothing for February or June, and a big slowdown through summer. I enjoyed myself, and deliberately refrained from any rating system. The most embarrassing titles are those I just read to go to sleep… I’ll let you guess which ones. Enjoy!
Saint Peter’s Snow, Leo Perutz
Veniss Underground, Jeff VanderMeer
Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang
By Night Under the Old Bridge, Leo Perutz
Stranger Things Happen, Kelly Link
The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, Michael Swanwick
The Etched City, K.J. Bishop
Bones of the Earth, Michael Swanwick
The Empire of Ice Cream, Jeffrey Ford
Anything for Billy, Larry McMurtry
Jack Faust, Michael Swanwick
Superfolks, Robert Mayer
A Model World, Michael Chabon
The Cosmology of the Wider World, Jeffrey Ford
Le Héros blessé au bras, Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud
Le Château de verre, Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud
The Passion, Jeanette Winterson
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Vladimir Nabokov
A Perfect Spy, John LeCarré
The Affirmation, Christopher Priest
The Glamour, Christopher Priest
Fun Home, Alison Bechdel
The View from the Seventh Layer, Kevin Brockmeier
A Better Angel, Chris Adrian
The Story of My Disappearance, Paul Watkins
The Body, Hanif Kureishi
Le Seuil du jardin, André Hardellet
Greenland Manhattan, Chloé Cruchaudet
Palladio, Jonathan Dee
The Wooden Boat, Jonathan Carroll
De l’autre côté d’Alice, Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud
Mécomptes cruels, Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud
Le Goût de l’ombre, Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud
I read 3-4 Leo Perutz back, oh, a decade ago now, and I assembled what I believe to be a complete collection of the remainders of the translations Arcade published—he’s really good, isn’t he?