… not all of the February reading suggestions I had intended were actually posted on this weblog. Quelle dommage! Just so no one misses out on my musings during the month of February, I’ll publish the complete list (I do this anyway, even if I’m always punctual posting my suggestions).
You might not have noticed but I have been slipping several newer texts into my reading list, texts that often were included in recent suggestion lists. I suspect I’ll need a few more months reading books that haven’t hit the remainders stack yet, but so far I’m not enthused by the state of today’s new publications.
I will suggest, however, that a lot of the literature coming out of Africa, the Middle East, and South America, is a better route to good reading than sticking to American or British books. I suppose Joseph Roux put it in perspective: “Literature was formerly an art and finance a trade; today it is the reverse.” This, of course, pertains to much of what we consider the Western World. The Capitalism monster even devours literature.
December, being the last month of the year, is functioning as my big fat book make-up month with heavy titles such as Infinite Jest (half-way through), A Man Without Qualities (too big?), and Against the Day (is Pynchon worth it?). But despite my dedication to the big ones, I’ll continue posting a daily reading suggestion that might be less daunting.
Yes, this is the month I put up or shut up and at least dabble in a few of the books I have recently suggested for others to read. My selection process was simple: I went back through the last two months worth of suggestions and listed all the titles I found readily available to me either on my bookshelf or on my digital reading stack. Then I trimmed the list down to just twenty titles and they are now my November 2017 Reading Pool.
Yet another month has waved a fascinating bundle of reading at me and deep in my heart I know I will never get to experience all that literate goodness. But wait: perhaps I should dedicate a month’s reading pool to the very books I have been suggesting to other people.