Reading Pool for 2021

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: 300 + 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 (137) | to read from current monthly pool=italics

1. Bukowski in a Sundress: Confessions from a Writing Life — Kim Addonizio
2. The Winter Queen — Boris Akunin
3. The Monkey-Wrench Gang — Edward Albee
4. Just Kids From the Bronx — Arlene Alda
5. Indian Killer — Sherman Alexie
6. Lionel Asbo: State of England — Martin Amis
7. The Bridge on the Drina — Ivo Andric
8. Act of the Damned – António Lobo Antunes
9. God: A Human History — Resa Aslan
10. Robert B. Parker’s Someone To Watch Over Me — Ace Atkins
11. Reiko — James Avonleigh
12. Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, and Other Bedroom Battles — Robin Baker
13. La Cousine Bette — Honoré de Balzac
14. Le Cousin Pons — Honoré de Balzac
15. Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes — Honoré de Balzac
16. Illusions perdues — Honoré de Balzac
17. Looking For Bapu — Anjali Banerjee
18. They Were Counted — Miklós Banffy
19. They Were Divided — Miklós Banffy
20. They Were Found Wanting — Miklós Banffy
21. Snow — John Banville
22. The Untouchable — John Banville
23. Monsieur Ouine – Georges Bernanos
24. The Lime Works – Thomas Bernhard
25. Christine Falls: A Novel — Benjamin Black
26. The Silver Swan — Benjamin Black
27. Psychedelic Apes: From Parallel Universes To Atomic Dinosaurs – The Weirdest Theories of Science and History — Alex Boese
28. Group Portrait with Lady — Heinrich Böll
29. Religion For Atheists — Alain de Botton
30. Armadillo — William Boyd
31. An Ice-Cream War: A Novel — William Boyd
32. Killoyle, An Irish Farce – Roger Boylan
33. When the Killing’s Done — T. C. Boyle
34. The Terranauts – T. C. Boyle
35. Drop City – T. C. Boyle
36. The Women – T. C. Boyle
37. San Miguel — T. C. Boyle
38. East Is East — T. C. Boyle
39. Anonymous Celebrity — Ignácio de Loyola Brandão
40. The Max — Ken Bruen
41. The Sleepwalkers – Hermann Broch
42. The Unknown Quantity – Hermann Broch
43. Villette — Charlotte Brontë
44. Shirley— Charlotte Brontë
45. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall— Anne Brontë
46. The Professor— Charlotte Brontë
47. Agnes Gray — Anne Brontë
48. Thru — Christine Brooke-Rose
49. Between –  Christine Brooke-Rose
50. Father and Son – Larry Brown
51. Wieland; or the Transformation — Charles Brockton Brown
52. The Secret Garden — Frances Hodgson Burnett
53. Tornado Alley — William S. Burroughs
54. Babel Tower – A. S. Byatt
55. Ragnarok: The End of the Gods — A. S. Byatt
56. Three Trapped Tigers — G. Cabrera Infante
57. The Ruin of Kasch — Roberto Calasso
58. Moonglow — Michael Chabon
59. A Night In the Cemetery — Anton Chekhov
60. The Poet — Michael Connelly
61. The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground — James Fenimore Cooper
62. The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea — James Fenimore Cooper
63. The Red Rover: A Tale — James Fenimore Cooper
64. John’s Wife – Robert Coover
65. Ghost Town – Robert Coover
66. The Public Burning – Robert Coover
67. Huck Out West – Robert Coover
68. The Winners – Julio Cortázar
69. The Enormous Room — E. E. Cummings
70. Media — Rachel Cusk
71. The Lost Scrapbook – Evan Dara
72. Varieties of Disturbance: Stories – Lydia Davis
73. The End of the Story — Lydia Davis
74. Girl A — Abigail Dean
75. Americana — Don DeLillo
76. Ratner’s Star— Don DeLillo
77. Libra— Don DeLillo
78. Lit Up — David Denby
79. Honey In His Mouth — Lester Dent
80. Guns, Germs, Steel — Jared Diamond
81. Little Dorritt — Charles Dickens
82. Bright Magic: Stories — Alfred Döblin
83. Bucking the Sun — Ivan Doig
84. Schultz — J. P. Donleavy
85. Homeland Security Ate My Speech: Messages from the End of the World — Ariel Dorfman
86. The Adolescent – Fyodor Dostoevsky
87. Demons – Fyodor Dostoevsky
88. Island People – Coleman Dowell
89. Trafik — Ricki Ducornet
90. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana – Umberto Eco
91. Foucault’s Pendulum – Umberto Eco
92. The Island of the Day Before – Umberto Eco
93. Baudolino – Umberto Eco
94. Six Walks in the Fictional Woods — Umberto Eco
95. Zeitoun — Dave Eggers
96. The Franchiser — Stanley Elkin
97. Romola — George Eliot
98. Imperial Bedrooms — Bret Easton Ellis
99. The Death of Vivek Oji: A Novel — Akwaeke Emezi
100. The Samurai – Shusaku Endo
101. Tomboyland: Essays — Melissa Faliveno
102. Baby Moll — John Farris
103. Pylon – William Faulkner
104. Choke Hold — Christa Faust
105. My Brilliant Friend — Elena Ferrante
106. The Crack-up — F. Scott Fitzgerald
107. Independence Day— Richard Ford
108. Sophie’s World – Jostein Gaarder
109. The Mare — Mary Gaitskill
110. A Daughter of the Middle Border — Hamlin Garland
111. Promise At Dawn — Roman Gary
112. Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life — Elizabeth Gaskell
113. North and South — Elizabeth Gaskell
114. Wives and Daughters: An Everyday Story — Elizabeth Gaskell
115. The Balcony — Jean Genet
116. The Glass Palace – Amitav Ghosh
117. Taco Noir — Steven Gomez
118. She Drove without Stopping – Jaimy Gordon
119. Château d’Argol — Julien Gracq
120. Too Far Afield – Günter Grass
121. Lanark: A Life In Four Books — Alisdair Gray
122. Party Going — Henry Green
123. The Book of Intimate Grammar: A Novel – David Grossman
124. Life and Fate — Vassily Grossman
125. The Big Sky — A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
126. Homegoing — Yaa Gyasi
127. Transcendent Kingdom: A Novel — Yaa Gyasi
128. Carnival: A Novel — Rawi Hage
129. The Autobiography of Malcolm X – Alex Haley
130. Warlock – Oakley Hall
131. A Pair of Blue Eyes — Thomas Hardy
132. Whistlejacket – John Hawkes
133. Blithedale Romance — Nathaniel Hawthorne
134. The Marble Faun: Or, The Romance of Monte Beni — Nathaniel Hawthorne
135. Histories — Heroditus
136. The Friends of Eddie Coyle — George V. Higgins
137. God Is Not Great — Christopher Hitchens
138. House Dick — E. Howard Hunt
139. The Folding Star — Alan Hollinghurst
140. The Line of Beauty — Alan Hollinghurst
141. The Spell — Alan Hollinghurst
142. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages — Tom Holt
143. Zorrie — Laird Hunt
144. Là-Bas – J. K. Huysmans
145. Stealth — Sonallah Ibrahim
146. Three Trapped Tigers – G. Cabrera Infante
147. Second Person Singular — Sayed Kashua
148. The Flaming Corsage — William Kennedy
149. Sometimes a Great Notion — Ken Kesey
150. Disclaimer — Rene Knight
151. Robert B. Parker’s Ironhorse — Robert Knott
152. Robert B. Parker’s Bull River — Robert Knott
153. Robert B. Parker’s The Bridge — Robert Knott
154. The Exile — William Kotzwinkle
155. A Death in the Family: My Struggle Book 1 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
156. A Man In Love: My Struggle Book 2 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
157. Boyhood Island: My Struggle Book 3 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
158. Dancing in the Dark: My Struggle Book 4 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
159. Some Rain Must Fall: My Struggle Book 5 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
160. The End: My Struggle Book 6 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
161. The Melancholy of Resistance — Lásló Krasznahorkai
162. God’s Without Men — Hari Kunzru
163. The Fifth Child — Doris Lessing
164. A Martian Examines Christianity — Arthur Levett
165. The Tool & the Butterflies — Dmitry Lipskerov
166. Complete Stories — Clarice Lispector
167. No One Is Talking About This — Patrician Lockwood
168. Hades, Argentina: A Novel — Daniel Loedel
169. Boy Toy — Barry Lyga
170. Goth Girl Rising — Barry Lyga
171. The Executioner’s Song – Norman Mailer
172. Harlot’s Ghost – Norman Mailer
173. The Loved Ones – Alia Mamdouh
174. The Betrothed — Alessandro Manzoni
175. Adam Buenosayres: A Novel — Leopoldo Marechal
176. The Infatuations — Javier Marías
177. More Tales of the City — Armistead Maupin
178. Further Tales of the City — Armistead Maupin
179. Cam Girl — Isa Mazzei
180. The Crossing — Cormac McCarthy
181. Cities of the Plain — Cormac McCarthy
182. Suttree — Cormac McCarthy
183. Outer Dark — Cormac McCarthy
184. Lookout Cartridge – Joseph McElroy
185. Solar — Ian McEwan
186. Razor Wire Pubic Hair — Carlton Mellick III
187. Forbidden Colors — Yukio Mishima
188. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
189. The Bone Clocks — David Mitchell
190. Utopia Avenue — David Mitchell
191. Mexican Gothic — Silvia Morena-García
192. Big Breasts and Wide Hips — Mo Yan
193. First Person Singular: Stories — Haruki Murakami
194. Earthlings — Sayaka Murata
195. The Green Knight — Iris Murdoch
196. Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle – Vladimir Nabokov
197. Parallel Stories — Péter Nádas
198. The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth — Veeraporn Nitiprapha
199. The Pit — Frank Norris
200. The Pornographers: A Novel — Akiyuki Nozaka
201. What Are You Going Through — Sigrid Nunez
202. A Widow’s Story — Joyce Carol Oates
203. Mudwoman — Joyce Carol Oates
204. The Gravedigger’s Daughter — Joyce Carol Oates
205. A Book of American Martyrs — Joyce Carol Oates
206. My Heart Laid Bare — Joyce Carol Oates
207. Broke Heart Blues — Joyce Carol Oates
208. The Fishermen: A Novel — Chigozie Obioma
209. Hamnet — Maggie O’Farrell
210. Miss Iceland — Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
211. The Aosawa Murders — Riku Onda
212. A Tale of Love and Darkness – Amos Oz
213. History. A Mess. — Sigrún Pálsdóttir
214. The Black Book – Orhan Pamuk
215. The Room Next Door — Nicolas Papaconstantinou
216. Towns Without Rivers – Michael Parker
217. The Watery Part of the World – Michael Parker
218. An Instance of the Fingerpost – Iain Pears
219. The Thanatos Syndrome — Walker Percy
220. Special Topics in Calamity Physics – Marisha Pessl
221. Fade To Blonde — Max Phillips
222. Monsieur Songe – Robert Pinget
223. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — Robert M. Pirsig
224. The Door — Mary Roberts Rinehart
225. Larva: A Midsummer Night’s Babel – Julían Ríos
226. Home: A Novel — Marilynne Robinson
227. Lila — Marilynne Robinson
228. Jack: A Novel — Marilynne Robinson
229. Letting Go – Philip Roth
230. The Humbling — Philip Roth
231. Operation Shylock : A Confession — Philip Roth
232. Patrimony: A True Story — Philip Roth
233. Reveries of the Solitary Walker — Jean-Jacques Rousseau
234. A Renegade History of the United States — Thaddeus Russell
235. Memoirs of an Invisible Man — H. F. Saint
236. It Came From Below the Belt — Bradley Sands
237. The Bride of Lammermoor — Sir Walter Scott
238. Monestary — Sir Walter Scott
239. The Talisman — Sir Walter Scott
240. In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash — Jean Shepherd
241. Absurdistan — Gary Shteyngart
242. The Russian Debutante’s Handbook — Gary Shteyngart
243. Maigret and the Millionaires — Georges Simenon
244. Maigret and Monsieur Charles — Georges Simenon
245. Maigret and the Informer — Georges Simenon
246. Maigret and the Death of a Harbor-Master — Georges Simenon
247. Maigret and the Killer — Georges Simenon
248. Maigret Has Doubts — Georges Simenon
249. Maigret Afraid — Georges Simenon
250. The Engineer of Human Souls – Josef Skvoresky
251. In the First Circle – Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
252. The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 Abridged: An Experiment in Literary Investigation — Aexandr Soltzheritsyn
253. In America – Susan Sontag
254. Against Interpretation — Susan Sontag
255. Imaginative Quantities of Actual Things – Gilbert Sorrentino
256. The League of Frightened Men — Rex Stout
257. A Memoir of Misfortune — Su Xiaokang
258. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead: A Novel — Olga Tokarczuk
259. Innocents Abroad — Mark Twain
260. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry — Neil Degrasse Tyson
261. Diary of a Blood Donor – Mati Unt
262. Rainbow Stories – William T. Vollmann
263. The Ice-Shirt – William T. Vollmann
264. The Rifles – William T. Vollmann
265. An Afghanistan Picture Show; or, How I Saved the World – William T. Vollmann
266. Zadig — Voltaire
267. Jailbird — Kurt Vonnegut
268. Galápagos: A Novel — Kurt Vonnegut
269. Glue — Irvine Welsh
270. Skagboys — Irvine Welsh
271. The Liar’s Dictionary — Eley Williams
272. This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It — David Wong
273. Going Native — Stephen Wright
274. Trash — Amy Yamada
275. Bedtime Eyes — Amy Yamada
276. I Hotel – Karen Tei Yamashita
277. Interior Chinatown — Charles Yu
278. People’s History of the United States — Howard Zinn
279. Le Rêve — Émile Zola
280. Une Page d’amour — Émile Zola
281. Le Docteur Pascal — Émile Zola
282. Le Faute de l’Abbé Mouret — Émile Zola
283. La Joie de Vivre — Émile Zola
284. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon — Émile Zola
285. L’Argent — Émile Zola

(Workspace for next year’s reading pool : subject to constant change)