Not that long ago Emilie presented her impossible pile of books to read in 2017. Here comes another selection consisting of books hopefully to be read this same coming year, compiled by someone who, while clearly not Emile, resembles her in the respect that he too is familiar with those piles one wishes to find the time to read through. The piles of books, owned already or in the imagination only, all stand on the to-read-shelf:
Some of them may just be flights of fancy. Some of them are the talk of the town. Some of them are more pressing. Some of them have already been purchased. Some of them just eyeballed for a while. Some of them impossible to get. Some of them; I wish. Some of them; as if. Some of them; why not. Some of them are blind guesses. Some of them are recommendations. Some of them ‘borrowed’ from friends. Some of them to read together. Some of them to catch up. Some of them quoted somewhere else. Some of them for pleasure. Some of them as work. Some of them long, long due. Some of them so unexpected. Some of them had rang a bell for a while. Some of them intriguing. Some of them ambitions (too much so perhaps). Some of them are always on the list. Some of them because one shall. Some of them because there is this one quote, ah, is so beautiful. Some of them looked forward to. Some of them may disappoint. Some of them feared. Some of them abandoned once already. Some of them should be fun.
Ludwig Wittgenstein: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Siri Hustvedt: Living, Thinking, Looking
Paul Auster: The Invention of Solitude
Maggie Nelson: The Argonauts
Wislawa Szymborska: Nothing twice [selected poems]
Czeslaw Milosz: Wiersze Wszystkie [Complete Poems]
Herta Müller: The King Bows and Kills
Arthur Koestler: Darkness at Noon
Nadezhda Mandelstam: Hope against Hope
Claudia Rankine: Don’t let me Be Lonely: An American Lyric
Max Frisch: Schwarzes Quadrat
Eribon: Returning to Reims
Thomas Bernhard: Extinction
Tiphaine Samoyault: Barthes: A Biography
Roland Barthes: Mourning Diary
John Marks: Gilles Deleuze Vitalism and Multiplicity
Jonathan Lethem: The Fortress of Solitude
Zia Heider Rahman: In the Light of What We Know
Martin Buber: Between Man and Man
Arthur Danto: After the End of Art
Bruno Munari: Design as Art
Hans Belting: Art History after Modernism
David Shrigley: The Book of Shrigley
Franek – if you haven’t read anything Jonathan Lethem yet, then I’d recommend you read ‘chronic city’ instead of fortress of solitude. Its personal preference, but I thought fortress of solitude was a drag and chronic city a rush.