Inspired by The Millions' series (so many contributors!) I'm going to map what I've read this year. But first I thought I'd start with the things I didn't read. And so, below are the titles I purchased this year and haven't gotten around to (in the order in which they were purchased, from January through November).
First, bought with a gift card received for Christmas (along with an issue of Runner's World), Victor Hugo's Les Miserables (this really attractive edition). I can only imagine how over-ambitious I must've seemed to the cashier and she gracefully withheld her laughter until after I left the counter. Later that month, I went to Word for a signing of Ian Svenonius's Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group. I've read bit and pieces (it's not very long, so this may even amount to a majority of the text when combined with what he read that night) and it's cute, but I'm in no hurry. This one is more for the sake of being able to say I have a book signed by Ian Svenonius (who is left-handed. Yes, I notice. I always notice).
Somewhat coincidentally I found myself hearing Ben Schrank read twice early in the year. Once at McNally Jackson (in conversation with Sarah Crichton) and once at Pete's Candy Store with Rosie Schaap (whose Drinking With Men I devoured in one weekend. Also, found myself drinking with some friends at Brooklyn Inn a few months later and Rosie was there as a patron. Could there be a better seal of approval for a bar? I digress). I thought, okay, maybe this is a sign. Love is a Canoe is a novel about publishing, which I was becoming disenchanted with (my job within it, specifically). Maybe this would help in some way. So I found a copy at Housing Works, started it, and didn't grow attached to it in a way I was hoping to. Also from Housing Works, The Wire: Truth Be Told, a comprehensive (over 600 pages!) companion guide. And not just your straightforward episode synopses and character lists. Granted, this is not the kind of thing I'd sit down and read cover to cover. I know it'll come in handy the next time I feel like bingeing on the show for a while.
Next up, Hanya Yanagihara's The People in the Trees. I found a galley at Housing Works. Deep down I knew this would be a bit of a reach, but maybe I'll get around to this eventually. I'm disappointed to say that I borrowed Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being from work, and loved it. So I bought it. For the life of me, I'm not sure how Tale and I drifted apart. The voice was engaging and the alternating storylines were both interesting. I want to go back to this sooner rather than later. Cue your eye-roll, but yes, I bought George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones (again, because I found this sexy cloth hardbound edition!) and I really do plan to get to this eventually. Also from Housing Works (sensing a theme here?) I picked up Jane Leavy's Sandy Koufax. I absolutely loved her Mickey Mantle biography The Last Boy (I, in fact, cried at one point while reading) so my arm didn't exactly need to be twisted on this one. But the book name drops Mike Mussina and Robert Pinsky (on page one of the prologue alone!), so obviously I was sold. Jane Leavy is kind of my hero. When it comes to not having read this yet, I am purposely waiting until I'm experiencing serious baseball withdrawal (January, maybe February at the latest) so I'd intended to save this one. All part of the plan. And then for fun, I came across a galley of Steve Rushin's The 34-Ton Bat which, again, maybe someday when I'm in withdrawal.
Someone who I have a feeling I'll come to admire greatly if I get to know her work is Michelle Orange. Housing Works somehow had a galley of This is Running for Your Life lying around months after the book was published (which was early in the year, I think?) and I wish I could say that it isn't such an effort for me to make time for nonfiction. But again, this one is near the top of the pile. Another in the category of "Fun Edition" is Jack Kerouac's On the Road (this one) and deep down I have a feeling that I won't actually enjoy this. But it seems like something I should have and someday read.
Once I started my new job at Macmillan and was assigned a cubicle in the FSG offices, I sought a copy of Boris Kachka's Hothouse. I made the purchase from 192 Books, and again, they happened to have signed copies on the shelves. Meant to be! Perhaps the purchase I'm most ashamed of this year is Sheri Fink's Five Days at Memorial. Not the book, but the circumstances under which I bought it. I read the prologue while browsing in 192 Books and it hadn't left my mind for weeks. And on the same night that the Tampa Bay Rays fell out of postseason play, I was in a terrible mood, trying (and failing) to kill time while waiting to meet a friend for a drink. So I stopped into St. Mark's Bookshop and made this purchase impulsively. I think I assumed it would make me feel better (it didn't). My sister has since borrowed it, and read it. And my mom asked to borrow it while I was home for Thanksgiving (when I had a sour expression on my face, she said, "Well, I mean, you've read it, right?"). So, fuck, man, how have I not read this yet? It's perhaps at the very top of my pile.
From Housing Works, the Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, ed. Ben Marcus. I don't even remember who told me that this is one of the greatest short stories collections to have, but someone did. I mean, look at the table of contents. Eleanor Henderson's Ten Thousand Saints. I'm not quite sure why I got this one. Because it's a depressing story set in a New York City I wish I'd seen? And lastly, but not leastly, because I'm a sucker for collectible advanced readers copies (and signed books, but that doesn't apply here), Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera and Colson Whitehead's Sag Harbor. This was in early November, and it was also where I drew the line. No more books this year.
