Reading List 2011: Part One of Three

I’ve seen a few people compile lists of books they’ve read so far in 2011, and the thought ocurred to me: I like lists!

But I don’t like lists that are too long, so I’m going to parcel these out in manageable portions. This first list confines itself to fiction written or translated into English. Upoming lists will devote themselves to a) fiction written or translated into French and b) Non-fiction written or translated into English.

I might also do a separate list of movies I’ve watched (whether on DVD or at the theater) so far in 2011. That list is likely to be much longer. By my count the list of books I’ve read so far is somehwere around 150, but a lot of those books, for instance the ones that I will post under non-fiction, were  for research, and not simply for pleasure. So it’s not all fun and games, even after someone loses an eye.

Works of fiction that I read specifically for film projects are noted with an asterisk. I’ve listed the books alphabetically by first name of the author because that was what Microsoft Word decided to do and I cannot argue with software.

I have only included books on this list that I can recommend, and I’ve left out a few that I re-read so often it wouldn’t be fair to count them (Pale Fire, Ulysses, The Third Policeman, etc). You’ll of course note that many of them were not published in 2011, or even 2010 in some cases, but this is what I read, so this is what you get. Links will take you to places where you can purchase these books online, but I urge you to seek them out at your local independent bookstore, if possible.

You’ll also note that I have declined to rate or review any of the books listed. I did this for two reasons. 1) I already have or am going to review many of the books on the list, either here or at the Los Angeles Review of Books, or 2) I don’t have anything interesting to say about some of the books, except: “I liked it. You should read it.”

That said, here goes something:

1. Aaron Burch, How To Take Yourself Apart/How To Make Yourself Anew, Pank
2. Alan Warner, The Worms Can Carry Me To Heaven, Jonathan Cape
3. Alasdair Gray, 1982, Janine, Canongate Classics
4. Alfred Döblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz, (Translated by Eugene Jolas), Continuum*
5. Amelia Gray, Museum of the Weird, The University of Alabama Press
6. Anna Winger, This Must Be The Place, Riverhead Books *
7. Blake Butler, Ever, Calamari Press
8. Blake Butler, There Is No Year, Harper Perennial
9. Danilo Kis, garden, ashes, (Translated by William J. Hannaher), Dalkey Archive
10. Darby Larson, The Iguana Complex, Nephew
11. David Foster Wallace, The Pale King, Little, Brown
12. Frank Hinton, I Don’t Respect Female Expression, Safety Third Enterprises
13. Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot, (Translated by Alan Myers), Oxford University Press*
14. Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, (Translated by Lydia Davis), Viking
15. Hjalmar Soderberg, Doctor Glas, (Translated by Paul Britten Austin), Anchor
16. Jennifer Egan, A Visit From The Goon Squad, Anchor Books
17. Jesús Ángel Garcia, badbadbad, New Pulp Press
18. Jim Ruland, Big Lonesome, Gorsky Press
19. John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor, Anchor*
20. John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer, Mariner Books
21. Justin Taylor, The Gospel of Anarchy, Harper Perennial
22. Lee Rourke, The Canal, Melville House
23. Lydia Davis, The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis, Picador
24. Lydia Davis, The Cows, Sarabande Books
25. Matthew Stokoe, Cows, Little House on the Bowery/Akashic Books
26. Michael Kimball, Us, Tyrant Books
27. Molly Gaudry, We Take Me Apart, Mud Luscious Press
28. Nathan Larson, The Dewey Decimal System, Akashic Books
29. Nina Revoyr, Wingshooters, Akashic Books
30. Patrick deWitt, Ablutions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
31. Patrick deWitt, The Sister Brothers, Ecco
32. Roberto Bolaño, 2666, (Translated by Natasha Wimmer), Picador
33. Roberto Bolaño, The Savage Detectives, (Translated by Natasha Wimmer), Picador
34. Scott McClanahan, Stories V!, Holler Presents
35. Tao Lin, Richard Yates, Melville House
36. Thomas Bernhard, Prose, (Translated by Martin Chalmers), Seagull Books
37. Tom McCarthy, C, Alfred A. Knopf
38. Tom McCarthy, Remainder, Vintage
39. Tom Williams, The Mimic’s Own Voice, Main Street Rag
40. William Maxwell, So Long, See You Tomorrow, The Harvill Press