I just finished another book. I’m going to write about it next week, but it goes with the book I’ve just started (another example of my unique and unconscious ability to read books back to back that end up going together in some way). The pile next to my bed is getting a little shorter than I like. So I took out my book list, on which I keep the titles and authors of the books I want to read.
My choices are made by reading reviews in newspapers, magazines, and recommendations from Nancy Pearl. It’s getting really long — about 85 books and I have a bunch of pages torn from publications and sticky notes with book titles scribbled on them that will easily add another dozen to the list. I was thinking that one way to pare it down would be to put it on my blog and you, my loyal readers, could tell me if you’d read any of them. You can point out the lousy ones so I can take them off my list. I am loathe to add this next sentence, but if, given the authors and titles you see, you know of another book I simply must add, you can tell me that, too.
A note: two of the entries are for my son, but I make it a point to read every book I suggest to him first, so I can tell him if I think he’ll like it. My secret super power is linking people I know with books I’m sure they’ll love. It makes me happy to get Darling Son to admit I was right and that he loved whatever book I’ve suggested.
Books Lisa Wants*
1001 Foods You Must Taste Before You Die edited by Frances Case
7 Sisters by Margaret Drabble
America Pacifica by Anna North
At Home on the Range by Margaret Yardley Potter
Bad Dog by Martin Kihn
Blackout by Connie Willis
Blue Castle by LM Montgomery
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Catching Fire by Richard Wrangham
City of Ember (series) by Jeanne DuPrau (for Darling Son)
Dimanche by Irene Nemirovsky
Every Last Cuckoo by Kate Maloy
Fifth Avenue 5 a.m. by Sam Wasson
Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
Ghost Lights by Lydia Millet
Heart in the Right Place by Carolyn Jourdan
Heft by Liz Moore
History of a Pleasure Seeker by Richard Mason
How Did You Get This Number by Sloane Crosley
How It All Began by Penelope Lively
I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson
I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman
Indignation by Philip Roth
Is That Fish in Your Ear? By David Bellos
John the Revalator by Peter Murphy
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out by MoYan
Lizz Free or Die by Lizz Winstead
Love and Shame and Love by Peter Orner
Memory of Running by Ron McLarty
Model Home by Eric Puchner
Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier
No One Is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel
On Writing by Stephen King
One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Peep Show by Joshua Braff
Private Life by Jane Smiley
Reality Hunger: A Manifesto by David Shields
Secrets of Eden by Chris Bohjalian
Sleeping Beauty by Elizabeth Taylor
Smut by Alan Bennet
Solace by Belinda McKeon
Stay with Me by Paul Griffin
Sybil Exposed by Debbie Nathan
The Anthologist by Nicholas Baker
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
The Ask by Sam Lipsyte
The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore
The Bolter by Frances Osborne
The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey
The Chicken Chronicles by Alice Walker
The Empty Family by Colm Toibin
The Fates Will find Their Way by Hannah Pittard
The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margo Livesey
The Free World by David Bezmozgi
The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
The Grift by Debra Ginsberg
The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto
The Leftovers by Tom Perotta
The Life of Irene Nemirovsky by Oliver Philipponnat
The Missing of the Somme by Geoff Dyer
The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
The Oriental Wife by Evelyn Toynton
The Quiet Girl by Peter Hoeg
The Resurrectionist by Jack O’Connell
The Selected Works of TS Spivet by Reif Larsen (for Darling Son)
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones
The Way Things Look To Me by Roopa Farooki
Then Again by Diane Keaton
Thoughts Without Cigarettes by Oscar Hijuelos
Three Daughters by Letty Pogrebin
Three Delays by Charlie Smith
Timbuktu by Paul Auster
Tony and Susan by Austin Wright
Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro
Various Pets Alive and Dead by Marina Lewycka
Weeds: In Defense of Natures Most Unloved Plants by Richard Mabey
Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn
When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
Where the God of Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom
You Think That’s Bad by Jim Shepard
* Birthday: 12 June
So what do you think? Are there any bombs on the list? And what do you do to manage the desire to read, well, everything, with the daily responsibilities we all have?
The kids and I read City of Ember aloud some time ago and we really loved it, but the sequel got set aside part way through and no one is complaining.
I enjoyed Connie Willis’ Blackout and All Clear — read through them quickly and happily — but there is nothing about them which says ‘you must read me this instant’. If you think you’ll have any chance to visit London in the next few years, read them en route.
Thanks for your comments, Elizabeth. Very helpful. So the initial City of Ember book has an ending that stands along? It might not bug Darling Son to not complete a series if there is not natural end after part X, but as the pre-reader, I need to know the ending. Which is why I’m so mad I started Game of Thrones. The series isn’t four, or five, it’s seven books and the next one won’t be out for another couple years, the last not until 2015. Grr!
I just read (and reviewed) The Art of Fielding. http://andalittlewine.blogspot.com/2012/05/review-of-art-of-fielding-by-chad.html The short free version is “It’s worth it.”
I don’t think I dare add anything else to your list. If I made myself a to-read list that long, I worry I’d never actually get through it.
Is it what the book was based on? Or is it just a shortened version?
Lisa,
Nice to see you during Blogathon again. That’s quite a list you’ve got there… and as a result my “to read” list just got quite a bit longer!
I’ve only read one of the books, Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending. To be quite honest, I was underwhelmed.
I have David Bellos’ Is that a fish in your ear? and, as a translator, it’s at the top of my list. Now to just find a smidgen of uninterrupted time. 😉
Thanks, Lisa. I love Julian Barnes, so that’s a little disappointing. I will say that any books you know about language and work geekiness, let me know. I have a lot of them and enjoy them immensely.
That’s an ambitious list! On Writing by Stephen King is excellent – I referenced on my blog interview with Susan Harrow last Thursday. If you like historical fiction, you might want to add The Dovekeepers: A Novel (http://www.amazon.com/The-Dovekeepers-Novel-Alice-Hoffman/dp/145161747X – I’ve just started but it’s looking like a winner. Good luck to you on the Blogathon!
I finished Dovekeepers three books ago. Liked it a lot. It inspired me to get an out of print book about Masada by the man who led the excavation in the 1960s. You can find a bunch of work by him here: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_6?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=masada+yigael+yadin&sprefix=masada%2Cstripbooks%2C190.
Wow, what a great list! I just added some of the books you mention to my already long summer reading list.
I read Philip Roth’s and Banana Yoshimoto’s books you mentioned and I liked them, but I still can find time to start reading Paul Auster’s Timbuktu. I must add you have excellent choice of authors.
The book on Weeds sounds very cool! Thanks for the recommendations.
I’ll recommend a couple:
The Lost Language of Plants, Stephen Harrod Buhner
The Monkey Wrench Gang, Edward Abbey
The Culture of Make Believe, Derrick Jensen
Oy! More to add to my list! But thanks. Recommendations are the best way to find a good read.
This was really a fascinating subject, I am very lucky to have the ability to come to your weblog and I will bookmark this page in order that I might come back one other time.