Reading – a year in review, 2013

2013 was a very good year for reading. I discovered new authors whose work I enjoyed: Elena Ferrante, Madeline Miller, and Carrie Snyder. I continued my affection for authors with whom I had already been acquainted: Elizabeth Hay, George Saunders, Penelope Fitzgerald, Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, Lorrie Moore, Nicholson Baker, Tove Jansson, Richard Ford, and Lars Iyer. I started reading ebooks as a normal part of my reading habit. The book club whose meetings I attend continued to give satisfaction. I reread a few favourite novels, most notably the gorgeous Belknap Press edition of Austen’s Emma. And I discovered some new favourites. I also wrote short reviews of each book I read this past year and posted them on LibraryThing, a few of which I re-posted here on this blog. I’m already looking forward to another great year of reading ahead.

Stats from my 2013 reading list:

  • 22 were borrowed from our public library
  • 17 have Canadian authors
  • 24 were chosen due to personal recommendations from friends
  • 10 are by authors who appear more than once on the 2013 list
  • 4 were being reread
  • 3 were read aloud by my wife and me
  • 17 are non-fiction
  • 11 are ebooks

Books read in 2013 (83):

  • Ford, Richard. The Lay of the Land
  • Wood, James. The Fun Stuff
  • Coady, Lynn. The Antagonist
  • Scalzi, John. Redshirts
  • Young, Nora. The Virtual Self: How Our Digital Lives Are Altering The World Around Us
  • Schultz, Emily. The Blondes
  • Annas, Julia. Intelligent Virtue
  • Anshaw, Carol. Carry the One
  • Saunders, George. Tenth of December
  • Barnes, Julian. Through the Window: Seventeen Essays and a Short Story
  • Vila-Matas, Enrique. Never Any End to Paris
  • Robinson, Marilynne. When I Was a Child I Read Books
  • Handler, Daniel (author), Kalman, Maira (illustrator). Why We Broke Up
  • Fforde, Jasper. The Song of the Quarkbeast
  • Bradley, Alan. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
  • Fitzgerald, Penelope. Offshore
  • Orr, David. Beautiful and Pointless: A Guide to Modern Poetry
  • Stein, Lorin (ed.) and Stein, Sadie (ed.). Object Lessons: The Paris Review presents the Art of the Short Story
  • Iyer, Lars. Exodus
  • LaPlante, Alice. The Making of a Story
  • Humphreys, Helen. The Reinvention of Love
  • Ford, Richard. Rock Springs
  • Fitzgerald, Penelope. The Bookshop
  • Chuilleanáin, Eiléan Ní. Selected Poems
  • Vila-Matas, Enrique. Dublinesque
  • Fenton, James. An Introduction to English Poetry
  • Miller, Madeline. The Song of Achilles
  • Hobsbaum, Philip. Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form
  • July, Miranda. It Chooses You
  • Fenton, James. The Strength of Poetry
  • Ferrante, Elena. My Brilliant Friend
  • Ford, Richard. Women with Men
  • Davis, Lydia. Varieties of Disturbance
  • Humphreys, Helen. The Lost Garden
  • Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse
  • Meyer Spacks, Patricia. On Rereading
  • Hay, Elizabeth. Alone in the Classroom
  • LaCava, Stephanie. An Extraordinary Theory of Objects
  • Attenberg, Jami. The Middlesteins
  • Gibbons, Stella. Cold Comfort Farm
  • Wodehouse, P.G. What Ho!: The Best of Wodehouse
  • Ford, Richard (ed.). Blue Collar, White Collar, No Collar: Stories of Work
  • Rourke, Lee. The Canal
  • Jansson, Tove. Travelling Light
  • Stein, Garth. The Art of Racing in the Rain
  • Pick, Alison. Question & Answer
  • Hay, Elizabeth. Small Change
  • Shields, David. How Literature Saved My Life
  • Atkinson, Kate. Life After Life
  • Ford, Richard. Canada
  • Wagamese, Richard. Ragged Company
  • Ferrante, Elena. The Days of Abandonment
  • al-Tahawy, Miral. Brooklyn Heights
  • Walter, Jess. We Live in Water
  • Moore, Lorrie. Birds of America
  • Saunders, George. The Brain-Dead Megaphone
  • Patchett, Ann. Taft
  • Murakami, Ryu. Coin Locker Babies
  • Kaufman, Andrew. Born Weird
  • Williams, John. Stoner
  • Hill, Miranda. Sleeping Funny
  • Hutchins, Scott. A Working Theory of Love
  • Haddon, Mark. The Red House
  • Schultz, Emily. Heaven Is Small
  • Tropper, Jonathan. The Book of Joe
  • Ferrante, Elena. The Story of a New Name
  • Baker, Nicholson. Traveling Sprinkler
  • Tóibín, Colm. Mothers and Sons
  • Franklin, Ariana. Mistress of the Art of Death
  • Sedaris, David. When You Are Engulfed In Flames
  • Hill, Miranda (compiler), Medley, Mark (compiler), and Wangersky, Russell (compiler). The Journey Prize Stories 25
  • Tropper, Jonathan. Everything Changes
  • Morley, Christopher. Parnassus on Wheels
  • Morley, Christopher. The Haunted Bookshop
  • Joyce, Rachel. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
  • Austen, Jane. Emma edited by Bharat Tandon
  • Hay, Elizabeth. Garbo Laughs
  • Fitzgerald, Penelope. Human Voices
  • Moore, Lorrie. Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?
  • Snyder, Carrie. The Juliet Stories
  • Homes, A.M. This Book Will Save Your Life
  • Fagan, Jenni. The Panopticon
  • Gartner, Zsuzsi. Better Living Through Plastic Explosives

 

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One Comment

  1. I can see where knowing “Who Will Run the Frog Hospital” and what to do “When You are Engulfed in Flames” plus life enhancing tips on “Better Living Through Plastic Explosives” could all be very useful indeed!

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