Reading Pool for 2020

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: 200 + 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 (235) | to read from current monthly pool=italics

Kalakuta Republic — Chris Abani
The Poet X — Elizabeth Acevedo
The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling — Peter Ackroyd
The Monkey-Wrench Gang — Edward Albee
Indian Killer — Sherman Alexie
Zinky Boys — Svetlana Alexievich
A Walk On the Wild Side — Nelson, Algren
The Crime At Black Dudley — Margery Allingham
Carny Kill — Robert Edmond Alter
Lionel Asbo: State of England — Martin Amis
Other People — Martin Amis
Act of the Damned – António Lobo Antunes
A Taste of Honey: Stories — Jabari Asim
God: A Human History — Resa Aslan
The Automobile Club of Egypt — Alaa Al Aswany
Robert B. Parker’s Slow Burn — Ace Atkins
Robert B. Parker’s Little White Lies — Ace Atkins
Robert B. Parker’s Old Black Magic — Ace Atkins
Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes — Ace Atkins
The Testaments — Margaret Atwood
Shamanspace — Steve Aylett
The Man Who Walked Through Walls — Marcel Ayme
They Were Counted — Miklós Banffy
They Were Divided — Miklós Banffy
They Were Found Wanting — Miklós Banffy
Humbolt’s Gift — Saul Bellow
The Old Wives’ Tale — Arnold Bennett
Monsieur Ouine – Georges Bernanos
The Lime Works – Thomas Bernhard
The Monkey Link: A Pilgrimage Novel — Andrei Bitov
The Grifter’s Club — Sarah Blaskey
Trans-Sister Radio — Chris Bohjalian
Monsieur Pamplemousse Takes the Train — Michael Bond
Religion For Atheists — Alain de Botton
The Little Girls — Elizabeth Bowen
Armadillo — William Boyd
Brazzaville Beach— William Boyd
A Good Man In Africa — William Boyd
The Giant Rat of Sumatra — Richard L. Boyer
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
Riven Rock – T. C. Boyle
Lady Audley’s Secret – Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Anonymous Celebrity — Ignácio de Loyola Brandão
The Sleepwalkers – Hermann Broch
The Unknown Quantity – Hermann Broch
Thru — Christine Brooke-Rose
Between – Christine Brooke-Rose
Father and Son – Larry Brown
Dirty Work — Larry Brown
Hard Case Crime: Slide — Ken Bruen
The Pilgrim’s Progress — John Bunyan
The Ugly American — Eugene Burdick
Babel Tower – A. S. Byatt
Three Trapped Tigers — G. Cabrera Infante
The House of Impossible Beauties — Joseph Cassara
The Hive – Camilo José Cela
Tribesmen: A Novella of Supernatural Cannibal Horror — Adam Cesare
Moonglow — Michael Chabon
A Night In the Cemetery — Anton Chekhov
The Shooting Party — Anton Chekhov
Who Rules the World — Noam Chomsky
And Then There Were None — Agatha Christie
The Eighth Girl: A Novel — Maxine Mei-Fung Chung
Hard Case Crime: Nobody’s Angel — Jack Clark
The Water Dancer — Ta-Nehisi Coates
Bringing Out the Dead — Joe Connelly
The Poet — Michael Connelly
Suggested Reading — Dave Connis
The Pathfinder; or, The Inland Sea — James Fenimore Cooper
Lucky Pierre – Robert Coover
The Public Burning – Robert Coover
The Winners – Julio Cortázar
The Enormous Room — E. E. Cummings
The Lost Scrapbook – Evan Dara
The English Teacher — Durjoy Datta
Varieties of Disturbance: Stories – Lydia Davis
The End of the Story — Lydia Davis
Americana— Don DeLillo
Our Mutual Friend — Charles Dickens
Dombey and Sons — Charles Dickens
Frog — Stephen Dixon
Bright Magic: Stories — Alfred Döblin
Bucking the Sun — Ivan Doig
Schultz — J. P. Donleavy
The Adolescent – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Island People – Coleman Dowell
Louise de la Vallière— Alexander Dumas
The Man In the Iron Mask— Alexander Dumas
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana – Umberto Eco
Castle Rackrent — Maria Edgeworth
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius — Dave Eggers
Zeitoun — Dave Eggers
The Circle — Dave Eggers
The Third Rainbow Girl — Emma Copley Eisenberg
Daniel Deronda — George Eliot
The Librarian — Mikhail Elizarov
Glamorama – Brett Easton Ellis
Lunar Park – Brett Easton Ellis
Juneteenth — Ralph Ellison
L. A. Confidential — James Ellroy
The Big Nowhere — James Ellroy
Boswell – Stanley Elkin
The Samurai – Shusaku Endo
House of Beauty — Melba Escobar
Judgment Day — James T. Farrell
Go Down, Moses – William Faulkner
The Mansion — William Faulkner
Pylon – William Faulkner
Independence Day— Richard Ford
Sophie’s World – Jostein Gaarder
Promise At Dawn — Roman Gary
Cranford – Elizabeth Gaskell
Mary Barton – Elizabeth Gaskell
Middle C — William H. Gass
The Mare — Mary Gaitskill
History of the Kings of Britain — Geoffrey of Monmouth
The Glass Palace – Amitav Ghosh
The Hungry Tide – Amitav Ghosh
Rebel Publisher: Grove Press and the Revolution of the Word — Loren Glass
Carter Beats the Devil – Glen David Gold
The Yid — Paul Goldberg
She Drove without Stopping – Jaimy Gordon
Château d’Argol — Julien Gracq
Balcony in the Forest — Julien Gracq
Too Far Afield – Günter Grass
Party Going — Henry Green
The Quiet American — Graham Greene
The Heart of the Matter– Graham Greene
The Zig Zag Girl — Elly Griffiths
The Book of Intimate Grammar: A Novel – David Grossman
Snow Falling On Cedars — David Guterson
The Big Sky — A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
The Beirut Hellfire Society — Rawi Hage
Cockroach — Rawi Hage
The Autobiography of Malcolm X – Alex Haley
Warlock – Oakley Hall
Me & Mr. Cigar — Gibby Haynes
Growth of the Soil — Knut Hamsun
Moravian Night — Peter Handke
A Pair of Blue Eyes — Thomas Hardy
Whistlejacket – John Hawkes
Stranger In a Strange Land — Robert A. Heinlein
Can You Kick a Ghost In the Nuts? — Steve Higgs, Gemma Higgs
God Is Not Great — Christopher Hitchens
Apocalypse Hotel: A Novel — Ho Anh Thai
The House On the Borderland — William Hope Hodgson
Beowulf’s Return — Tim Hodkinson
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner — James Hogg
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages — Tom Holt
Serotonin — Michel Houellebecq
Swamp Thing — David Houston
A Hazard of New Fortunes — William Dean Howells
The Rise of Silas Lapham — William Dean Howells
The Blackboard Jungle — Evan Hunter
Là-Bas – J. K. Huysmans
Princess Bari — Sok-yong Hwang
Black Rain — Masuji Ibuse
The Draining Lake — Arnaldur Indridson
Three Trapped Tigers – G. Cabrera Infante
Dairy Queen Days: A Novel — Robert Inman
Until I Find You — John Irving
A Single Man— Christopher Isherwood
Come Rain or Come Shine:— Kazuo Ishiguro
The Unconsoled – Katsuo Ishiguro
The Golden Bowl — Henry James
The Wings of the Dove – Henry James
The Portrait of a Lady — Henry James
The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden — Jonas Jonasson
Death Without Company — Craig Johnson
The Fall of the Stone City — Ismail Kadare
The Doll — Ismail Kadare
Second Person Singular — Sayed Kashua
Strange Weather In Tokyo — Hiromi Kawakami
Breasts and Eggs — Mieko Kawakami
Tyll: A Novel — Daniel Kehlmann
The Flaming Corsage — William Kennedy
Sometimes a Great Notion — Ken Kesey
Hard Case Crime: The Colorado Kid — Stephen King
The Man Who Spoke Snakish — Andrus Kivirähk
The Marquise of O— — Heinrich von Kleist
Japan Sinks — Sakyo Komatsu
A Handful of Sand — Marinko Koščec
The Historian — Elizabeth Kostova
Kornel Esti — Deszö KosztolIanyi
The Exile — William Kotzwinkle
The Melancholy of Resistance — Lásló Krasznahorkai
God’s Without Men — Hari Kunzru
Seven Pillars of Wisdom — T. E. Lawrence
Independent People – Halldor Laxness
The Lost Language of Cranes: A Novel — David Leavitt
The Wanderer — Fritz Leiber
The Topeka School — Ben Lerner
Elmer Gantry — Sinclair Lewis
Complete Stories — Clarice Lispector
Martin Eden — Jack London
Stories In the Worst Way — Gary Lutz
Goth Girl Rising — Barry Lyga
Severance — Ling Ma
Ice Station Zebra — Alistair MacLean
The Executioner’s Song – Norman Mailer
Harlot’s Ghost – Norman Mailer
The Loved Ones – Alia Mamdouh
The Dogs of Riga —Henning Mankell
Adam Buenosayres: A Novel — Leopoldo Marechal
The Infatuations — Javier Marías
Mother and Child — Carol Maso
Melmoth the Wanderer — Charles Maturin
Tales of the City — Armistead Maupin
Camgirl — Isa Mazzei
Flynn’s World — Gregory Mcdonald
Lookout Cartridge – Joseph McElroy
The Cockroach — Ian McEwan
The Children Act — Ian McEwan
A Terrible Thing That Happens — Carlton Mellick III
Sex and Death In Television Town — Carlton Mellick III
Cuddly Holocaust — Carlton Mellick III
Mardi — Herman Melville
White Jacket, or, The World On a Man-of-War — Herman Melville
The Ordeal of Richard Feveral — George Meredith
Rage — Zygmunt Miloszewski
Forbidden Colors — Yukio Mishima
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
The Bone Clocks — David Mitchell
Contempt — Alberto Moravia
The Haunted Bookshop — Christopher Morley
Revulsion: Thomas Bernhard in San Salvador — Horacio Castellanos Moya
Pow! — Mo Yan
Big Breasts and Wide Hips — Mo Yan
The Revisionists — Thomas Mullen
Action Park — Andy Mulvihill and Jake Rossen
Killing Commendatore — Haruki Murakami
Tokyo Decadence — Ryu Murakami
Piercing — Ryu Murakami
The Green Knight — Iris Murdoch
A Man Without Qualities – Robert Musil
Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle – Vladimir Nabokov
The Boy In the Earth — Fuminori Nakamura
Cult X — Fuminori Nakamura
House of Incest — Anais Nin
The Octopus On My Head — Jim Nisbet
Parallel Stories — Péter Nádas
Nymphomation — Jeff Noon
The Octopus – Frank Norris
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
The Sign of the Beast — Joyce Carol Oates
Bellefleur — Joyce Carol Oates
A Bloodsmoor Romance — Joyce Carol Oates
Mysteries of Winterthurn — Joyce Carol Oates
My Heart Laid Bare — Joyce Carol Oates
Broke Heart Blues — Joyce Carol Oates
The Fishermen: A Novel — Chigozie Obioma
The Memory Police — Yoko Ogawa
Last Night at the Lobster — Stewart O’Nan
The Speed Queen — Stewart O’Nan
The Ginza Ghost and Other Stories — Keikichi Osaka
Where the Crawdads Sing — Delia Owens
The Factory — Hiroko Oyamada
A Tale of Love and Darkness – Amos Oz
The Black Book – Orhan Pamuk
Towns Without Rivers – Michael Parker
Too Late the Phalarope — Alan Paton
An Instance of the Fingerpost – Iain Pears
The Thanatos Syndrome — Walker Percy
Mrs. Fletcher — Tom Perrotta
Special Topics in Calamity Physics – Marisha Pessl
The Book of Disquiet – Fernando Pessoa
Monsieur Songe – Robert Pinget
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — Robert M. Pirsig
The Fall of the House of Usher — Edgar Allen Poe
My Name Is Asher Lev — Chaim Potok
Mason & Dixon – Thomas Pynchon
Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded — Samuel Richardson
Larva: A Midsummer Night’s Babel – Julían Ríos
Chinatown Angel — A. E. Roman
Letting Go – Philip Roth
The Humbling — Philip Roth
When She Was Good — Philip Roth
Shinju — Laura Joh Rowland
A Very Stable Genius — Philip Rucker and Carol Leonig
Lovecraft Country — Matt Ruff
Quichotte — Salman Rushdie
The Moor’s Last Sigh — Salman Rushdie
My Dark Vanessa: A Novel — Kate Elizabeth Russell
How I Won the War — Patrick Ryan
Memoirs of an Invisible Man — H. F. Saint
It Came From Below the Belt — Bradley Sands
Baltasar and Blimunda – José Saramago
Fresno Stories — William Saroyan
Lizard Radio — Pat Schmatz
The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump — Robert Sears
A Suitable Boy — Vikram Seth
10 Minutes 38 Seconds In This Strange World — Elif Shafak
Ghachar Ghochar — Vivek Shanbhag
The Designated Mourner — Wallace Shawn
Only In London — Hanan al-Shaykh
Absurdistan — Gary Shteyngart
The Russian Debutante’s Handbook — Gary Shteyngart
Quo Vadis — Henryk Sienkiewicz
Maigret’s Holiday — Georges Simenon
Group At the Grand Cafe — Georges Simenon
The Two-Penny Bar — Georges Simenon
Shosha — Isaac Bashevis Singer
The Engineer of Human Souls – Josef Skvoresky
The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives — Dashka Slater
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn — Betty Smith
December 6 — Martin Crus Smith
Norte — Edmundo Paz Soldan
In the First Circle – Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
In America – Susan Sontag
Imaginative Quantities of Actual Things – Gilbert Sorrentino
Sanshiro — Natsume Soseki
Flash and Filigree — Terry Southern
Blue Movie — Terry Southern
Loitering With Intent — Muriel Spark
Lost For Words: A Novel — Edward St. Aubyn
Angle of Repose — Wallace Stegner
The League of Frightened Men — Rex Stout
At Night, I Become a Monster — Yoru Sumino
As a Man Grows Older — Italo Svevo
Cult of Glory — Doug J. Swanson
A Memoir of Misfortune — Su Xiaokang
The Pussy — Delicious Tacos
Thy Neighbor’s Wife — Gay Talese
The Voyeur’s Motel — Gay Talese
The Magnificent Ambersons – Booth Tarkington
The Curse of Lono — Hunter S. Thompson
The Erl-King — Michel Tournier
The Story of Lucy Gault — William Trevor
Too Much and Never Enough — Mary L. Trump
Palm Beach, Finland — Antti Tuomainen
Little Siberia — Antti Tuomainen
My Life In the Bush of Ghosts — Amos Tutuola
The Brave African Huntress — Amos Tutuola
Diary of a Blood Donor – Mati Unt
Terrorist — John Updike
Hard Candy — Andrew Vachss
Blue Belle — Andrew Vachss
Naked Came the Manatee — Various Authors
Acceptance: A Novel — Jeff VanderMeer
Balzac’s War — Jeff VanderMeer
Michael Strogoff; or The Courier of the Csar — Jules Verne
Mac’s Problem — Enrique Vila-Matas
The Lucky Star — William T. Vollmann
Rainbow Stories – William T. Vollmann
The Ice-Shirt – William T. Vollmann
An Afghanistan Picture Show; or, How I Saved the World – William T. Vollmann
Slapstick or Lonesome No More! — Kurt Vonnegut
Glue — Irvine Welsh
Skagboys — Irvine Welsh
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh — Franz Werfel
The Once and Future King — T. H. White
I Am Charlotte Simmons — Tom Wolfe
This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It — David Wong
I Hotel – Karen Tei Yamashita
Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist – Sunil Yapa
Braised Pork — An Yu
The Time Invariance of Snow — E. Lily Yu
Tokyo Ueno Station — Yu Mari
Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex — Oksana Zabuzhko
Valley of Terror — Zhou Haohui
People’s History of the United States — Howard Zinn
The Debacle— Émile Zola
La Terre — Émile Zola
Au Bonheur des Dames — Émile Zola
The Miller’s Daughter — Émile Zola

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

The Monkey-Wrench Gang — Edward Albee
Indian Killer — Sherman Alexie
Lionel Asbo: State of England — Martin Amis
Act of the Damned – António Lobo Antunes
God: A Human History — Resa Aslan
They Were Counted — Miklós Banffy
They Were Divided — Miklós Banffy
They Were Found Wanting — Miklós Banffy
Monsieur Ouine – Georges Bernanos
The Lime Works – Thomas Bernhard
Religion For Atheists — Alain de Botton
Armadillo — William Boyd
Brazzaville Beach— 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
Anonymous Celebrity — Ignácio de Loyola Brandão
The Sleepwalkers – Hermann Broch
The Unknown Quantity – Hermann Broch
Thru — Christine Brooke-Rose
Between – Christine Brooke-Rose
Father and Son – Larry Brown
Babel Tower – A. S. Byatt
Three Trapped Tigers — G. Cabrera Infante
Moonglow — Michael Chabon
A Night In the Cemetery — Anton Chekhov
Lucky Pierre – Robert Coover
The Public Burning – Robert Coover
The Winners – Julio Cortázar
The Enormous Room — E. E. Cummings
The Lost Scrapbook – Evan Dara
Varieties of Disturbance: Stories – Lydia Davis
The End of the Story — Lydia Davis
Americana— Don DeLillo
Bright Magic: Stories — Alfred Döblin
Bucking the Sun — Ivan Doig
Schultz — J. P. Donleavy
The Adolescent – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Island People – Coleman Dowell
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana – Umberto Eco
Zeitoun — Dave Eggers
The Samurai – Shusaku Endo
Pylon – William Faulkner
Independence Day— Richard Ford
Sophie’s World – Jostein Gaarder
Promise At Dawn — Roman Gary
Cranford – Elizabeth Gaskell
Mary Barton – Elizabeth Gaskell
The Mare — Mary Gaitskill
The Glass Palace – Amitav Ghosh
The Hungry Tide – Amitav Ghosh
She Drove without Stopping – Jaimy Gordon
Château d’Argol — Julien Gracq
Too Far Afield – Günter Grass
Party Going — Henry Green
The Book of Intimate Grammar: A Novel – David Grossman
The Big Sky — A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X – Alex Haley
Warlock – Oakley Hall
Moravian Night — Peter Handke
A Pair of Blue Eyes — Thomas Hardy
Whistlejacket – John Hawkes
God Is Not Great — Christopher Hitchens
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages — Tom Holt
Là-Bas – J. K. Huysmans
Three Trapped Tigers – G. Cabrera Infante
Second Person Singular — Sayed Kashua
The Flaming Corsage — William Kennedy
Sometimes a Great Notion — Ken Kesey
The Exile — William Kotzwinkle
The Melancholy of Resistance — Lásló Krasznahorkai
God’s Without Men — Hari Kunzru
Complete Stories — Clarice Lispector
Goth Girl Rising — Barry Lyga
The Executioner’s Song – Norman Mailer
Harlot’s Ghost – Norman Mailer
The Loved Ones – Alia Mamdouh
Adam Buenosayres: A Novel — Leopoldo Marechal
The Infatuations — Javier Marías
Lookout Cartridge – Joseph McElroy
Razor Wire Pubic Hair — Carlton Mellick III
Mardi — Herman Melville
Forbidden Colors — Yukio Mishima
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
The Bone Clocks — David Mitchell
Big Breasts and Wide Hips — Mo Yan
The Green Knight — Iris Murdoch
A Man Without Qualities – Robert Musil
Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle – Vladimir Nabokov
Parallel Stories — Péter Nádas
The Octopus – Frank Norris
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
A Tale of Love and Darkness – Amos Oz
The Black Book – Orhan Pamuk
Towns Without Rivers – Michael Parker
An Instance of the Fingerpost – Iain Pears
The Thanatos Syndrome — Walker Percy
Special Topics in Calamity Physics – Marisha Pessl
Monsieur Songe – Robert Pinget
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — Robert M. Pirsig
Larva: A Midsummer Night’s Babel – Julían Ríos
Letting Go – Philip Roth
The Humbling — Philip Roth
Memoirs of an Invisible Man — H. F. Saint
It Came From Below the Belt — Bradley Sands
A Suitable Boy — Vikram Seth
Absurdistan — Gary Shteyngart
The Russian Debutante’s Handbook — Gary Shteyngart
Shosha — Isaac Bashevis Singer
The Engineer of Human Souls – Josef Skvoresky
In the First Circle – Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
In America – Susan Sontag
Imaginative Quantities of Actual Things – Gilbert Sorrentino
A Memoir of Misfortune — Su Xiaokang
Diary of a Blood Donor – Mati Unt
Rainbow Stories – William T. Vollmann
The Ice-Shirt – William T. Vollmann
An Afghanistan Picture Show; or, How I Saved the World – William T. Vollmann
Glue — Irvine Welsh
Skagboys — Irvine Welsh
The Once and Future King — T. H. White
This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It — David Wong
I Hotel – Karen Tei Yamashita
Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist – Sunil Yapa
People’s History of the United States — Howard Zinn

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