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 (298) to read from current monthly pool=italics

Bukowski in a Sundress: Confessions from a Writing Life — Kim Addonizio
The Caretaker — A. X. Ahmad
The Last Taxi Ride — A. X. Ahmad
Homeland Elegies — Ayad Akhtar
The Winter Queen — Boris Akunin
The Monkey-Wrench Gang — Edward Albee
Just Kids From the Bronx — Arlene Alda
Indian Killer — Sherman Alexie
Lionel Asbo: State of England — Martin Amis
The Bridge on the Drina — Ivo Andric
Act of the Damned – António Lobo Antunes
God: A Human History — Resa Aslan
Foundation: Foundation 1 — Isaac Asimov
Foundation and Empire: Foundation 2 — Isaac Asimov
Second Foundation: Foundation 3 — Isaac Asimov
Robert B. Parker’s Someone To Watch Over Me — Ace Atkins
Reiko — James Avonleigh
Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, and Other Bedroom Battles — Robin Baker
Empire of the Sun — J. G. Ballard
La Cousine Bette — Honoré de Balzac
Le Cousin Pons — Honoré de Balzac
Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes — Honoré de Balzac
Illusions perdues — Honoré de Balzac
Looking For Bapu — Anjali Banerjee
They Were Counted — Miklós Banffy
They Were Divided — Miklós Banffy
They Were Found Wanting — Miklós Banffy
Snow — John Banville
The Untouchable — John Banville
Monsieur Ouine – Georges Bernanos
The Lime Works – Thomas Bernhard
Christine Falls: A Novel — Benjamin Black
The Silver Swan — Benjamin Black
Psychedelic Apes: From Parallel Universes To Atomic Dinosaurs – The Weirdest Theories of Science and History — Alex Boese
Group Portrait with Lady — Heinrich Böll
Religion For Atheists — Alain de Botton
Armadillo — William Boyd
An Ice-Cream War: A Novel — William Boyd
Killoyle, An Irish Farce – Roger Boylan
When the Killing’s Done — T. C. Boyle
The Terranauts – T. C. Boyle
Drop City – T. C. Boyle
The Women – T. C. Boyle
San Miguel — T. C. Boyle
East Is East — T. C. Boyle
Anonymous Celebrity — Ignácio de Loyola Brandão
The Rabbit Factory — Larry Brown
The Max — Ken Bruen
The Sleepwalkers – Hermann Broch
The Unknown Quantity – Hermann Broch
Villette — Charlotte Brontë
Shirley— Charlotte Brontë
The Professor— Charlotte Brontë
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall— Anne Brontë
Agnes Gray — Anne Brontë
Thru — Christine Brooke-Rose
Between – Christine Brooke-Rose
Father and Son – Larry Brown
Wieland; or the Transformation — Charles Brockton Brown
The Secret Garden — Frances Hodgson Burnett
Tornado Alley — William S. Burroughs
Babel Tower – A. S. Byatt
Ragnarok: The End of the Gods — A. S. Byatt
Three Trapped Tigers — G. Cabrera Infante
The Ruin of Kasch — Roberto Calasso
Journeyman — Erskine Caldwell
R. U. R. — Karel Capek
A Little History of Poetry — John Carey
The Hearing Trumpet — Leonora Carrington
America Is Not the Heart — Elaine Castillo
Moonglow — Michael Chabon
A Night In the Cemetery — Anton Chekhov
Love Among the Ruins — Robert Clark
Attack of the Killer Frogs — Peter Clover
No Name — Wilkie Collins
Robert B. Parker’s Blind Spot — Reed Farrel Coleman
Armadale — Wilkie Collins
The Poet — Michael Connelly
The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground — James Fenimore Cooper
The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea — James Fenimore Cooper
The Red Rover: A Tale — James Fenimore Cooper
John’s Wife – Robert Coover
Ghost Town – Robert Coover
The Public Burning – Robert Coover
Huck Out West – Robert Coover
The Winners – Julio Cortázar
The Enormous Room — E. E. Cummings
Media — Rachel Cusk
The Lost Scrapbook – Evan Dara
A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself — Peter Ho Davies
Varieties of Disturbance: Stories – Lydia Davis
The End of the Story — Lydia Davis
Girl A — Abigail Dean
Americana — Don DeLillo
Ratner’s Star— Don DeLillo
Libra— Don DeLillo
Lit Up — David Denby
Honey In His Mouth — Lester Dent
Styx — Bavo Dhooge
Guns, Germs, Steel — Jared Diamond
Little Dorritt — Charles Dickens
The Cricket on the Hearth — Charles Dickens, et al
Garbage — Stephen Dixon
Bright Magic: Stories — Alfred Döblin
Bucking the Sun — Ivan Doig
Schultz — J. P. Donleavy
Homeland Security Ate My Speech: Messages from the End of the World — Ariel Dorfman
The Rabbit’s Rebellion — Ariel Dorfman
The Adolescent – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Demons – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Poor Folk – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Island People – Coleman Dowell
Trafik — Ricki Ducornet
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana – Umberto Eco
Foucault’s Pendulum – Umberto Eco
The Island of the Day Before – Umberto Eco
Baudolino – Umberto Eco
Six Walks in the Fictional Woods — Umberto Eco
Zeitoun — David Eggers
The Captain and the Glory — David Eggers
The Parade — David Eggers
The Franchiser — Stanley Elkin
Romola — George Eliot
Imperial Bedrooms — Bret Easton Ellis
The Death of Vivek Oji: A Novel — Akwaeke Emezi
The Samurai – Shusaku Endo
Tomboyland: Essays — Melissa Faliveno
Baby Moll — John Farris
Pylon – William Faulkner
The Wild Palms — Willian Faulkner
Choke Hold — Christa Faust
My Brilliant Friend — Elena Ferrante
The Beach At Night — Elena Ferrante
The Circus of Dr. Lao — Charles G. Finney
The Crack-up — F. Scott Fitzgerald
Independence Day— Richard Ford
Sophie’s World – Jostein Gaarder
The Mare — Mary Gaitskill
The Case of the Velvet Claws — Erle Stanley Gardner
The Case of the Sulky Girl — Erle Stanley Gardner
A Daughter of the Middle Border — Hamlin Garland
Promise At Dawn — Roman Gary
Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life — Elizabeth Gaskell
North and South — Elizabeth Gaskell
Wives and Daughters: An Everyday Story — Elizabeth Gaskell
The Balcony — Jean Genet
The Glass Palace – Amitav Ghosh
Taco Noir — Steven Gomez
She Drove without Stopping – Jaimy Gordon
Château d’Argol — Julien Gracq
Too Far Afield – Günter Grass
Lanark: A Life In Four Books — Alisdair Gray
Party Going — Henry Green
The Book of Intimate Grammar: A Novel – David Grossman
Life and Fate — Vassily Grossman
Forever Flowing — Vassily Grossman
I Never Met a Metaphor I Didn’t Like — Dr. Mardy Grothe
The Big Sky — A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
Homegoing — Yaa Gyasi
Transcendent Kingdom: A Novel — Yaa Gyasi
The Arabian Nights — Hasain Haddawy
Carnival: A Novel — Rawi Hage
De Niro’s Game — Rawi Hage
The Autobiography of Malcolm X – Alex Haley
Warlock – Oakley Hall
A Pair of Blue Eyes — Thomas Hardy
The Hand of Ethelberta — Thomas Hardy
Pacific Heights — Paul Harper
The Good Soldier Svejk — Jaroslav Hasek
Whistlejacket – John Hawkes
Blithedale Romance — Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Marble Faun: Or, The Romance of Monte Beni — Nathaniel Hawthorne
Histories — Heroditus
The Friends of Eddie Coyle — George V. Higgins
Old Rendering Plant – Wolfgang Hilbig
Chatter: Poems — Neil Hilborn
God Is Not Great — Christopher Hitchens
House Dick — E. Howard Hunt
The Folding Star — Alan Hollinghurst
The Line of Beauty — Alan Hollinghurst
The Spell — Alan Hollinghurst
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages — Tom Holt
Zorrie — Laird Hunt
Là-Bas – J. K. Huysmans
At Dusk — Hwang Sok-yang
Stealth — Sonallah Ibrahim
Klara and the Sun: A Novel — Kazuo Ishiguro
The Bostonians — Henry James
Roderick Hudson — Henry James
The Accident — Ismail Kadare
Second Person Singular — Sayed Kashua
Up the Down Staircase — Bel Kaufman
The Old Capital — Yasunari Kawabata
Snow Country— Yasunari Kawabata
Parade — Hiromi Kawakami
The Flaming Corsage — William Kennedy
Sometimes a Great Notion — Ken Kesey
Disclaimer — Rene Knight
Robert B. Parker’s Ironhorse — Robert Knott
Robert B. Parker’s Bull River — Robert Knott
Robert B. Parker’s The Bridge — Robert Knott
Robert B. Parker’s Blackjack — Robert Knott
Robert B. Parker’s Buckskin — Robert Knott
Robert B. Parker’s Revolution — Robert Knott
The Exile — William Kotzwinkle
A Death in the Family: My Struggle Book 1 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
A Man In Love: My Struggle Book 2 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
Boyhood Island: My Struggle Book 3 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
Dancing in the Dark: My Struggle Book 4 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
Some Rain Must Fall: My Struggle Book 5 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
The End: My Struggle Book 6 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
The Melancholy of Resistance — Lásló Krasznahorkai
God’s Without Men — Hari Kunzru
The Wonderful Adventure of Nils Holgersson — Selma Lagerlöf
Readopolis — Bertrand Laverdure
The Rainbow — D. H. Lawrence
The Year of the Comet — Sergei Lebedev
The Flood — J. M. G. Le Clézio
The African — J. M. G. Le Clézio
A Hero of Our Time — Mikhail Lermontov
The Fifth Child — Doris Lessing
A Martian Examines Christianity — Arthur Levett
The Tool & the Butterflies — Dmitry Lipskerov
Complete Stories — Clarice Lispector
No One Is Talking About This — Patrician Lockwood
Hades, Argentina: A Novel — Daniel Loedel
Boy Toy — Barry Lyga
Goth Girl Rising — Barry Lyga
The Executioner’s Song – Norman Mailer
Harlot’s Ghost – Norman Mailer
The Loved Ones – Alia Mamdouh
The Betrothed: I Promessi Sposi — Alessandro Manzoni
Adam Buenosayres: A Novel — Leopoldo Marechal
The Infatuations — Javier Marías
Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World — Philip Matyszak
More Tales of the City — Armistead Maupin
Further Tales of the City — Armistead Maupin
Babycakes: A Novel — Armistead Maupin
Significant Others — Armistad Maupin
Sure of You — Armistad Maupin
Cam Girl — Isa Mazzei
How Beautiful We Were — Imbolo Mbue
The Con Man — Ed McBain
Deacon King Kong — James McBride
The Crossing — Cormac McCarthy
Cities of the Plain — Cormac McCarthy
Suttree — Cormac McCarthy
Outer Dark — Cormac McCarthy
Lookout Cartridge – Joseph McElroy
Solar — Ian McEwan
Razor Wire Pubic Hair — Carlton Mellick III
Ugly Heaven — Carlton Mellick III
The Adventures of Harry Richmond — George Meredith
The Museum At the End of the World — John Metcalf
Sexus — Henry Miller
Plexus — Henry Miller
Nexus — Henry Miller
The Air-Conditioned Nightmare — Henry Miller
A Children’s Bible — Lydia Millet
Forbidden Colors — Yukio Mishima
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
The Bone Clocks — David Mitchell
Utopia Avenue — David Mitchell
The Domino Boys — D. M. Mitchell
Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River — Jung Young Moon
Mexican Gothic — Silvia Morena-García
The Uninnocent — Bradford Morrow
Teeth — Hannah Moskowitz
The Red Death — Walter Mosley
The White Butterfly — Walter Mosley
Black Betty — Walter Mosley
Big Breasts and Wide Hips — Mo Yan
First Person Singular: Stories — Haruki Murakami
Earthlings — Sayaka Murata
The Green Knight — Iris Murdoch
The Flight From the Enchanter — Iris Murdoch
A Fairly Honorable Defeat — Iris Murdoch
Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle – Vladimir Nabokov
Parallel Stories — Péter Nádas
The Last Rectangle and other Short Stories — Akram Najjar
The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth — Veeraporn Nitiprapha
The Pit — Frank Norris
The Pornographers: A Novel — Akiyuki Nozaka
What Are You Going Through — Sigrid Nunez
A Widow’s Story — Joyce Carol Oates
Mudwoman — Joyce Carol Oates
The Gravedigger’s Daughter — Joyce Carol Oates
A Book of American Martyrs — Joyce Carol Oates
My Heart Laid Bare — Joyce Carol Oates
Broke Heart Blues — Joyce Carol Oates
The Fishermen: A Novel — Chigozie Obioma
Hamnet — Maggie O’Farrell
Under the Udala Trees — Chinelo Okparanta
Miss Iceland — Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
Savage Theories — Pola Oloixarac
The Aosawa Murders — Riku Onda
A Tale of Love and Darkness – Amos Oz
Panther In the Basement — Amos Oz
History. A Mess. — Sigrún Pálsdóttir
The Black Book – Orhan Pamuk
The Red-Haired Woman — Orhan Pamuk
The Room Next Door — Nicolas Papaconstantinou
Towns Without Rivers – Michael Parker
The Watery Part of the World – Michael Parker
The Eighth Detective — Alex Pavesi
An Instance of the Fingerpost – Iain Pears
The Thanatos Syndrome — Walker Percy
Special Topics in Calamity Physics – Marisha Pessl
The Anarchist Banker — Ferdinando Pessoa
Fade To Blonde — Max Phillips
Monsieur Songe – Robert Pinget
Bunny Lake Is Missing — Evelyn Piper
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — Robert M. Pirsig
Morte d’Urban — J. F. Powers
Weymouth Sands — John Cowper Powys
Quincannon — Bill Pronzini
Bodega Dreams: A Novel — Ernesto B. Quinonez
Ghost Chant — Gina Ranalli
The Door — Mary Roberts Rinehart
Larva: A Midsummer Night’s Babel – Julían Ríos
Home: A Novel — Marilynne Robinson
Lila — Marilynne Robinson
Jack: A Novel — Marilynne Robinson
The Belles of Bruges — Georges Rodenbach
Mercy of a Rude Stream: From Bondage — Henry Roth
Mercy of a Rude Stream: Requiem For Harlem — Henry Roth
An American Type — Henry Roth
Letting Go – Philip Roth
The Humbling — Philip Roth
The Counterlife — Philip Roth
Operation Shylock : A Confession — Philip Roth
Patrimony: A True Story — Philip Roth
Reveries of the Solitary Walker — Jean-Jacques Rousseau
A Renegade History of the United States — Thaddeus Russell
Memoirs of an Invisible Man — H. F. Saint
Slender Man: The Curse — Jason St. Amand
It Came From Below the Belt — Bradley Sands
Saint X — Alexis Schaitkin
They Ate the Waitress — D. N. Schmidt
The Bride of Lammermoor — Sir Walter Scott
Monestary — Sir Walter Scott
The Talisman — Sir Walter Scott
Calypso — David Sedaris
In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash — Jean Shepherd
Absurdistan — Gary Shteyngart
The Russian Debutante’s Handbook — Gary Shteyngart
Maigret and the Millionaires — Georges Simenon
Maigret and Monsieur Charles — Georges Simenon
Maigret and the Informer — Georges Simenon
Maigret and the Death of a Harbor-Master — Georges Simenon
Maigret and the Killer — Georges Simenon
Maigret Has Doubts — Georges Simenon
Maigret Afraid — Georges Simenon
L’Ombre chinoise — Georges Simenon
Maigret In Court — Georges Simenon
My Friend Maigret — Georges Simenon
Maigret On the Defensive — Georges Simenon
Maigrert’s First Case — Georges Simenon
Liberty Bar — Georges Simenon
The Madman of Bergerac — Georges Simenon
The Engineer of Human Souls – Josef Skvoresky
NW: A Novel — Zadie Smith
In the First Circle – Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 Abridged: An Experiment in Literary Investigation — Aexandr Soltzheritsyn
In America – Susan Sontag
Against Interpretation — Susan Sontag
Imaginative Quantities of Actual Things – Gilbert Sorrentino
Vengeance Is Mine — Mickey Spillane
Arcadian Nights — John Spurling
The League of Frightened Men — Rex Stout
Shuggie Bain — Douglas Stuart
Sweet Bean Paste — Durian Sukegawa
A Memoir of Misfortune — Su Xiaokang
Black Wave — Michelle Tea
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead: A Novel — Olga Tokarczuk
Facing the Bridge — Yoko Towada
The Warden — Anthony Trollope
Doctor Thorne — Anthony Trollope
Framley Parsonage — Anthony Trollope
Territory of Light — Yuko Tsushima
Innocents Abroad — Mark Twain
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry — Neil Degrasse Tyson
Diary of a Blood Donor – Mati Unt
Queen of America — Luis Alberto Urrea
Borne: A Novel — Jeff VanderMeer
Hummingbird Salamander — Jeff VanderMeer
Komodo — Jeff VanderMeer
The Ghost In the Machine — Jeff VanderMeer
Rainbow Stories – William T. Vollmann
The Ice-Shirt – William T. Vollmann
The Rifles – William T. Vollmann
An Afghanistan Picture Show; or, How I Saved the World – William T. Vollmann
Zadig — Voltaire
Jailbird — Kurt Vonnegut
Galápagos: A Novel — Kurt Vonnegut
Fu Ping: A Novel — Anyi Wang
Glue — Irvine Welsh
Skagboys — Irvine Welsh
Harlem Shuffle — Colson Whitehead
The Liar’s Dictionary — Eley Williams
The Web and the Rock — Thomas Wolfe
This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It — David Wong
Going Native — Stephen Wright
The Kraken Wakes — John Wyndham
The Chrysalids — John Wyndham
Trash — Amy Yamada
Bedtime Eyes — Amy Yamada
I Hotel – Karen Tei Yamashita
Interior Chinatown — Charles Yu
People’s History of the United States — Howard Zinn
Le Rêve — Émile Zola
Une Page d’amour — Émile Zola
Pot-Bouille — Émile Zola
Le Docteur Pascal — Émile Zola
Le Faute de l’Abbé Mouret — Émile Zola
La Joie de Vivre — Émile Zola
Son Excellence Eugene Rougon — Émile Zola
L’Argent — Émile Zola