Monthly Reading Pool

These are the books I have staged for possible reading this month. Of course, during the month I may get a couple of books from the library, have a delivery from one of the online bookstores, download something interesting from the internet, or just change my mind when I discover a very juicy novel lost under the bureau with the dead frogs and the antediluvian dust bunnies: in other words, the list may be amended or extended without notice.

Note that my bookshelves are full and the library is just down the street but my aging eyes force me to give priority to digital books, especially those I can augment with a digital voice. So I am relying more and more on purchasing digital books over the internet or discovering classic literature on sites such as Project Gutenberg. Thank goodness for the internet and my trusty iPad.

June Reading List

Active, Read (0)

1. The Russian Girl – Kingsley Amis
2. The Memoirs of Two Young Wives — Honoré de Balzac
3. Life of Samuel Johnson — James Boswell
4. Birnam Wood: A Novel — Eleanor Catton
5. Blood Work — Michael Connelly
6. American Dirt — Jeanine Cummins
7. Death of a Blue Movie Star — Jeffrey Deaver
8. Looking for Alaska — John Green
9. White People — Allan Gurganus
10. Annals of the Former World — John McPhee
11. The Sea-Hawk — Rafael Sabatini
12. Memoirs of an Invisible Man — H. F. Saint
13. The Judge’s House — Georges Simenon
14. Havana Bay — Martin Cruz Smith
15. House of Day, House of Night — Olga Tokarczuk
16. The Martian — Andy Weir
17. The Golden Age — Gore Vidal
18. The Intuitionist — Colson Whitehead
19. The People in the Trees — Hanya Yanagihara
20. The Book Thief — Markus Zusak

Note: To keep the original reading pool intact, I maintain a separate list of unscheduled reading that might slip in along the way. I also use this auxiliary list to stash books held over from the previous month or big fat books I hopefully will finish soon.

• Whistlejacket — John Hawkes
• Joseph and His Brothers — Thomas Mann
• Porius: A Romance of the Dark Ages — John Cowper Powys
• The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich — William L. Shirer

You might notice I tend to have several books or eBooks in progress at the same time. Although this might suggest I can hold two books and read one with each eye, it actually is an artifact from my earlier days of reading when I would have a book to read in every room—office, bedroom, bathroom, car, kitchen, living room, etc.—for fear that I would ever sit down and have nothing with me to read. I can look back at my second year in college standing for hours in the registration line without a book or even a gum wrapper to read. I still have nightmares about that afternoon. With eBooks and an iPhone this has become unnecessary. Now I have hundreds of books to chose from as long as I make sure I travel with my iPhone in my pocket.

Considering Next Month’s Reading List

A work in progress that may change without notice. Still, it’s almost like a peek into the future. I have reduced the monthly pool to 20 titles: this allows plenty of choices for my typical 8 reads a month and still allows for more (and to think I used to pool 40 books each month!).

Unfortunately (or fortunately) during the big Covid outbreak, being locked-down in my rooms has allowed my reading to blossom. But I’m getting old and slowing down. Also, there is a fateful tug-of-war dragging on my reading preferences: I always bemoan not having time to read those big fat ones but when I dedicate time to a long desired door-stop, I can’t believe all the smaller books I lust after reading.

For the last couple of months I’ve concentrated on those Big Fat Books lingering in my Bucket List, but I need room for the fun of genre fiction and the sparkle of the latest best-sellers. There’s just too many tempting books to read: big ones, small ones, fat ones, skinny ones, old ones, new ones, silly ones, serious ones. Time’s running out.

Planning Scratch Pads: Future and Supplemental Reading

1. Lionel Asbo: State of England — Martin Amis
2. The Deputy of Arcis — Honoré de Balzac
3. Void Moon — Michael Connelly
4. Hard News — Jeffrey Deaver
5. Room — Emma Donaghue
6. The Shards — Bret Easton Ellis
7. Be My Knife — David Grossman
8. I — Wolfgang Hilbig
9. Setting Free the Bears — John Irving
10. The Far Pavilions — M. M. Kaye
11. Harlot’s Ghost — Norman Mailer
12. A Door Behind a Door — Yelena Moskovich
13. Ghost Wall — Sarah Moss
14. John Saturnall’s Feast: A Novel — Lawrence Norfolk
15. The Tavern Knight — Rafael Sabatini
16. In Case of Emergency — Georges Simenon
17. Wolves Eat Dogs — Martin Cruz Smith
18. Three Streets — Yoko Tawada
19. The Creation — Gore Vidal
20. To Paradise — Hanya Yanagihara