Friday Column: Reading Resolutions 2008

A good reader, I think, is one who is always pushing herself forward; or, rather, is a reader who is being pulled forward by some force that is not completely discernable--a reader who never feels satisfied with that patch (or swath) of literary terra firma that has already been mapped out.

I believe this, unsurprisingly, because this is how I read, though I've not so much embraced this philosophy as been locked in a grip by it. Whenever I think back on my reading the past couple years, it feels like one big, long retreat from the center. That's center as defined by me because, undoubtedly, a lot of what I classify as toward my fringe would not be toward yours.

Two years ago, in 2006, you might say I had established my center: contemporary American writers and their direct antecedents. I began to move from this center spatially--I read a lot more translations and English-language novels from countries other than the United States, and so I began to seriously acquaint myself with the major authors that other countries had to offer.

I also moved from my center along a different axis: when I wasn't reading foreign books  (which, by my count, accounted for about 1/3 of what I read in 2006) I spent a lot of time trying to read American writers who weren't so well known in general and definitely not well known to me.

By 2007 the fringe of 2006 had come to feel like part of my center; and so I picked a few nations whose literature directly appealed to me and began to read the authors who were a tier or two below the big names.

I also discovered new axes along which I could retreat from my center; namely, I began to reach back temporally, beginning to read more extensively from time periods other than the 20th century. Also, I began to get into reading serious works of literary criticism.

So this is where I find myself as I now take it upon myself to jot down the names of a few books I'd like to resolve to read in 2008.

The first part of this is easy--I can simply name some of the holdovers from 2007 that I didn't have time for but that I'd like to make a priority in 2008. These would include:

Auto da Fe by Elias Canetti
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
Concepts of Criticism by Rene Wellek
A Rhetoric of Irony by Wayne Booth
In the Wake by Per Petterson

In addition to these, I'll also finish Tom Jones and Within a Budding Grove, both of which I am in the midst of.

Now for the more difficult part: predicting what books I will want to search out once I've done with the holdovers. Here's what I've got:

Stoner and Butcher's Crossing by John Williams
Erasure or The Water Cure by Percival Everett
Nine by Andrzej Stasink
Ninety-two in the Shade by Thomas McGuane

I also think I will find reason to get more deeply into the work of Julio Cortazar and Raymond Queneau, as well as to begin to read my first book from the following authors: Tomas Eloy Martinez, Roberto Arlt, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Nathalie Sarraute, and Claude Mauriac.

Last of all, I should say that I'm eager to see what surprises 2008 presents me with; 2006 and 2007 being full of some very important lures that drew my readerly attention in new directions, it is my hope that 2008 will do the same.

Comments

[PB]

I resolve to continue my goal of reading Dickens's canon (which I started in 2007 and unexpectedly reshaped my life, at least for the near future...), and to MEMORIZE more poetry. The mid- to late-20th century shift away from rote memorization in grade schools and high schools was both a good and a bad thing. But how drastically different my life would be if I hadn't taken the time to commit my favorite poems and verses to memory. They come in handy on long runs, for one thing.

[xmattxyzx]

No attempt at The Tunnel this year? I certainly don't blame you.

[anon]

I read the Tango Singer by Tomas Eloy Martinez- it's extremely bland, there's not much going on in any deeper sense in the novel. Definitely would not recommend it.

Auto-da-Fe, on the other hand, is fantastic.

[Jacob Russell]

I've followed a similar path... I didn't seek out the "experimental." I had, and have not given up... a deep respect for the "canonical," ... but find myself, more and more, impelled to press against and challenge the established conventions... simply by virtue of their *assumed* authority.

It doesn't take long, in probing the unexamined assumptions, to discover that there are whole worlds out there, and my god, the identity checks and take-off-your-shoes-before-flying, and la la la... and you begin to put things together that would never have occurred to you..

... there's something wrong with the stories we tell ourselves.

... and if you are, a story teller, you'd better damn well begin to give this some serious thought.

[DerikB]

Queneau!

As far as Robbe-Grillet goes, my favorite is his first "The Erasers", which is more of a metaphysical detective story. But for the more conventional R-G experience (conventional for him) I'd suggest Jealousy or Voyeur.

[Nigel Beale]

I think that force you speak of has to do with finding and replicating the bliss experienced with previous loves/books...a seeking to recapture the joy/complete absorb experienced with War and Peace for example, Shakespeare's plays or Sonnets. Pleasure principle I suppose.

Incidentally, one thing I've been impressed with, surfing around various litblogs is the attention paid to foreign works, albeit in translation. Who says Americans are ethnocentric?

[John Fox]

Funny - I just started Percival Everett's Erasure. He's got such a mean satirical streak, but he's quite good. And the advice above about Robbe-Grillet is excellent - start with Jealousy or Voyeur.

[Bob Frith]

I'd like your comments on reading speed.

I am trying to read faster, to read more books. I have spent most of my life reading as I was taught in school, saying each word silently to myself. But I have recently read that we should read phrases, read for ideas, and make only about 3 eye fixations per line in a paperback novel. It's hard to break old habits, but I guess practice is what I need.

What are your thoughts on this?

Thank you.