Boring personal readings habits 2k10

The past two years, I made resolutions to read at least fifty books and did so. This year, I did not make a resolution and failed to crack thirty. So this list is probably even less interesting than usual.

I taught several classes this year, which allowed me to reread a lot of fantastic essays and short fiction from old masters (Kafka, Hoffamann, Borges, O'Connor, Marquez, Cortazar, and countless others), but impeded my complete book reading. I also started a few giant tomes, specifically Bertrand Russell's The History of Western Philosophy and Roberto Bolano's 2666, both of which I will hopefully finish in some future year.

Books I finished in chronological order (*s are rereads):

1. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Diaz
2. Chronicles – Bob Dylan
3. Little Things – Jeffery Brown
4. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned – Wells Tower
5. NOON 2001
6. Reality Hunger – David Shields
7. NOIR – Robert Coover
8. NOON 2010
9. Twenty Grand – Rebecca Curtis
10. Wise Blood – Flannery O’Connor
11. Magic For Beginners – Kelly Link
12. Books: A Memoir – Larry McMurtry
13. Nightwork – Christine Schutt
14. The Spot – David Means
15. Apex Hides the Hurt – Colson Whitehead
16. All the Living – C. E. Morgan
17. Jesus’ Son – Denis Johnson*
18. Billy Hazelnuts 2 – Tony Millionaire
19. Seven Nights – Jorge Luis Borges
20. The Green Child – Herbert Read
21. Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico – Javier Marias
22. The Literary Conference – Cesar Aira
23. Patriotism – Yukio Mishima
24. Ghosts – Cesar Aira
25. Tales of Desire – Tennessee Williams
26. Mystery and Manners – Flannery O’Connor
27. Do Not Disturb – Muriel Spark
28. Here Comes Another Lesson – Stephen O’Connor

This feels like too few books to bother with further breakdown, as I did in previous years.

Well, onwards and upwards (and more reading in the future).