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Dec. 15th, 2010 03:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
proximoceptionWhat to read next year?
I don't want to try to beat 75. I'd probably have to turn to Dr. Seuss to. And the number goal, combined with an internet-atrophied attention span, meant I read very few even mid-length books this year, most of which were collections of shorter pieces.
One thing I'll do the same will be rereading a lot: well over half of this year's books were rereads. I've just reached a point where that's become a much more reliable source of great experiences; I guess I'm reaping the reward for the wider reading I did when younger. I'm sure a point comes when you can burn out on rereading too, but I'm not near it.
Or maybe I just needed comfort this year? And last year, now I think of it, with all the Borges and Calvino. Maybe that need will pass with what inspired it.
As a compromise between reading new and reading old, I think I might try tackling consecutively a few authors I usually read around in: Emerson, especially, maybe going through his journals in order, and the relevant collections of poems and essays as I get up to when he's writing them; Dickinson's letters likewise, reading each year of her poems in the Franklin edition concurrently with that letter year; ditto Kafka, though maybe just with his diaries and stories, since most of his letters don't do much for me.
I imagine I've read all Dickinson's poems by now, but perhaps I missed a few. I used to read her for hours on end on plagiarist.com, despite owning the various print editions, because of the 'random' button they had there. She was something like twenty percent of their whole database, so you only had to click through a few non-her poems, usually by Robert Service, to get back to Dickinson. I liked there being just one poem highlighted on the page, giving everything she wrote a special attention. But I want to annotate her. I'm trying to annotate now, and she's one of the few writers where I do feel like making lines and circles and drawings on her poems.
For rereading, I need to revisit Lawrence and see what I make of him now. Women in Love at least. The Magic Mountain I keep thinking about, and Emperor and Galilean. I didn't get around to much Shelley in the summer. A complete run through is in order. As is seeing what Volokhonsky and Pevear make of Tolstoy, Lydia Davis of Proust.
Of the new things read this year, most of the best were Chekhov stories. There's a number of his I still haven't read.
I'm not sure I can hold off from Little, Big until the anniversary edition's out.
Reading Shakespeare makes it hard to read non-Shakespeare. I might do a few more of his aloud these next couple weeks: Antony, Love's Labour's, Comedy, Winter's Tale, Othello, Troilus, Midsummer. Haven't read some of those in ages.
It's time for Resurrection, the book I've been saving since 2000. Maybe I'll start the new year with it, or use it to end 2010 if I've hit 75 by c. Christmas?
I don't want to try to beat 75. I'd probably have to turn to Dr. Seuss to. And the number goal, combined with an internet-atrophied attention span, meant I read very few even mid-length books this year, most of which were collections of shorter pieces.
One thing I'll do the same will be rereading a lot: well over half of this year's books were rereads. I've just reached a point where that's become a much more reliable source of great experiences; I guess I'm reaping the reward for the wider reading I did when younger. I'm sure a point comes when you can burn out on rereading too, but I'm not near it.
Or maybe I just needed comfort this year? And last year, now I think of it, with all the Borges and Calvino. Maybe that need will pass with what inspired it.
As a compromise between reading new and reading old, I think I might try tackling consecutively a few authors I usually read around in: Emerson, especially, maybe going through his journals in order, and the relevant collections of poems and essays as I get up to when he's writing them; Dickinson's letters likewise, reading each year of her poems in the Franklin edition concurrently with that letter year; ditto Kafka, though maybe just with his diaries and stories, since most of his letters don't do much for me.
I imagine I've read all Dickinson's poems by now, but perhaps I missed a few. I used to read her for hours on end on plagiarist.com, despite owning the various print editions, because of the 'random' button they had there. She was something like twenty percent of their whole database, so you only had to click through a few non-her poems, usually by Robert Service, to get back to Dickinson. I liked there being just one poem highlighted on the page, giving everything she wrote a special attention. But I want to annotate her. I'm trying to annotate now, and she's one of the few writers where I do feel like making lines and circles and drawings on her poems.
For rereading, I need to revisit Lawrence and see what I make of him now. Women in Love at least. The Magic Mountain I keep thinking about, and Emperor and Galilean. I didn't get around to much Shelley in the summer. A complete run through is in order. As is seeing what Volokhonsky and Pevear make of Tolstoy, Lydia Davis of Proust.
Of the new things read this year, most of the best were Chekhov stories. There's a number of his I still haven't read.
I'm not sure I can hold off from Little, Big until the anniversary edition's out.
Reading Shakespeare makes it hard to read non-Shakespeare. I might do a few more of his aloud these next couple weeks: Antony, Love's Labour's, Comedy, Winter's Tale, Othello, Troilus, Midsummer. Haven't read some of those in ages.
It's time for Resurrection, the book I've been saving since 2000. Maybe I'll start the new year with it, or use it to end 2010 if I've hit 75 by c. Christmas?
