Reading Pool for 2023

Traditionally I would to sit around the café at Barnes & Noble making my Christmas list of books I considered reading during the upcoming year. Then I bought a fancy espresso machine and nowadays I tend to stay home. But I still make that annual list of the next year’s potential reading.

The list is probably one of the most flexible lists I make and the number of titles considered is always far greater than the number of books I actually read during the year. You might notice that a large part of the list contains reading from the previous year that I didn’t get to but still want to read. I start off with about 150 books and by the end of the coming year this list will expand to about 250 books (I’ll read about 100 of them). [Note: 400 + in times of CoVid]

I love lists so here is this year’s Reading Pool. Note also the reading lists under the menu item “Lists.”

Read=Blue (75) To Read=Red

  1. The House of Twenty Thousand Books — Sasha Abramsky
  2. The Monkey-Wrench Gang — Edward Albee
  3. A Coffin for Dimitrios — Eric Ambler
  4. The Old Devils – Kingsley Amis
  5. Act of the Damned – António Lobo Antunes
  6. The Nice Guys — Charles Ardai
  7. God: A Human History — Resa Aslan
  8. Petty Troubles of Married Life — Honoré de Balzac
  9. The Memoirs of Two Young Wives — Honoré de Balzac
  10. City — Alessandro Baricco
  11. Monsieur Ouine – Georges Bernanos
  12. The Lime Works – Thomas Bernhard
  13. Life of Samuel Johnson — James Boswell
  14. Religion For Atheists — Alain de Botton
  15. Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook — Anthony Bourdain
  16. Open Season — C. J. Box
  17. Killoyle, An Irish Farce – Roger Boylan
  18. Anonymous Celebrity — Ignácio de Loyola Brandão
  19. The Unknown Quantity – Hermann Broch
  20. Thru — Christine Brooke-Rose
  21. Between –  Christine Brooke-Rose
  22. Father and Son – Larry Brown
  23. Neon Rain — James Lee Burke
  24. Cecilia — Franny Burney
  25. The Wanderer — Franny Burney
  26. The Biographer’s Tale — A. S. Byatt 
  27. Birnam Wood: A Novel — Eleanor Catton
  28. Moonglow — Michael Chabon
  29. The Manchurian Candidate — Richard Condon
  30. Blood Work — Michael Connelly
  31. What Girls Learn — Karin Cook
  32. The Winners – Julio Cortázar
  33. At Bertram’s Hotel — Agatha Christie
  34. American Dirt — Jeanine Cummins
  35. The Origin of the Species — Charles Darwin
  36. Manhattan Is My Beat — Jeffrey Deaver
  37. Death of a Blue Movie Star — Jeffrey Deaver
  38. Colonel Jack — Daniel Defoe
  39. Guns, Germs, Steel — Jared Diamond
  40. Bright Magic: Stories — Alfred Döblin
  41. Bucking the Sun — Ivan Doig
  42. Island People – Coleman Dowell
  43. The Corsican Brothers — Alexander Dumas
  44. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana – Umberto Eco
  45. Foucault’s Pendulum – Umberto Eco
  46. Manhattan Beach — Jennifer Egan
  47. A Boy and His Dog — Harlan Ellison
  48. The Samurai – Shusaku Endo
  49. Final Jeopardy — Linda Fairstein
  50. The Crack-up — F. Scott Fitzgeral
  51. The Cremator — Ladislav Fuks
  52. The Mare — Mary Gaitskill
  53. The Case of the Baited Hook — Erle Stanley Gardner
  54. The Case of the Perjured Parrot — Erle Stanley Gardner
  55. The Case of the Rolling Bones — Erle Stanley Gardner
  56. Promise At Dawn — Roman Gary
  57. Wives and Daughters: An Everyday Story — Elizabeth Gaskell
  58. Gun Island — Amitav Ghosh
  59. She Drove without Stopping – Jaimy Gordon
  60. Time Shelter — Georgi Gospodinov
  61. Château d’Argol — Julien Gracq
  62. Too Far Afield – Günter Grass
  63. Party Going — Henry Green
  64. Looking for Alaska — John Green
  65. The Book of Intimate Grammar: A Novel – David Grossman
  66. The Magicians — Lev Grossman
  67. Stalingrad — Vasily Grossman
  68. The Motherfucker with the Hat — Stephen Adly Guirgis
  69. White People — Allan Gurganus
  70. The Midnight Library — Matt Haig
  71. The Autobiography of Malcolm X – Alex Haley
  72. The Good Soldier Svejk — Jaroslav Hasek
  73. Whistlejacket – John Hawkes
  74. Starship Troopers — Robert A. Heinlein
  75. I — Wolfgang Hilbig
  76. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages — Tom Holt
  77. Là-Bas – J. K. Huysmans
  78. Captain Saturday — Robert Inman
  79. The Princess Cassamassima— Henry James
  80. Some Came Running — James Jones
  81. The Thin Red Line — James Jones
  82. A Field Guide to Reality — Joanna Kavenna
  83. Alien Rice — Ichiro Kawasaki
  84. The Lacuna — Barbara Kingsolver
  85. The Exile — William Kotzwinkle
  86. The Last Days of Mankind — Karl Kraus
  87. God’s Without Men — Hari Kunzru
  88. Complete Stories — Clarice Lispector
  89. A Man of Parts — David Lodge
  90. Robert B. Parker’s Blood Feud — Mike Lupica
  91. The Executioner’s Song – Norman Mailer
  92. Oswald’s Tale – Norman Mailer
  93. Harlot’s Ghost – Norman Mailer
  94. Le Morte d’Arthur — Thomas Malory
  95. The White Lioness — Henning Mankell
  96. Joseph and His Brothers — Thomas Mann
  97. Adam Buenosayres: A Novel — Leopoldo Marechal
  98. The Loved Ones – Alia Mamdouh
  99. Shadow Country — Peter Matthiesse
  100. Women and Men — Joseph McElroy
  101. Annals of the Former World — John McPhee
  102. Forbidden Colors — Yukio Mishima
  103. Teeth — Hannah Moskowitz
  104. The Redbreast — Jo Nesbø
  105. Nemesis — Jo Nesbø
  106. Lemprière’s Dictionary – Lawrence Norfolk
  107. In the Shape of a Boar — Lawrence Norfolk
  108. A Widow’s Story: A Memoir — Joyce Carol Oates
  109. My Heart Laid Bare — Joyce Carol Oates
  110. A Tale of Love and Darkness – Amos Oz
  111. The New Life — Orhan Pamuk
  112. Towns Without Rivers – Michael Parker
  113. The Poe Shadow — Matthew Pearl
  114. Time and Chance — Sharon Kay Penman
  115. Devil’s Brood — Sharon Kay Penman
  116. Lionheart — Sharon Kay Penman
  117. The Sunne In Splendour — Sharon Kay Penman
  118. Monsieur Songe – Robert Pinget
  119. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — Robert M. Pirsig
  120. A Glastonbury Romance — John Cowper Powys
  121. Porius — John Cowper Powys
  122. Owen Glendower — John Cowper Powys
  123. Maiden Castle — John Cowper Powys
  124. The Extremes — Christopher Priest
  125. eXistenZ — Christopher Priest
  126. Satiristas! — Paul Provenza
  127. Time Regained — Marcel Proust
  128. Slag Attack — Andersen Prunty
  129. Betrayed by Rita Hayworth — Maanuel Puig
  130. Gargantua & Pantagruel — François Rabelais
  131. Joshua Then and Now — Mordecai Richler
  132. Barney’s Version — Mordecai Richler 
  133. Larva: A Midsummer Night’s Babel – Julían Ríos
  134. Captain Blood — Rafael Sabatini 
  135. The Sea-Hawk — Rafael Sabatini
  136. The 120 Days of Sodom — Le Marquis de Sade
  137. Memoirs of an Invisible Man — H. F. Saint
  138. Farmerettes — Gisela Sherman
  139. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich — William L. Shirer
  140. And Quiet Flows the Don — Mikhail Sholokhov
  141. Barefoot Boy with Cheek — Max Shulman
  142. The Shadow Puppet — George Simenon
  143. The Murderer — Georges Simenon
  144. The Judge’s House — Georges Simenon
  145. The Engineer of Human Souls – Josef Skvoresky
  146. Havana Bay — Martin Cruz Smith
  147. The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle — Tobias Smollett
  148. Imaginative Quantities of Actual Things – Gilbert Sorrentino
  149. The Books of Jacob — Olga Tokarczuk
  150. House of Day, House of Night — Olga Tokarczuk
  151. Cane — Jean Toomer
  152. Scattered All Over the Earth — Yoko Towada
  153. The Beginner’s Goodbye — Anne Tyler
  154. S. — John Updike
  155. Villages — John Updike
  156. Burr — Gore Vidal
  157. Lincoln — Gore Vidal
  158. 1876 — Gore Vidal
  159. Empire — Gore Vidal
  160. Hollywood — Gore Vidal
  161. Washington, D. C. — Gore Vidal
  162. Creation— Gore Vidal
  163. Julian — Gore Vidal
  164. The Golden Age— Gore Vidal
  165. The City and the Pillar — Gore Vidal
  166. Rainbow Stories – William T. Vollmann
  167. The Ice-Shirt – William T. Vollmann
  168. The Rifles – William T. Vollmann
  169. An Afghanistan Picture Show; or, How I Saved the World – William T. Vollmann
  170. Girl with Curious Hair — David Foster Wallace
  171. Tipping the Velvet — Sarah Waters
  172. The Martian — Andy Weir
  173. Glue — Irvine Welsh
  174. Dead Men’s Trousers — Irvine Welsh
  175. Skagboys — Irvine Welsh
  176. The Intuitionist — Colson Whitehead
  177. The Naked Jungle — Harry Whittington
  178. Maisie Dobbs — Jacqueline Winspear 
  179. This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It — David Wong
  180. Jacob’s Room — Virginia Woolf
  181. Trash — Amy Yamada
  182. I Hotel – Karen Tei Yamashita
  183. The People in the Trees — Hanya Yanagihara
  184. The Book Thief — Markus Zusak

(Workspace for yet another year’s reading pool : subject to persistent futzing)

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