What did you read in 2014?

army of the potomac trilogy - bruce catton
a shropshire lad - a.e. housman
gulliver's travels - swift
claudine at school - colette
the man who was thursday - g.k. chesterton
legacy of ashes - tim weiner
three men in a boat - jerome k. jerome
the education of an anti-imperialist: robert la follette and u.s. expansion - robert drake
the trial and death of socrates - plato
free soil, free labor, free men - eric foner
the journalist and the murderer - janet malcolm
jfk's last hundred days - thurston clarke
perils of dominance - gareth porter
griftopia - matt taibbi
a colossal wreck - alexander cockburn
miami and the siege of chicago - norman mailer
an unfinished life - robert dallek
the bonesetter's daughter - amy tan
the united nations: a very short introduction - jussi m. hanhimaki
letters to a young contrarian - christopher hitchens
the riddle of the dinosaur - john noble wilford
a little history of the world - e.h. gombrich
five weeks in a balloon - jules verne
around the world in 80 days - jules verne
bonjour tristesse - francoise sagan
the graveyard - marek hlasko
the burning of the world: a memoir of 1914 - béla zombory-moldován
a summer bird-cage - margaret drabble
the obamians - james mann
not in our lifetime - anthony summers
dutch: a memoir of ronald reagan - edmund morris
my life and hard times - james thurber

i barely read this year but kept a list of the ones i finished

Jesse Ball - Silence Once Begun
Elena Ferrante - Days of Abandonment
John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces
Don Delillo - White Noise
bell hooks - Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center
Jefferson Cowie - Stayin’ Alive
Neil Gaiman - American Gods
Julio Cortazar - Blow-Up
Thomas Piketty - Capital in the 21st Century
Benjamin Kunkel - Utopia or Bust
David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas

Oaxaca Diaries - Oliver Sacks
Pietr the Latvian - George Simenon Haven't heard of these---info please!
Also, what did you think of
Light Years - James Salter?

― dow, Sunday, January 4, 2015 3:07 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oaxaca diaries is an account of a trip taken by a group of amateur botanists with a particular interest in ferns to the Mexican state known, in those circles, for its particularly large variety of species. I only read it because I was in Oaxaca at the time, but I thoroughly enjoyed it - his descriptions of the oddities of the group were charming and an insight into a world I knew nothing about. There's also some nice descriptions of Oaxaca itself. Its nothing earth shattering but if you're interested in either botany or Mexico its definitely a good read. (Although if you want to read a travel book about Mexico I'd definitely go for "A Visit to Don Otavio" by Sybille Bedford - I've read quite a few books about Mexico and its by far the best.

Pietr the Latvian is the first of the Inspector Maigret books, all 75 of which are being republished by Penguin in new translations. I'd never read them before but I'm now totally addicted. Its hard to say why, the endings are often not particularly satisfying and the writing can be fairly dodgy (I read a review which said he makes Ian Fleming look like Nabokov, which sounds about right!) but the way he conjures up an atmosphere is amazing, they're great books for when you want something that falls into the category of comfort reading, they're all about 150 pages and designed to be read in one sitting, so they're perfect for when you want to take a break from more serious reading, whatever that means. I feel like they're getting better as they go along as well.

I thought parts of the James Salter book were amazing, but I wasn't entirely convinced by it. There's an arrogance to the writing that you completely forget about when you're in the middle of some of the best bits, but there's times where it doesn't quite seem justified. Having said that the book stayed with me more than I expected and I'd say I'll end up reading some of his other stuff, the parts I found a little off putting don't seem so bad in retrospect and the evocation of the passing of time and accumulation of disappointments punctuated by occasional moments of joy was something that I suspect will stick with me as I get older.

Yes, it's stuck with me. Your experience with the book is pretty close to mine. Think I came to it directly, with a jolt, from The Hunters, which is very and appropriately taut (keeps lyricism on a short leash): it's based on his experience as a combat pilot, flying missions every morning, or very often. Later revised, dunno how that turned out.

I've read several Simenons, but they all had Maigret's name in the title. Black Snow and other non-genre novels can be better, but yeah I'm sure I'll get back to the series.

I've read several Sacks books and his 60s drug memoirs in The New Yorker, which may not be in a book yet. Only knew of Oaxaca via its excellent old-tyme reputation re weed; will check his book and Bedford's, thanks.

Was it The Hunters that was significantly revised or was it his second novel, The Arm of Flesh, which was reworked into Cassada

I wish you were right, but just checked his New Yorker profile:
He has also described his pilot years as lost ones. He was ashamed not to have achieved more in war. “I felt contempt for myself,” he wrote later. He felt similarly about the flying books. “Youth,” he has said. But eventually he wrote again of his flying years, in “Burning the Days,” and then, when a friend wanted to republish the old novels, he revised “The Hunters” and a second Air Force novel, “The Arm of Flesh” (1961), which he renamed “Cassada.” Glad he changed that title.

Maybe I'll do a comparative reading, but mainly, the first version seemed like exemplary self-discipline, with bits of imagery flying out at just the right moments. Must be nice.

been picking up various simenons secondhand over the last year, so been reading them in the old translations (at least one was even done by julian maclaren-ross!). just finished the first maigret which was okay, though there was some fairly rank & nasty anti-semitism and *spoiler* the twin thing was just slightly ridiculous. think the new translation for this has been done by the perec translator/biographer david bellos?. have been struck by his use of weather as an integral part of the general atmosphere for his narratives: very good at the oppressiveness of heat, especially in one of his early non-maigrets about a turkish consul newly arrived in a soviet port (forget the name of it but weirdly reminded me of robbe-grillet). and xposts: they are totally addictive!

Aieee! In the middle of the night, I woke up realizing I'd left Dubliners off my list!

Finally read Dubliners. Love the intent observation and the improbable navigation through all the detail: can't call it "omniscient" narration in the lordly sense: early 20-something author knows he's still got a lot to learn about women, for instance/especially, and like some of his male protagonists (generally older and more experienced than he), the sense of surprise, in sometimes possibly teachable moments, is a recurring source of vitality, a key center, maybe. Also, there's a sense of compassion, or fairness---well, justice anyway, 'cause life ain't fair. But art can be, sometimes.
Also, unusually enough, it's making me monitor and question my own behavior, incl the binge of high-class reading: am I really learning from this, or is it just more status-seeking, if very belated? Can't take it with you (not all the way, but how far?)

― dow, Sunday, November 2, 2014 4:23 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Dubliners is really good. Perhaps only viewed as 'minor' because of who wrote it and what else he wrote.

― Thackeray Zax (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, November 2, 2014 5:01 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

like dow I read the whole of DUBLINERS (in my case again). I liked it and I think dow has a point (implicit) re: maturity, reading it with an experience eye, etc.

I also watched the film THE DEAD (1987) again and liked that too.

― the pinefox, Monday, November 10, 2014 5:12 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thanks, yeah that's what I meant. It was like Dylan used to be my bold young uncle, and when I finally listened to Blonde On Blonde. I was struck by his being so much younger than that now--but still dropping science on me. Re Joyce, I read Portrait and Ulysses so long ago, in school, so was really amazed by his youthful voice here, more vulnerable in a way, for the lack of constantly-risking-absurdity literary acrobatics---if he failed in this kind of deep social commentary, via focus on individuals, especially with less outspoken well-wishers and guardians of the status quo watching so intently---you want an audience, you got it kid---would have been much worse than just going off into stylistic doodledom for the nonce. Not worse than court actions vs. obscenity maybe, but bad enough.

― dow, Friday, November 14, 2014 11:01 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The movie is very worthwhile; Huston always does right by his literary sources.

― dow, Friday, November 14, 2014 11:03 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"finally listened to Blonde On Blonde" *again*, I meant to say.

― dow, Friday, November 14, 2014 11:04 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also my first Colette, Four Short Novels:

Haphazard months, needy periods of waiting. Does all this, then, happen in a woman's life because of certain definite infractions and disobediences, through individual omissions, the breach of a companionship with one man, the choice of another, and then the fact of being chosen by yet a third? The long sequence of household cares, of toil with the needle, of turned skirts---"My dear, I swear it's better than right-side out!"---of ingenuities which one pretends are little triumphs, are not, then, the result of pure hazard, but of a hostile, almost fatalistic power? She thought without gratitude of old Becker's gratuitous alms-giving. She called to mind those little festivities of the flesh, swiftly conducted and swiftly forgotten, exasperated moments from which a broken masculine voice seemed to rise up to Julie's ears. 'It's not their real voice,' thought Julie, 'but the voice of an instant.'
..."Julie, you're not feeling ill, are you?"
She shook her head and smiled patiently. 'No,' she answered within herself. 'I'm just waiting for the moment when you are no longer there...You read through me into another man, and you treat him as an enemy. One would really think that Herbert has no secrets for you. You hate him and understand him. When I think of Esquivant you ask me if I'm feeling ill. What good advice you give me from the height of your twenty-eight years! An honest little counsellor, one of those plebeian marvels that chance sometimes places at the elbows of queens. But the bitches of queens go to bed with the marvel and turn him into a trumpery duke, an embittered lover and a misunderstood statesman. With you as my advisor I'd never do "anything silly," as you so nicely put it.'
She emptied her glass of brandy at a gulp, though it was a very old brandy, and worth serious attention, a smooth and civilized brandy.
"Alley-oop!" said Julie, putting her glass down.
"Bravo!" said Coco Vatard.
'If he only knew what he was applauding! Nothing silly any more---that's tantamount to saying I'll never be any use to anyone anymore---not even to myself. He'll keep me from ruing myself, or from being taken in. People can always ruin themselves, even when they've got nothing.'

original 2014 post cont.:
Ornamental Cabbage, thanks so much for encouraging me to read this collection of short novels by Colette! So many scary speed bumps for the simple male mind---I want to trot around Paris with Julie de Carneilhan 4ever, and sometimes feel that I have, with her American frienemies (can't really keep up, of course, but)

I read more books for pleasure in 2014 than I've read in any other year of my adult life (but it's still a fairly short list):

Caitlín Kiernan - The Red Tree
Jeff VanderMeer - City of Saints and Madmen
Nina Kirika Hoffman - A Fistful of Sky
Tanith Lee - The Book of the Damned
Edwin Abbott Abbott - Flatland
M. John Harrison - Viriconium Nights
M. John Harrison - A Storm of Wings
M. John Harrison - The Pastel City
Vladimir Nabokov - Pnin
Vladimir Nabokov - Pale Fire
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
Shirley Jackson - We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Shirley Jackson - The Haunting of Hill House
Shirley Jackson - The Lottery and Other Stories
C. J. Cherryh - Cyteen
Ray Bradbury - Something Wicked This Way Comes
Ray Bradbury - Dandelion Wine
Ray Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles
Walter Miller - A Canticle for Leibowitz
Alan Garner - The Stone Book Quartet
Clifford Simak - Way Station
Clifford Simak - All Flesh Is Grass
Diana Wynne Jones - Hexwood
John Wyndham - The Day of the Triffids
Patricia McKillip - The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
Robin McKinley - The Blue Sword
Mervyn Peake - Gormenghast
Mervyn Peake - Titus Groan
Jack Vance - The Dying Earth
Hope Mirrlees- Lud-in-the-Mist

books I didn't finish in 2014:

Mervyn Peake - Titus Alone (was immediately disappointed by the change in tone/style, but I plan to start it again soon — maybe I'll appreciate it more when the first two Gormenghast books aren't so fresh on my mind)
Isak Dinesen - Seven Gothic Tales (I like her flowery faux-Victorian prose, but I can only tolerate a little at a time)
Joy Chant - Red Moon and Black Mountain (an early Narnia/LotR clone. I gave up shortly after the epic battle between the good white eagles and the evil black eagles)
Ray Bradbury - Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales (a lot of this is second-rate Bradbury, isn't it? I think I'm better off reading some more of his original collections or getting this)

I've also developed the habit of starting a series without finishing it. I didn't finish Vance's Dying Earth, Harrison's Viriconium, McKinkley's Damar, Peake's Gormenghast, VanDermeer's Ambergris, and Lee's Paradys. hopefully I can catch up on a few of them this year.

books I wish I didn't finish in 2014:

Nina Kirika Hoffman - A Fistful of Sky (blecch)