December, being the last month of the year, is functioning as my big fat book make-up month with heavy titles such as Infinite Jest (half-way through), A Man Without Qualities (too big?), and Against the Day (is Pynchon worth it?). But despite my dedication to the big ones, I’ll continue posting a daily reading suggestion that might be less daunting.
The November reading pool was, as usual, varied and generally intriguing for any dedicated reader. In November I read many of the suggested books from the previous two months and for the most part was very pleased and even enlightened. This told me that the daily reading suggestions are pretty good and a welcome source of new reading for future reading lists.
November’s suggested reading was a good place for new readers to start making some selections: new books, old books, fiction, essay, even some drama. He’s the list:
11-01-17 – Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories – Jean Shepherd
11-02-17 – Two Gentlemen of Verona — William Shakespeare
11-03-17 – Such Fine Boys — Patrick Modiano
11-04-17 – Woman Walks into a Bar – Rowan Coleman
11-05-17 – The Golden House — Salmon Rushdie
11-06-17 – Letters to Memory — Karen Tei Yamashita
11-07-17 – Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead — Frank Meeink
11-08-17 – Melville: A Novel — Jean Giono
11-09-17 – Anthology of Japanese Literature — Donald Keene ed.
11-10-17 – Frog: A Novel — Mo Yan
11-11-17 – Schlump — Hans Herbert Grimm
11-12-17 – The Life You Can Save — Peter Singer
11-13-17 – Beginner’s Guide To a Head-On Collision — Sebastian Matthews
11-14-17 – The Chalk Artist — Allegra Goodman
11-15-17 – The Looking Glass War — John Le Carré
11-16-17 – Class Mom — Laurie Gelman
11-17-17 – The Moving Target — Ross MacDonald
11-18-17 – R. U. R (Rossum’s Universal Robots) — Karel Capek
11-19-17 – Little Fires Everywhere — Celeste Ng
11-20-17 – Streetwise – Mohamed Choukri
11-21-17 – American Street — Ibi Zoboi
11-22-17 – The Truth and Fiction of Adam and Eve — Stephen Greenblatt
11-23-17 – The Destroyers — Christopher Bollen
11-24-17 – The Machine Stops — E. M. Forster
11-25-17 – Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates
11-26-17 – The Devil Never Sleeps – Andrei Codrescu
11-27-17 – Cultural Idiocy: Why America Is Losing the War of Words – Joe Marconi
11-28-17 – Enraged — Emily Katz Anhalt
11-29-17 – The Age of Perpetual Light — Josh Well
11-30-17 – Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City — Greg Grandin
A Celebration of Reading 
Do you ever get a couple books from an imprint and become obsessed with that imprint? Probably 15 years ago, that happened to me and Vintage. I read 25 or 30 titles from Vintage and had another 25 or 30 on the shelves. Recently it has happened with Europa Editions. I have found some obscure gems, and now find myself at the local used store checking the spine for their symbol. If you haven’t checked out them, I think you’d find some quality titles.
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Oh, I have my share of book induced manias. I bought one title by John Barth at
the bookstore and then had to run back immediately and buy all of his works lest I would have different designs on my shelf.
Many years ago Barnes & Noble started a section dedicated to Penguin Classics. I must have bought over 150 of these black editions with the significant colored stripes on the spine. Unfortunately, as my eyes dimmed and I moved into more limited quarters, I was forced to donate carton after carton of these excellent Penguins to my local Goodwill (imagine: the library wouldn’t take them!).
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