I don’t mean to seem to be all about numbers, but when you’ve let your unread books pile up, as I’ve done, measuring your progress takes a higher priority than it would otherwise. For this photo, I piled up the books I read in 2013. Since I began reading intensively again, I’ve read 75 in 2013, 80 in 2012, 60 in 2011, 52 in 2010 and 58 in 2009. Hey, that’s five years! Five years and 325 books. No sense in stopping now, so I’m going to keep reading.
Authors most represented in 2013: two each by Suzanne Collins, Nick Hornby and Jonathan Lethem; three by Dave Barry; and, er, 16 by Harlan Ellison. (Or 15. “Ellison Wonderland” and “Earthman, Go Home” are the same book with different introductions. I count them as one.) Last year, this author list was longer, with multiple authors in the two-, three- and four-book list. I guess this means, Ellison aside, that a lot of my reading was one-offs.
How did I not read any Mark Twain for two straight years?! Definitely I’ll read “A Tramp Abroad” this year. Of course, last year in this space I said I’d be starting it “any day now.” I won’t make that promise, but I will read it.
Sunday’s column is about my reading from last year. Below is a list of every title.
1. “Around the World in 80 Days,” Jules Verne
2. “We’ll Always Have Paris,” Ray Bradbury
3. “The Brazil Series,” Bob Dylan
4. “Slouching Toward Bethlehem,” Joan Didion
5. “Holy Land,” D.J. Waldie
6. “America (The Book),” Jon Stewart and The Daily Show
7. “On the Road,” Jack Kerouac
8. “Icons of the Highway,” Tony and Eva Worobiec
9. “Exile on Main Street (33 1/3 series),” Bill Janovitz
10. “Angry Candy,” Harlan Ellison
11. “Strange Wine,” Harlan Ellison
12. “Cat’s Pajamas and Witch’s Milk,” Peter De Vries
13. “Smith on Wry,” Jack Smith
14. “The Hunger Games,” Suzanne Collins
15. “A Moveable Feast,” Ernest Hemingway
16. “The Accordion Repertoire,” Franklin Bruno
17. “The Pearl,” John Steinbeck
18. “Selected Poems,” e.e. cummings
19. “Kafka Americana,” Jonathan Lethem and Carter Scholz
20. “Adventures in Pet Sitting,” Michael Arterburn
21. “From Bauhaus to Our House,” Tom Wolfe
22. “Anguished English,” Richard Lederer
23. “The Elements of Style,” William Strunk and E.B. White
24. “How to Kick the War Habit,” T. Willard Hunter
25. “Leaves of Grass” (1855 Edition), Walt Whitman
26. “The End of the Tether,” Joseph Conrad
27. “Ask the Dust,” John Fante
28. “An Education: The Screenplay,” Nick Hornby
29. “Our Town,” Thornton Wilder
30. “Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway,” Dave Barry
31. “Housekeeping vs. The Dirt,” Nick Hornby
32. “The Rock Snob’s Dictionary,” David Kamp and Steven Daly
33. “Candide,” Voltaire
34. “Dylan: The 5 Minute Visual Bob-ography,” Roy Gyongy Fox
35. “The Mezzanine,” Nicholson Baker
36. “The Early Worm,” Robert Benchley
37. “The Columnist,” Jeffrey Frank
38. “The Best of Jack Williamson”
39. “Over the Edge,” Harlan Ellison
40. “The Planet of the Apes Chronicles,” Paul Woods
41. ”The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” Michael Pollan
42. “Ulysses,” James Joyce
43. “Boogers are my Beat,” Dave Barry
44. “Ellison Wonderland”/”Earthman, Go Home,” Harlan Ellison
45. “Paingod and Other Delusions,” Harlan Ellison
46. “The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World,” Harlan Ellison
47. “Love Ain’t Nothing But Sex Misspelled,” Harlan Ellison
48. “Stalking the Nightmare,” Harlan Ellison
49. “The Kinks: The Official Biography,” Jon Savage
50. “Approaching Oblivion,” Harlan Ellison
51. “Spider Kiss,” Harlan Ellison
52. “Phoenix Without Ashes,” Edward Bryant and Harlan Ellison
53. “The Book of Ellison,” Andrew Porter, ed.
54. “Elvis: The Illustrated Record,” Roy Carr and Mick Farren
55. “Much Ado About Nothing,” William Shakespeare
56. “Troublemakers,” Harlan Ellison
57. “Googie Redux,” Alan Hess
58. “Diners,” John Baeder
59. “Dave Barry’s Money Secrets,” Dave Barry
60. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales,” Edgar Allan Poe
61. ”The House That Sam Built: Sam Maloof and Art in the Pomona Valley 1945-1985,” Harold Nelson
62. ”The Shuttered Room and Other Stories,” H.P. Lovecraft with August Derleth
63. “No Doors, No Windows,” Harlan Ellison
64. “A Room With a View,” E.M. Forster
65. “Catching Fire,” Sizanne Collins
66. “Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY and the Bittersweet Story of 1970,” David Browne
67. “Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic,” Dan Auiler
68. “Henry Bumstead and the World of Hollywood Art Direction,” Andrew Horton
69. “The Art of Alfred Hitchcock,” Donald Spoto
70. “The Films of Alfred Hitchcock,” Robert Harris and Michael Lasky
71. “Mudd’s Angels,” J.A. Lawrence
72. “Casablanca,” Richard Anobile
73. ”Everything is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson,” Kevin Avery, ed.
74. “Chronic City,” Jonathan Lethem
75. “The City on the Edge of Forever,” Harlan Ellison