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 (161) | to read from current monthly pool=italics

1. The Poet X — Elizabeth Acevedo
2. The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling — Peter Ackroyd
3. The Monkey-Wrench Gang — Edward Albee
4. Indian Killer — Sherman Alexie
5. Zinky Boys — Svetlana Alexievich
6. A Walk On the Wild Side — Nelson, Algren
7. The Crime At Black Dudley — Margery Allingham
8. Lionel Asbo: State of England — Martin Amis
9. Other People — Martin Amis
10. Act of the Damned – António Lobo Antunes
11. A Taste of Honey: Stories — Jabari Asim
12. God: A Human History — Resa Aslan
13. The Automobile Club of Egypt — Alaa Al Aswany
14. Robert B. Parker’s Slow Burn — Ace Atkins
15. Robert B. Parker’s Little White Lies — Ace Atkins
16. Robert B. Parker’s Old Black Magic — Ace Atkins
17. Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes
18. The Testaments — Margaret Atwood
19. Shamanspace — Steve Aylett
20. They Were Counted — Miklós Banffy
21. They Were Divided — Miklós Banffy
22. They Were Found Wanting — Miklós Banffy
23. Humbolt’s Gift — Saul Bellow
24. The Old Wives’ Tale — Arnold Bennett
25. Monsieur Ouine – Georges Bernanos
26. The Lime Works – Thomas Bernhard
27. The Monkey Link: A Pilgrimage Novel — Andrei Bitov
28. Trans-Sister Radio — Chris Bohjalian
29. Monsieur Pamplemousse Takes the Train — Michael Bond
30. Religion For Atheists — Alain de Botton
31. Armadillo — William Boyd
32. Brazzaville Beach— William Boyd
33. A Good Man In Africa — William Boyd
34. The Giant Rat of Sumatra — Richard L. Boyer
35. Killoyle, An Irish Farce – Roger Boylan
36. When the Killing’s Done — T. C. Boyle
37. The Terranauts – T. C. Boyle
38. Drop City – T. C. Boyle
39. The Women – T. C. Boyle
40. Riven Rock – T. C. Boyle
41. Lady Audley’s Secret – Mary Elizabeth Braddon
42. Anonymous Celebrity — Ignácio de Loyola Brandão
43. The Sleepwalkers – Hermann Broch
44. The Unknown Quantity – Hermann Broch
45. Thru — Christine Brooke-Rose
46. Between –  Christine Brooke-Rose
47. Father and Son – Larry Brown
48. Hard Case Crime: Slide — Ken Bruen
49. The Pilgrim’s Progress — John Bunyan
50. The Ugly American — Eugene Burdick
51. Babel Tower – A. S. Byatt
52. Three Trapped Tigers — G. Cabrera Infante
53. The House of Impossible Beauties — Joseph Cassara
54. The Hive – Camilo José Cela
55. Tribesmen: A Novella of Supernatural Cannibal Horror — Adam Cesare
56. Moonglow — Michael Chabon
57. A Night In the Cemetery — Anton Chekhov
58. The Shooting Party — Anton Chekhov
59. Who Rules the World — Noam Chomsky
60. And Then There Were None — Agatha Christie
61. The Eighth Girl: A Novel — Maxine Mei-Fung Chung
62. Hard Case Crime: Nobody’s Angel — Jack Clark
63. The Water Dancer — Ta-Nehisi Coates
64. Bringing Out the Dead — Joe Connelly
65. Suggested Reading — Dave Connis
66. Lucky Pierre – Robert Coover
67. The Public Burning – Robert Coover
68. The Winners – Julio Cortázar
69. The Enormous Room — E. E. Cummings
70. The Lost Scrapbook – Evan Dara
71. Varieties of Disturbance: Stories – Lydia Davis
72. The End of the Story — Lydia Davis
73. Americana— Don DeLillo
74. Our Mutual Friend — Charles Dickens
75. Dombey and Sons — Charles Dickens
76. Frog — Stephen Dixon
77. Bright Magic: Stories — Alfred Döblin
78. Bucking the Sun — Ivan Doig
79. Schultz — J. P. Donleavy
80. The Adolescent – Fyodor Dostoevsky
81. Island People – Coleman Dowell
82. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana – Umberto Eco
83. Castle Rackrent — Maria Edgeworth
84. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius — Dave Eggers
85. Zeitoun — Dave Eggers
86. The Third Rainbow Girl — Emma Copley Eisenberg
87. Daniel Deronda — George Eliot
88. The Librarian — Mikhail Elizarov
89. Glamorama – Brett Easton Ellis
90. Lunar Park – Brett Easton Ellis
91. Juneteenth — Ralph Ellison
92. Boswell – Stanley Elkin
93. The Samurai – Shusaku Endo
94. House of Beauty — Melba Escobar
95. Judgment Day — James T. Farrell
96. Go Down, Moses – William Faulkner
97. The Mansion — William Faulkner
98. Pylon – William Faulkner
99. Independence Day— Richard Ford
100. Sophie’s World – Jostein Gaarder
101. Promise At Dawn — Roman Gary
102. Cranford – Elizabeth Gaskell
103. Mary Barton – Elizabeth Gaskell
104. Middle C — William H. Gass
105. The Mare — Mary Gaitskill
106. History of the Kings of Britain — Geoffrey of Monmouth
107. The Glass Palace – Amitav Ghosh
108. The Hungry Tide – Amitav Ghosh
109. Rebel Publisher: Grove Press and the Revolution of the Word — Loren Glass
110. Carter Beats the Devil – Glen David Gold
111. The Yid — Paul Goldberg
112. She Drove without Stopping – Jaimy Gordon
113. Château d’Argol — Julien Gracq
114. Balcony in the Forest — Julien Gracq
115. Too Far Afield – Günter Grass
116. Party Going — Henry Green
117. The Heart of the Matter– Graham Greene
118. The Zig Zag Girl — Elly Griffiths
119. The Book of Intimate Grammar: A Novel – David Grossman
120. Snow Falling On Cedars — David Guterson
121. The Big Sky — A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
122. Naked Came the Manatee — Carl Haasen, etc.
123. The Beirut Hellfire Society — Rawi Hage
124. Cockroach — Rawi Hage
125. The Autobiography of Malcolm X – Alex Haley
126. Warlock – Oakley Hall
127. Me & Mr. Cigar — Gibby Haynes
128. Growth of the Soil — Knut Hamsun
129. Moravian Night — Peter Handke
130. A Pair of Blue Eyes — Thomas Hardy
131. Whistlejacket – John Hawkes
132. Stranger In a Strange Land — Robert A. Heinlein
133. Can You Kick a Ghost In the Nuts? — Steve Higgs, Gemma Higgs
134. God Is Not Great — Christopher Hitchens
135. The House On the Borderland — William Hope Hodgson
136. Beowulf’s Return — Tim Hodkinson
137. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner — James Hogg
138. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages — Tom Holt
139. Serotonin — Michel Houellebecq
140. The Blackboard Jungle — Evan Hunter
141. Là-Bas – J. K. Huysmans
142. Princess Bari — Sok-yong Hwang
143. Black Rain — Masuji Ibuse
144. The Draining Lake — Arnaldur Indridson
145. Three Trapped Tigers – G. Cabrera Infante
146. Dairy Queen Days: A Novel — Robert Inman
147. Until I Find You — John Irving
148. A Single Man— Christopher Isherwood
149. Come Rain or Come Shine:— Kazuo Ishiguro
150. The Unconsoled – Katsuo Ishiguro
151. The Wings of the Dove – Henry James
152. The Portrait of a Lady — Henry James
153. The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden — Jonas Jonasson
154. Death Without Company — Craig Johnson
155. The Fall of the Stone City — Ismail Kadare
156. Second Person Singular — Sayed Kashua
157. Strange Weather In Tokyo — Hiromi Kawakami
158. Breasts and Eggs — Mieko Kawakami
159. Tyll: A Novel — Daniel Kehlmann
160. The Flaming Corsage — William Kennedy
161. Sometimes a Great Notion — Ken Kesey
162. Hard Case Crime: The Colorado Kid — Stephen King
163. The Man Who Spoke Snakish — Andrus Kivirähk
164. The Marquise of O— — Heinrich von Kleist
165. Japan Sinks — Sakyo Komatsu
166. The Historian — Elizabeth Kostova
167. The Exile — William Kotzwinkle
168. The Melancholy of Resistance — Lásló Krasznahorkai
169. God’s Without Men — Hari Kunzru
170. Seven Pillars of Wisdom — T. E. Lawrence
171. Independent People – Halldor Laxness
172. The Wanderer — Fritz Leiber
173. The Topeka School — Ben Lerner
174. Elmer Gantry — Sinclair Lewis
175. Complete Stories — Clarice Lispector
176. Martin Eden — Jack London
177. Stories In the Worst Way — Gary Lutz
178. Goth Girl Rising — Barry Lyga
179. Severance — Ling Ma
180. Ice Station Zebra — Alistair MacLean
181. The Executioner’s Song – Norman Mailer
182. Harlot’s Ghost – Norman Mailer
183. The Loved Ones – Alia Mamdouh
184. The Dogs of Riga —Henning Mankell
185. Adam Buenosayres: A Novel — Leopoldo Marechal
186. The Infatuations — Javier Marías
187. Mother and Child — Carol Maso
188. Camgirl — Isa Mazzei
189. Flynn’s World — Gregory Mcdonald
190. Lookout Cartridge – Joseph McElroy
191. The Cockroach — Ian McEwan
192. The Children Act — Ian McEwan
193. A Terrible Thing That Happens — Carlton Mellick III
194. Razor Wire Pubic Hair — Carlton Mellick III
195. Mardi — Herman Melville
196. White Jacket, or, The World On a Man-of-War — Herman Melville
197. The Ordeal of Richard Feveral — George Meredith
198. Forbidden Colors — Yukio Mishima
199. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
200. The Bone Clocks — David Mitchell
201. Contempt — Alberto Moravia
202. The Haunted Bookshop — Christopher Morley
203. Revulsion: Thomas Bernhard in San Salvador — Horacio Castellanos Moya
204. Pow! — Mo Yan
205. Big Breasts and Wide Hips — Mo Yan
206. The Revisionists — Thomas Mullen
207. Killing Commendatore — Haruki Murakami
208. Tokyo Decadence — Ryu Murakami
209. Piercing — Ryu Murakami
210. The Green Knight — Iris Murdoch
211. A Man Without Qualities – Robert Musil
212. Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle – Vladimir Nabokov
213. The Boy In the Earth — Fuminori Nakamura
214. Cult X — Fuminori Nakamura
215. House of Incest — Anais Nin
216. The Octopus On My Head — Jim Nisbet
217. Parallel Stories — Péter Nádas
218. Nymphomation — Jeff Noon
219. The Octopus – Frank Norris
220. A Widow’s Story — Joyce Carol Oates
221. Mudwoman — Joyce Carol Oates
222. The Gravedigger’s Daughter — Joyce Carol Oates
223. A Book of American Martyrs — Joyce Carol Oates
224. Bellefleur — Joyce Carol Oates
225. A Bloodsmoor Romance — Joyce Carol Oates
226. Mysteries of Winterthurn — Joyce Carol Oates
227. My Heart Laid Bare — Joyce Carol Oates
228. Broke Heart Blues — Joyce Carol Oates
229. The Fishermen: A Novel — Chigozie Obioma
230. The Memory Police — Yoko Ogawa
231. The Ginza Ghost and Other Stories — Keikichi Osaka
232. A Tale of Love and Darkness – Amos Oz
233. The Black Book – Orhan Pamuk
234. Towns Without Rivers – Michael Parker
235. An Instance of the Fingerpost – Iain Pears
236. The Thanatos Syndrome — Walker Percy
237. Mrs. Fletcher — Tom Perrotta
238. Special Topics in Calamity Physics – Marisha Pessl
239. The Book of Disquiet – Fernando Pessoa
240. Monsieur Songe – Robert Pinget
241. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — Robert M. Pirsig
242. My Name Is Asher Lev — Chaim Potok
243. Mason & Dixon – Thomas Pynchon
244. Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded — Samuel Richardson
245. Larva: A Midsummer Night’s Babel – Julían Ríos
246. Chinatown Angel — A. E. Roman
247. Letting Go – Philip Roth
248. The Humbling — Philip Roth
249. When She Was Good — Philip Roth
250. Shinju — Laura Joh Rowland
251. A Very Stable Genius — Philip Rucker and Carol Leonig
252. Quichotte — Salman Rushdie
253. The Moor’s Last Siggh — Salman Rushdie
254. My Dark Vanessa: A Novel — Kate Elizabeth Russell
255. How I Won the War — Patrick Ryan
256. Memoirs of an Invisible Man — H. F. Saint
257. It Came From Below the Belt — Bradley Sands
258. Baltasar and Blimunda – José Saramago
259. Fresno Stories — William Saroyan
260. The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump — Robert Sears
261. A Suitable Boy — Vikram Seth
262. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds In This Strange World — Elif Shafak
263. The Designated Mourner — Wallace Shawn
264. Only In London — Hanan al-Shaykh
265. Absurdistan — Gary Shteyngart
266. The Russian Debutante’s Handbook — Gary Shteyngart
267. Quo Vadis — Henryk Sienkiewicz
268. Maigret’s Holiday — Georges Simenon
269. Group At the Grand Cafe — Georges Simenon
270. The Two-Penny Bar — Georges Simenon
271. Shosha — Isaac Bashevis Singer
272. The Engineer of Human Souls – Josef Skvoresky
273. December 6 — Martin Crus Smith
274. Norte — Edmundo Paz Soldan
275. In the First Circle – Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
276. In America – Susan Sontag
277. Imaginative Quantities of Actual Things – Gilbert Sorrentino
278. Sanshiro — Natsume Soseki
279. Flash and Filigree — Terry Southern
280. Blue Movie — Terry Southern
281. Loitering With Intent — Muriel Spark
282. Lost For Words: A Novel — Edward St. Aubyn
283. Angle of Repose — Wallace Stegner
284. The League of Frightened Men — Rex Stout
285. At Night,I Become a Monster — Yoru Sumino
286. As a Man Grows Older — Italo Svevo
287. The Pussy — Delicious Tacos
288. A Memoir of Misfortune — Su Xiaokang
289. The Pussy — Delicious Tacos
290. Thy Neighbor’s Wife — Gay Talese
291. The Magnificent Ambersons – Booth Tarkington
292. The Curse of Lono — Hunter S. Thompson
293. The Ogre — Michel Tournier
294. The Story of Lucy Gault — William Trevor
295. Palm Beach, Finland — Antti Tuomainen
296. Little Siberia — Antti Tuomainen
297. My Life In the Bush of Ghosts — Amos Tutuola
298. Diary of a Blood Donor – Mati Unt
299. Terrorist — John Updike
300. Hard Candy — Andrew Vachss
301. Blue Belle — Andrew Vachss
302. Naked Came the Manatee — Various Authors
303. Acceptance: A Novel — Jeff VanderMeer
304. Balzac’s War — Jeff VanderMeer
305. Michael Strogoff; or The Courier of the Csar — Jules Verne
306. Mac’s Problem — Enrique Vila-Matas
307. The Lucky Star — William T. Vollmann
308. Rainbow Stories – William T. Vollmann
309. The Ice-Shirt – William T. Vollmann
310. An Afghanistan Picture Show; or, How I Saved the World – William T. Vollmann
311. Slapstick or Lonesome No More! — Kurt Vonnegut
312. Glue — Irvine Welsh
313. Skagboys — Irvine Welsh
314. The Forty Days of Musa Dagh — Franz Werfel
315. The Once and Future King — T. H. White
316. I Am Charlotte Simmons — Tom Wolfe
317. This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It — David Wong
318. I Hotel – Karen Tei Yamashita
319. Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist – Sunil Yapa
320. The Time Invariance of Snow — E. Lily Yu
321. Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex — Oksana Zabuzhko
322. People’s History of the United States — Howard Zinn
323. The Debacle— Émile Zola
324. La Terre — Émile Zola
325. Au Bonheur des Dames — Émile Zola
326. The Miller’s Daughter — Émile Zola

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