2017: A Brief Reading Retrospective

Despite one of the busiest years of my life, I managed to carve out the time to read 116 books. At the end of last year we bought some heavily wooded land, and this year undertook the big project of carving out a driveway and building a house in the woods—a life-long dream come true. And, it is complete with a custom library!



My wife, daughter, and I began the year in a cozy two-bedroom apartment, where I kicked off 2017 with a deep read of The Anatomy of Melancholy in the fat little NYRB paperback edition (read review). Now, I'm bookending the year in my inviting West Elm leather reading chair, surrounded by nearly all of my best books (I keep a fitfully-pruned library), enjoying Jonathan Baumbach's You: Or the Invention of Memory: A Novel , which is like a mix of John Barth and Italo Calvino. Candles with scents like "rugged patchouli" and "sandalwood tobacco" mingle with the throng of spindly trees out my window to complete the tableau. Yes, life is good.

Instead of enumerating the whole of my 2017 reading list, I'll dole out some ad hoc awards.

Best Read of 2017
The Anatomy of Melancholy (Read Review)
I first encountered this text after reading Harold Bloom's The Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life , where he cites Burton's tome as the book's inspiration. From the overlong introduction under the guise of Democritus Junior to the concluding organs (remember: the book is an anatomy after all), it is a masterclass in systematic structuring (worthy of a German philosophy book), erudition, and, well, a stockpile of ancient wisdom.

Best Non-Fiction by Female Author
How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at An Answer
Are you interested in Montaigne the man, his essays, his philosophy, or the historical context of his writing? Doesn't matter; this book covers it all.

Best Fiction by Female Author
Interpreter of Maladies (Read Review)
A beautiful and often shattering testament to the Indian-American experience (predominantly) in America.

Best Non-Fiction by Male Author
Europe Read Review
A one-volume whopper that covers the history of what we call Europe from prehistory to the end of the Cold War. Davies has a deft eye for the right details to include, and, even at roughly 1,200 pages, the text is more than palatable; it's a treat that you will want before and after dinner.

Best Fiction by Male Author
Little, Big (Read Review)
After reading Game of Thrones and complaining that I just don't have a predilection for fantasy, a colleague challenged me with this one. Seeing that Harold Bloom reads it often and supplied a blurb on the Vintage cover, I jumped on it (I didn't think Bloom would comment on anything published after, say, 1930). Sure enough, my opinions were checked and I had to circumscribe my stance.

Non-Fiction Book I Wanted to Abandon the Whole Time
The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos Read Review
A bit of a slough but very informative and an important topic.

Fiction Book I Wanted to Abandon the Whole Time
A Game of Thrones
I know this could get me ostracized from some circles, so I will omit any justification or polemic. Suffice it to say: I tried.

Book I Didn’t Want to End
Holy the Firm (Read Review)
Every time I read this it's like eating candy. I've nearly highlighted the entire text and filled the margins.

Best Book I'd Been Putting Off
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Read Review)
For most, the "motorcycle" portion of the title entices them and they abandon what they encounter. For me, I put the book off for years because of the "motorcycle" bit and then ended up enthralled with the greater theme. I followed it with the sequel and plan to re-read it next year.

Best Non-Fiction Re-Read
This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life
Yes, you should buy a hardcover of this short speech that is available for free online. And you should make it mandatory annual reading. DFW was a well of wisdom and a craftsman with language.

Best Fiction Re-Read
Moby-Dick or, The Whale (Read Review)
I consider this one of the top 10 essential texts of all time.

Best Book about Books
My Back Pages: Reviews and Essays
Not sure how I discovered Steven Moore but I'm infinitely thankful. This guy has caused me to spend more money than anyone else. He fights for the large, encyclopedic, difficult books and the independent presses. Jeff Bursey wrote a great review of this book for Numéro Cinq. And there's a fantastic Bookworm podcast here.

Most Startling Book
theMystery.doc (Read Review)
Matthew McIntosh's 10-year effort to find a suitable form for the post-9/11 experience. Trust me—you've read nothing like it.

Best New (To Me) Author
Rikki Ducornet
Yet another gem from My Back Pages: Reviews and Essays . I snatched up the Tetralogy of Elements series right away. So far, I've read The Stain and Entering Fire . There is nothing quite like Ducornet. One feels that she has a whole library and the entirety of the English and French languages at her disposal. Her voice seems nowhere to be found—rather, a spirit diffused into times and characters. I often feel that I cannot place the time in which her books were written, they so effortlessly dip from the evolutions of language and metaphor. A rich, robust vocabulary and knack for juxtaposing the vile and the comedic, Ducornet is a sui generis experience.

Longest Book
theMystery.doc
I didn't think I would end up reading a book longer than The Anatomy of Melancholy but this was it.

Shortest Book
Meno
Part of my re-reading of Plato's oeuvre, courtesy of the Hatchett Publishing production of Complete Works.

Best Philosophy Book
Man's Search for Meaning (Read Review)
I read this on a flight from the US to, well, Germany of all places. Viktor Frankl, a prominent Viennese psychiatrist before enslavement in Auschwitz, emerged with a complete philosophy and methodology for coping with even the worst possible situations: logotheraphy.

Best Science Book
Beyond Biocentrism: Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death
I first approached this book with more than a spoonful of skepticism, but after reading through Dr. Lanza's CV my ears pricked up and I engaged. By the fifth chapter I was piqued. And by the eighth I was more than intrigued. Parts of the ideas presented here furnished me with a major theme for a novel I wrote this year. Anyone interested in cutting edge science will find plenty to charge the juices here.

Biggest Let-Down
The Day on Fire
Writer after writer has cited this book as a huge inspiration, and I, too, have been through my Rimbaud phase (still love his poetry, in fact). Unfortunately, the first 200 pages basically match the scope of the movie Total Eclipse, and the remaining 400 are a painstaking cycle of peregrinations.

Book I've Been Reading Forever and Finally Finished
A History of Western Philosophy (Read Review)
I started and stopped this one a few years previously. Not sure what was magical about this year, but I read it through with gusto and relished every page. Russell is a signature wit. And regardless of his personal beliefs, he proves that he can engage in balanced and respectable scholarship. Anyone interested in solidifying their understanding of western philosophy need look no further, especially when this is a single volume.

Book I've Been Reading Forever and Still Didn't Finish
Israelology: the Missing Link in Systematic Theology (Read Review)
I'm keeping a draft review of my distilled reading notes. This is the pinnacle of Messianic Jewish doctrine. Adapted from the author's dissertation, Dr. Fruchtenbaum digs into every major systematic theology and then constructs an exhaustive Israelology that seeks to correct the western omission or denigration of Israel (ironic since most of the Bible concerns Jews). I do look forward to completing it one day, but every paragraph is like a Thanksgiving meal.

Best Literary Criticism
The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages
You've probably realized that I am a Bloom fan. I can't help it; he's bullheaded and cocksure, but learned and passionate about the best of our literary tradition. Even at his worse, I cannot help but love him. This book, above all others, is the one that separates him from most of academia (what he calls the "rabblement of lemmings").

Best Book I Was Pressured into Reading
The Book Thief (Read Review)
Okay, I admit it, I fell for this book. Yes, it is YA (not my usual bag), but it is passionately wrought and provides a chilling narrative perspective à la The Screwtape Letters .

Honorable Mentions
As a Man Thinketh
Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern
Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals
In the Heart of the Heart of the Country and Other Stories
Norwegian Wood
Middlesex
Miss Lonelyhearts
Zen in the Art of Writing
Classics for Pleasure

This year I also discovered NetGalley, an online advance-reader program that gets upcoming books into your hands in exchange for a review, and read six books:

The Red Word
Hotel Silence
Thelema: An Introduction to the Life, Work & Philosophy of Aleister Crowley
No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters
The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics and Madness of Ezra Pound
The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos

Conclusion
It has been another great year in books, and I look forward to what 2018 brings. At present, I've set a goal of exchanging quantity for quality, but I did this last year and didn't really stick with it. I've selected a baker's dozen books (roughly one book per month) to keep me sated:

The Combinations
A Naked Singularity
The Making of Americans
The Instructions
Novel Explosives
Terra Nostra
JR
2666
Women and Men
Against the Day
Jerusalem
The Tunnel
I Am Radar