I want to write a year in reading blogpost about everything I didn’t read and meant to (Taken with instagram)
Okay I will:
1. Ann Beattie, New Yorker Stories.
Last week i found a gift card to THE STRAND from last Christmas (thx, mom!) that I somehow never used and I ordered this and Great House. Lindsay got her purse stolen the day I got the package so I gave Great House to her over a Pad Kee Mow lunch special but I am excited about both of them. My SUPER VINTAGE FILM (it’s called instagram and you pretty much can’t find it anywhere so don’t even try) makes the book barely legible but it is pretty and I like to put it on my yellow kitchen table and admire it. perhaps one day i will open it.
2. Madame Bovary, Flaubert / transl by LYDIA DAVIS, WOO.
I have read like a third of this and Lydia Davis is such a great translator (I mean, based on my combined zero-knowledge of French as well as translation) or I just like her a lot so all of the wonderful turns of phrase I ascribe to her genius. This is one of those books I feel ashamed about not having read so when I met a person and mentioned this book and he had it sent to my work the next day, it was pretty much over (in the best way). Alas it is kind of SLOW GOING and I read a few pages every few days but Emma doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere. Sorry, classic literature! Not that Flaubert needs Tumblr to defend him.
3. Just Kids, Patti Smith
Duh. Melissa read this as soon as it came out, and was all swooning and blogging about it and kept telling me I had to read it, I had to read it and I was like, “Meh, I’m not a Patti Smith Person,” but then, now, I finally gave in and took it home and I think I might read it next? It’s going to kill me, isn’t it? God, I know it is.
4. Vacation, Deb Olin Unferth.
I LOVE DEB OLIN UNFERTH. I love her writing style so, so much. I have read half of this book or so and I feel like a failure for not finishing it. I have no good reason, I probably just had to read something else for something else and it got put aside and :(
5. Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson.
I really don’t want to admit to not reading this book yet. I bought it early in the year with a similar shame but never got to it. Gilead and Home are two of my favorite books ever and well-documented on this blog. SOON, I SWEAR.
6. Everything Here is The Best Thing Ever, Justin Taylor
Awhile ago I went into McNally Jackson to go look at C&C on the shelves and see if any cute boys were working and then I felt like I should probably BUY something at least so I bought this book and read half of it, then Rachel wanted us to get drinks with Justin and we never did and I was doubly like, Gahh, I better finish his book before we hang out,” but we never hung out and I never finished it. Everyone should, though, and I will soon. I SWEAR, MOM.
7. Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing, Lydia Peele
I read some of these short stories and they are very great, and everyone who has book taste I love & respect loves and respects her. I borrowed this from Kelsey when she moved probably 6 months ago and I still haven’t finished it. Kelsey, I’m the worst.
8. The Children’s Hospital, Chris Adrian
I bought this at one of McSweeney’s seemingly monthly fire sales for 5 dollars or something and I just KNOW it is good but it is so long I have been giving it the side eye for months, while also admiring its fistpump-inducing design (a literary fistpump, though, so a little weak with an undercurrent of sarcasm). You guys—should I read it? Did any of you fall in love with it? I have heard him read a few times and know he is brilliant.
9. Emily Perkins, Novel About My Wife
I have read half of this and got really sucked into the plot even though I usually am more into books that are about sentences and feelings™ and also I am completely prejudiced about a woman writing as a male narrator (which is an awful thing to say and I do not seek to justify or defend such a prejudice!). Boyfriend gave me this and was like, “Sorry it’s about a failed marriage or a wife dying or something, don’t take it to mean anything.” And I was like, Errr, okay.
10. Waiting, Ha Jin
I got this at a Tumblr Book Swap which may even have been over a year ago now! A lot of great readers and writers love this book and I know I will, guys. It’s heartbreaking, isn’t it? I have to read it. I’m thinking we all should.
11. The New York Stories of Elizabeth Hardwick
NYRB sent me this before the Tumblr reading in Feb-ish and I about died and took a dozen pictures of the NYRB letterhead on the stationary but never read the book. But I will!
12. Sixty Stories, Donald Barthelme
I read the McSweeney’s tribute thing to Barthelme (edited by aforementioned justin taylor!) and loved it and remembered how much I loved him back in my college workshoppy days and ordered this on ______ (sssh) and only read a few. But they are amazing. Goddamn him.
13. Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann
Also borrowed this from Kelsey. Also won a NBA but last year and I know it’s amazing I just haven’t read it yet please don’t kill me.
14. Lost in the Funhouse, John Barth
I ordered this on _______ w. Barthelme (in a rare fit of reading male writers) because I wanted to finish The Girl With the Curious Hair (which I guess should be in this stack, too then) which meant reading the novella “westward the course of empire takes its way” (sorry i copy/pasted that from my google search bar and don’t wanna type it again/correct the spelling) (probs could have instead of writing that parenthetical) which meant reading Lost in the Funhouse because apparently WTCOETIW is an “intertextual rewrite” of Lost in the Funhouse, blah blah blah. But then the book is really dense and I was like, Alright there, cowboy, we are putting you aside for awhile, perhaps until I find myself drinking 10 cups of coffee one day and considering applying to grad school. No such luck as of yet.
15. The Cost of Living, Mavis Gallant
“I don’t want you to feel like you have to read every book I give you, like it’s homework or something.”
“What are you TALKING about?”
…
16. Wonder When You’ll Miss Me, Amanda Davis
I remember reading her short story collection, sitting in Housing Works with Halle like 20 (okay, four) years ago and falling in love with her (Amanda Davis, not Halle, although her, too). I borrowed this from Rachel who works at Housing Works a week ago and I started it the other night and it is written for people like us, so you should read it, too.
