A few years ago I subscribed to every source of reading materials I could find—web sites, newsletters, publishers, bookstores, reviewers, newspapers, magazines, English Departments, library bulletins—always fearful that something important I should read might escape me. As I got older and slower, I gradually pared my resources to a few generally available online sources. I cancelled subscriptions to magazines and newspapers, threw out my back copies of NYRB and TLS, and unsubscribed from most online reading sites and weblogs.
Despite all my efforts I am still overwhelmed by the quantity of tempting literature that is published each year.
Being retired and effectively quarantined, I’m lucky to have all of these books to read. I’ve caught up with my American literature, read most of the Victorian and Edwardian authors, enjoyed quite a few intriguing detective stories, knocked off several Big Fat Books, and even sampled a few current best-sellers.
Last month I read just about as much as I have since university and still had time for Mare of Easttown. I have also made some in-roads into my own list of suggested reading. Here are the significant statistics that all the reading I have been doing hiding out from the pandemic:
- Titles Recommended: 31
- Titles Read: 9
- Titles on TBR List: 6
- Jean Smart Triumphs: 2
07-01-21 – Jack — Marilynne Robinson
07-02-21 – The Flame Throwers — Rachel Kushner
07-03-21 – The Dead Are Arising — Les and Tamara Paine
07-04-21 – Tribesmen — Adam Cesare
07-05-21 – The Silence — Don DeLillo
07-06-21 – Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border — Luis Urrea
07-07-21 – Moonflower Murders — Anthony Horowitz
07-08-21 – The Girl Who Reads On the Metro — Christine Féret-Fleury
07-09-21 – The Spy — James Fenimore Cooper
07-10-21 – Infinite Powers — Steven Strogatz
07-11-21 – Sisters of the Revolution — Ann Vandermeer & Jeff Vandermeer
07-12-21 – La Regenta — Leopoldo Alas
07-13-21 – The First Americans — James Adovasio
07-14-21 – They Just Seem a Little Weird: How KISS, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, and Starz Remade Rock and Roll — Doug Brod
07-15-21 – The Greatest Show on Earth — Richard Dawkins
07-16-21 – Action Park — Andy Mulvihill
07-17-21 – The Kingdom — Jo Nesbo
07-18-21 – Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X — Les Payne
07-19-21 – The Best of Me — David Sedaris
07-20-21 – White Ivy — Susie Yang
07-21-21 – Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art — Rebecca Wragg Sykes
07-22-21 – Angel’s Game — Carlos Ruiz Zafón
07-23-21 – The Literary Mind — Mark Turner
07-24-21 – Dancing in the Dark: My Struggle Book 4 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
07-25-21 – Arcadian Nights — John Spurling
07-26-21 – Love and War In California — Oakley Hall
07-27-21 – The Last Rectangle and Other Short Stories — Akram Najjar
07-28-21 – Late Stories — Stephen Dixon
07-29-21 – Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line — Deepa Anappara
07-30-21 – A Knock At Midnight — Brittany K. Barnett
07-31-21 – Bring Me the Head of Quentin Tarantino: Stories — Julián Herbert
A Celebration of Reading 