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24 December 2010

Books for 2011


Well, a new year is fast approaching, and for me this entails a new book list to pound through and enjoy.  My theme last year was simply “50 books or bust.”  I actually read 84, and except for a few notables, loved every one of them.  2011 is going to have a more structured theme: multiples and minis.  By this, I mean books in a series, multiple books by one author, or multiple books on a subject, always followed by slim volumes less than 150 pages, minis.  I have a long way to go to complete my list, and I always leave room for unexpected departures, but here is what the first couple of months should look like.

Multiples

Your Face Tomorrow by Javier Marías (3vol.)
  1. Fever and Spear
  2. Dance and Dream
  3. Poison, Shadow, and Farewell

Three history books on 18th and 19th century European history by Adam Zamoyski
  1. Moscow 1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March
  2. Rites of peace: the fall of Napoleon and the congress of Vienna
  3. Holy Madness: romantics, patriots, and revolutionaries 1776-1871.

The Writing on the Wall by Count Miklos Banffy (3vol.)
  1. They were counted
  2. They were found wanting
  3. They were divided

Two travel books by Patrick Leigh Fermor
  1. A Time of Gifts: from the hook of Holland to the middle Danube
  2. Between the Woods and the Water: from the middle Danube to the Iron Gates


Minis

Bad Nature: or Elvis in Mexico by Javier Marías
Journey into the Past  by  Stefan Zweig
The Museum of useless efforts  by  Cristina Peri Rossi
Old masters: a comedy  by  Thomas Bernhard
Running Away  by  Jean-Philippe Toussaint



I’m interested; tell me what books you plan to read in the new year.