Yes, we are coming to the last month of the year and the daily ACOR suggestions have been piling up for some time. I guess that no matter how many new titles I suggest and no matter how sturdy my reading list is, I still cannot read any faster and so many titles I want to read seem to be slipping away … like sands through the hourglass, so are the books on our shelves.
I have recently included a few more contemporary titles (almost best-sellers) but as with most earlier suggestions, these are books that caught my eye and I just might read them. One problem I have always have is to get interested in a new book and by the time I read all the more classic literature on my list, the new book is an old book. Then when other new books come along, I’m delaying them because I’m still reading the old books. I recognize that so many new books are rapidly forgotten and go out of favor so it’s important to read them while the conversation is still fresh. I recognize that … but do I practice it?
Here is the list of suggested reading from November. I have marked those titles I have already read in blue and as an experiment I have marked a few titles I really do intend to read in red:
- 11-01-14 – Un Grand homme de province a Paris — Honoré de Balzac
- 11-02-14 – The Old Reactor — David Ohle
- 11-03-14 – Lying — Sam Harris
- 11-04-14 – A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers — Xiaolu Guo
- 11-05-14 – The Zone of Interest — Martin Amis
- 11-06-14 – On Such a Full Sea — Chang-rae Lee
- 11-07-14 – Acceptance — Jeff VanderMeer
- 11-08-14 – The Paying Guests — Sarah Waters
- 11-09-14 – Lust — Elfriede Jelinek
- 11-10-14 – A Map of Betrayal — Ha Jin
- 11-11-14 – The Laughing Monsters — Denis Johnson
- 11-12-14 – This Changes Everything — Naomi Klein
- 11-13-14 – Neverhome — Laird Hunt
- 11-14-14 – The Orchard of Lost Souls — Nadifa Mohamed
- 11-15-14 – Pnin — Vladimir Nabokov
- 11-16-14 – Everything I Never Told You — Celeste Ng
- 11-17-14 – Maigret In Antwerp — Joe Richards
- 11-18-14 – Elegy For Kosovo — Ismail Kadare
- 11-19-14 – Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination — Peter Ackroyd
- 11-20-14 – The Wasp Factory — Iain Banks
- 11-21-14 – Fludd: A Novel — Hilary Mantel
- 11-22-14 – Family Furnishings — Alice Munro
- 11-23-14 – Bellefleur — Joyce Carol Oates
- 11-24-14 – The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher — Hilary Mantel
- 11-25-14 – The Blindman’s Garden — Nadeem Aslam
- 11-26-14 – The Pure Gold Baby — Margaret Drabble
- 11-27-14 – The House of Hunger — Dambudzo Marechera
- 11-28-14 – The Pickwick Papers — Charles Dickens
- 11-29-14 – New Grub Street — George Gissing
- 11-30-14 – The God of Small Things — Arundhati Roy
A Celebration of Reading 
Actually I liked The Nether World better than New Grub Street. I seem to gravitate toward stories of the lower classes. There must be a reason I like the Macquart side better than the Rougon side, lol.
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I consider the chapter in The Nether World where they go to the fair (Crystal Palace?) and have lunch one of the finest pieces I have ever read. My friend places Gissing about most other authors during that period, including Dickens.
When I was reading Hardy I left Jude the Obscure until later because I was told it was so depressing, poverty and all. Then I read Jude after reading Gissing and Jude was no competition for Gissing’s portrayals of poverty and destitution.
Project Gutenberg has a good collection of Gissings shorter and lesser known works.
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When I read Jude in my younger days, I really liked it and especially the character of Sue. Then when I read it more recently, probably in my 60s, I couldn’t stand Sue. She was too wishy-washy for me.
You’re definitely right, I didn’t even get a sense of poverty from it, I mean, not the totally dire poverty.
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I really liked New Grub Street.
Surely you have already read the complete Lost Illusions? Or will you be tackling Un Grand homme de province a Paris in French?
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True about Lost Illusions but still, these are those books I suggest reading and not necessarily books I have already read.
I got sloppy on Balzac a few years back and am not sure what all I read (I’ll have to re-inventory).
I have a reading buddy in Pennsylvania that adores Gissing and New Grub Street is her favorite, I believe. Although I read it, it was a sketchy time of my life and I really need to reread it to assure the continuity. Actually there are many books I read with glazed eyes and other things on my mind, a few pages here and the next chapter a week or a month later.
I should flip through my lists and consider rereading some of those … but there are so many books to read!
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