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).

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

Read=Blue (80) | if unread in a current monthly pool=italics

1. The Poet X — Elizabeth Acevedo
2. The Monkey-Wrench Gang — Edward Albee
3. Indian Killer — Sherman Alexie
4. Zinky Boys — Svetlana Alexievich
5. Lionel Asbo: State of England — Martin Amis
6. Other People — Martin Amis
7. Act of the Damned – António Lobo Antunes
8. God: A Human History — Resa Aslan
9. The Automobile Club of Egypt — Alaa Al Aswany
10. Robert B. Parker’s Slow Burn — Ace Atkins
11. Robert B. Parker’s Little White Lies — Ace Atkins
12. Robert B. Parker’s Old Black Magic — Ace Atkins
13. Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes
14. The Testaments — Margaret Atwood
15. Shamanspace — Steve Aylett
16. They Were Counted — Miklós Banffy
17. They Were Divided — Miklós Banffy
18. They Were Found Wanting — Miklós Banffy
19. Humbolt’s Gift — Saul Bellow
20. Monsieur Ouine – Georges Bernanos
21. The Lime Works – Thomas Bernhard
22. The Monkey Link: A Pilgrimage Novel — Andrei Bitov
23. Monsieur Pamplemousse Takes the Train — Michael Bond
24. Religion For Atheists — Alain de Botton
25. Armadillo — William Boyd
26. Brazzaville Beach— William Boyd
27. A Good Man In Africa — William Boyd
28. The Giant Rat of Sumatra — Richard L. Boyer
29. Killoyle, An Irish Farce – Roger Boylan
30. When the Killing’s Done — T. C. Boyle
31. The Terranauts – T. C. Boyle
32. Drop City – T. C. Boyle
33. The Women – T. C. Boyle
34. Riven Rock – T. C. Boyle
35. Lady Audley’s Secret – Mary Elizabeth Braddon
36. Anonymous Celebrity — Ignácio de Loyola Brandão
37. The Sleepwalkers – Hermann Broch
38. The Unknown Quantity – Hermann Broch
39. Thru — Christine Brooke-Rose
40. Between –  Christine Brooke-Rose
41. Father and Son – Larry Brown
42. Hard Case Crime: Slide — Ken Bruen
43. The Pilgrim’s Progress — John Bunyan
44. The Ugly American — Eugene Burdick
45. Babel Tower – A. S. Byatt
46. Three Trapped Tigers — G. Cabrera Infante
47. The Hive – Camilo José Cela
48. Tribesmen: A Novella of Supernatural Cannibal Horror — Adam Cesare
49. Moonglow — Michael Chabon
50. The Shooting Party — Anton Chekhov
51. The Water Dancer — Ta-Nehisi Coates
52. Bringing Out the Dead — Joe Connelly
53. Lucky Pierre – Robert Coover
54. The Public Burning – Robert Coover
55. The Winners – Julio Cortázar
56. The Enormous Room — E. E. Cummings
57. The Lost Scrapbook – Evan Dara
58. Varieties of Disturbance: Stories – Lydia Davis
59. The End of the Story — Lydia Davis
60. Americana— Don DeLillo
61. Our Mutual Friend — Charles Dickens
62. Frog — Stephen Dixon
63. Bright Magic: Stories — Alfred Döblin
64. Bucking the Sun — Ivan Doig
65. Schultz — J. P. Donleavy
66. The Adolescent – Fyodor Dostoevsky
67. Island People – Coleman Dowell
68. The Forty-Five – Alexander Dumas
69. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana – Umberto Eco
70. Castle Rackrent — Maria Edgeworth
71. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius — Dave Eggers
72. Zeitoun — Dave Eggers
73. Daniel Deronda — George Eliot
74. The Librarian — Mikhail Elizarov
75. Glamorama – Brett Easton Ellis
76. Lunar Park – Brett Easton Ellis
77. Boswell – Stanley Elkin
78. The Samurai – Shusaku Endo
79. House of Beauty — Melba Escobar
80. Judgment Day — James T. Farrell
81. Go Down, Moses – William Faulkner
82. The Mansion — William Faulkner
83. Pylon – William Faulkner
84. Independence Day— Richard Ford
85. Sophie’s World – Jostein Gaarder
86. Promise At Dawn — Roman Gary
87. Cranford – Elizabeth Gaskell
88. Mary Barton – Elizabeth Gaskell
89. Middle C — William H. Gass
90. The Mare — Mary Gaitskill
91. The Glass Palace – Amitav Ghosh
92. The Hungry Tide – Amitav Ghosh
93. Carter Beats the Devil – Glen David Gold
94. She Drove without Stopping – Jaimy Gordon
95. Château d’Argol — Julien Gracq
96. Too Far Afield – Günter Grass
97. Party Going — Henry Green
98. The Heart of the Matter– Graham Greene
99. The Book of Intimate Grammar: A Novel – David Grossman
100. Snow Falling On Cedars — David Guterson
101. The Big Sky — A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
102. The Beirut Hellfire Society — Rawi Hagers
103. The Autobiography of Malcolm X – Alex Haley
104. Warlock – Oakley Hall
105. Me & Mr. Cigar — Gibby Haynes
106. Growth of the Soil — Knut Hamsun
107. Moravian Night — Peter Handke
108. A Pair of Blue Eyes — Thomas Hardy
109. Whistlejacket – John Hawkes
110. God Is Not Great — Christopher Hitchens
111. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages — Tom Holt
112. Serotonin — Michel Houellebecq
113. Là-Bas – J. K. Huysmans
114. Princess Bari — Sok-yong Hwang
115. Three Trapped Tigers – G. Cabrera Infante
116. A Single Man— Christopher Isherwood
117. The Unconsoled – Katsuo Ishiguro
118. The Wings of the Dove – Henry James
119. The Portrait of a Lady — Henry James
120. The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden — Jonas Jonasson
121. Death Without Company — Craig Johnson
122. Second Person Singular — Sayed Kashua
123. The Flaming Corsage — William Kennedy
124. Sometimes a Great Notion — Ken Kesey
125. Hard Case Crime: The Colorado Kid — Stephen King
126. The Man Who Spoke Snakish — Andrus Kivirähk
127. The Marquise of O— — Heinrich von Kleist
128. The Exile — William Kotzwinkle
129. The Melancholy of Resistance — Lásló Krasznahorkai
130. God’s Without Men — Hari Kunzru
131. Seven Pillars of Wisdom — T. E. Lawrence
132. Independent People – Halldor Laxness
133. The Wanderer — Fritz Leiber
134. The Topeka School — Ben Lerner
135. Elmer Gantry — Sinclair Lewis
136. Complete Stories — Clarice Lispector
137. Martin Eden — Jack London
138. Stories In the Worst Way — Gary Lutz
139. Goth Girl Rising — Barry Lyga
140. The Executioner’s Song – Norman Mailer
141. Harlot’s Ghost – Norman Mailer
142. The Loved Ones – Alia Mamdouh
143. The Dogs of Riga —Henning Mankell
144. Severance — Ling Ma
145. Adam Buenosayres: A Novel — Leopoldo Marechal
146. The Infatuations — Javier Marías
147. Mother and Child — Carol Maso
148. Camgirl — Isa Mazzei
149. Lookout Cartridge – Joseph McElroy
150. The Children Act — Ian McEwan
151. Razor Wire Pubic Hair — Carlton Mellick III
152. Mardi — Herman Melville
153. White Jacket, or, The World On a Man-of-War — Herman Melville
154. The Ordeal of Richard Feveral — George Meredith
155. Forbidden Colors — Yukio Mishima
156. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
157. The Bone Clocks — David Mitchell
158. Contempt — Alberto Moravia
159. The Haunted Bookshop — Christopher Morley
160. Pow! — Mo Yan
161. Big Breasts and Wide Hips — Mo Yan
162. The Revisionists — Thomas Mullen
163. The Green Knight — Iris Murdoch
164. A Man Without Qualities – Robert Musil
165. Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle – Vladimir Nabokov
166. The Boy In the Earth — Fuminori Nakamura
167. House of Incest — Anais Nin
168. The Octopus On My Head — Jim Nisbet
169. Parallel Stories — Péter Nádas
170. Nymphomation — Jeff Noon
171. The Octopus – Frank Norris
172. A Widow’s Story — Joyce Carol Oates
173. Mudwoman — Joyce Carol Oates
174. The Gravedigger’s Daughter — Joyce Carol Oates
175. A Book of American Martyrs — Joyce Carol Oates
176. Broke Heart Blues — Joyce Carol Oates
177. The Fishermen: A Novel — Chigozie Obioma
178. The Memory Police — Yoko Ogawa
179. The Ginza Ghost and Other Stories — Keikichi Osaka
180. A Tale of Love and Darkness – Amos Oz
181. The Black Book – Orhan Pamuk
182. Towns Without Rivers – Michael Parker
183. An Instance of the Fingerpost – Iain Pears
184. The Thanatos Syndrome — Walker Percy
185. Mrs. Fletcher — Tom Perrotta
186. Special Topics in Calamity Physics – Marisha Pessl
187. The Book of Disquiet – Fernando Pessoa
188. Monsieur Songe – Robert Pinget
189. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — Robert M. Pirsig
190. Mason & Dixon – Thomas Pynchon
191. Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded — Samuel Richardson
192. Larva: A Midsummer Night’s Babel – Julían Ríos
193. Chinatown Angel — A. E. Roman
194. Letting Go – Philip Roth
195. The Humbling — Philip Roth
196. When She Was Good — Philip Roth
197. A Very Stable Genius — Philip Rucker and Carol Leonig
198. Quichotte — Salman Rushdie
199. The Moor’s Last Siggh — Salman Rushdie
200. Memoirs of an Invisible Man — H. F. Saint
201. It Came From Below the Belt — Bradley Sands
202. Baltasar and Blimunda – José Saramago
203. The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump — Robert Sears
204. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds In This Strange World — Elif Shafak
205. The Designated Mourner — Wallace Shawn
206. Absurdistan — Gary Shteyngart
207. The Russian Debutante’s Handbook — Gary Shteyngart
208. Quo Vadis — Henryk Sienkiewicz
209. Maigret’s Holiday — Georges Simenon
210. Shosha — Isaac Bashevis Singer
211. The Engineer of Human Souls – Josef Skvoresky
212. December 6 — Martin Crus Smith
213. In the First Circle – Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
214. In America – Susan Sontag
215. Imaginative Quantities of Actual Things – Gilbert Sorrentino
216. Blue Movie — Terry Southern
217. Loitering With Intent — Muriel Spark
218. Angle of Repose — Wallace Stegner
219. The League of Frightened Men — Rex Stout
220. At Night,I Become a Monster — Yoru Sumino
221. A Memoir of Misfortune — Su Xiaokang
222. Thy Neighbor’s Wife — Gay Talese
223. The Magnificent Ambersons – Booth Tarkington
224. The Curse of Lono — Hunter S. Thompson
225. The Ogre — Michel Tournier
226. Palm Beach, Finland — Antti Tuomainen
227. Diary of a Blood Donor – Mati Unt
228. Terrorist — John Updike
229. Mac’s Problem — Enrique Vila-Matas
230. Rainbow Stories – William T. Vollmann
231. The Ice-Shirt – William T. Vollmann
232. An Afghanistan Picture Show; or, How I Saved the World – William T. Vollmann
233. Glue — Irvine Welsh
234. Skagboys — Irvine Welsh
235. The Once and Future King — T. H. White
236. I Am Charlotte Simmons — Tom Wolfe
237. This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It — David Wong
238. I Hotel – Karen Tei Yamashita
239. Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist – Sunil Yapa
240. The Time Invariance of Snow — E. Lily Yu
241. People’s History of the United States — Howard Zinn
242. The Debacle— Émile Zola
243. Au Bonheur des Dames — Émile Zola
244. The Miller’s Daughter — Émile Zola

(Next year’s reading pool : subject to change)