Reading Between the Whines

People keep asking at our local, ‘How was your year?’ I put them off, then go check the list, the one that’s going to remind me how my year was.  

It’s not exactly Big Bang science but somehow the list of books I have read in a given year tells me a lot about the year itself. So, perusing the list for 2014 (yes I’m a bit obsessive compulsive) I am reminded that I have indeed had a good year, in reading, and in real life. And, as they say, the line between is, well, pretty much non-existent.

There were, of course, Questions of Travel (Elizabeth Bishop) in 2014 as I was without a passport while Her Majesty (the Queen, that is) poured over my 39-page documentation to gain leave to remain one of The Lonely Londoners (Sam Selvon). It was refused first time and I was told I could get out, appeal or re-apply. Thanks to a smart lawyer I re-applied and here I remain Where the Air is Sweet (Tasneem Jamal), instead of joining the queue of The Emigrants (W. G. Sebald) headed out on some Journey by Moonlight (Anton Szerb). Of course, we did take some trips to new places: Japan (see Murakami), New Zealand (see Marshall), Hong Kong (see the money) and Portugal (see the sun shine). I had, as always, Cuba in Mind (Marian Finn Dominguez), and managed to get there with the good bookish Rev. MacKinnon, where he had to listen to All My Puny Sorrows (Miriam Toews). It looks like we better get back on our jet skis again soon or it will go all capitalism now that The Honorary Gentleman (Sebastian Barry) President Obama has begun to unveil The Lie (Helen Dunmore) of U.S. foreign policy. However, The Thing About December (Donal Ryan) promises is that they can take Light Years (James Salter) to become reality and in the meantime a lot of Unspeakable Things (Laurie Penny) can happen. Time will tell if it takes us From Conflict to Communion (Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity). But as for me, I will always be Red or Dead (David Peace). I got to Canada too to see the darlings and spent a few hours in Switzerland working, but compared to Mrs. H.’s travels mine were World Light (Haldor Laxness). I kept searching my atlas for Boyhood Island (Karl Ove Knausgaard) but think perhaps they’ve been Burning Boats (Owen Marshall) and I’ll never find the place. I’d likely get lost and have to make up some South Sea Tales (Robert Louis Stevenson) or poems like Always Dalkey, Always the Sea (Bernie Kenny). Anyways, I’m like The Railway Man (Eric Lomax), more of a landlubber.

I did enhance my position in 2014 as A Man in Love (Karl Ove Knausgaard) with Mrs. H., of course, but also with football. I am firmly one of The Charlton Men (Paul Breen) keeping alive The Fight for The Valley (Rick Everitt), though as I look at the Championship table (that would be the standings for North Americans) just now I fear we may be Falling out of Time (David Grossman), The Pity (Judith Palmer), but the worst that can be said for the Athletics is that they are Beautiful Losers (Leonard Cohen).

I took courses: on Romantics and Victorians (Watson and Towheed), On Poetry (Glyn Maxwell) on The Twentieth Century (Haslam and Asbee), on Reputations (Elaine Moohan) and on How to Preside at Holy Communion (Charles Read). There’s a story there if you want to ask me. We didn’t get marks but I think the instructor would have given me The Sign of Four (Arthur Conan Doyle), or less. I kept up with Facebook, otherwise I would have no idea how The Children Act (Ian McEwan). I read the papers (red tops excluded) to catch up on the latest Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky). I made some new friends like Colorless Tskuru Tazaki (Hiruki Mirakami), Doctor Faustus (Christopher Marlowe), Lila (Marilynne Robinson), The World’s Wife (Carol Ann Duffy), The Prince of Tides (Pat Conroy), the Saints of the Shadow Bible (Ian Rankin), The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot), Dubliners (James Joyce), Casanova in Venice (Kildare Dobbs), Mendelssohn is on the Roof (Jiri Weil), and caught up with old friend, Updike (Adam Begley), and new animals, The Faber Book of Beasts (Paul Muldoon).

I wrote a bit for profit and scratched some lines of poetry for loss and to Rattle the Hatches (Young Foyle Poets), climbed Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë), felt The Spinning Heart (Donal Ryan) while Dancing at Lughnasa (Brian Friel) and living with Mrs. H. in The House of Mirth (Edith Wharton). Fortunately, this year there wasn’t A Death in the Family (Karl Ove Knausgaard) except on the page though we were reminded of the deaths of millions through the Poetry of the First World War (Marcus Clapham) at the centenary of its bloody beginnings.

I read alone or with Mrs. H., but also shared books with our brilliant book group, whose Anglo American Mr. Warren loans me pamphlets I can’t understand, makes me feel like I’m in The Grass Arena (John Healy), whatever that is, then in the pub he goes all witty, making Remarks on Frazer’s Golden Bough (Ludwig Wittgenstein), when all I want is to sit in my favourite corner with A Book of Silence (Sara Maitland).

All that aside, you must read 1) Lila by Marilynne Robinson – powerful, beautiful, best fiction in English that I know of. Set aside time for 2) Karl Ove Knausgaard’s three-volume tome My Struggle, all of which I read in 2014, it matters not whether you call it fiction or memoir, it’s just bloody good. Go find Sara Maitland’s 3) A Book of Silence too, if you are open to the contemplative and prepared to be surprised.  

For fellow (or sister OCDs), the full list is below.

Read well in 2015.

*  The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot (9 January)

*   Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë (28 January)

*    The Sign of Four, Arthur Conan Doyle (5 February)

*    The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy, (20 February)

*    The Spinning Heart, Donal Ryan (22 February)

*    The Grass Arena, John Healy (24 February)

*    Saints of the Shadow Bible, Ian Rankin (26 February)

*    Dubliners, James Joyce (10 March)

*    South Sea Tales, Robert Louis Stevenson, (15 March)

 * Romantics and Victorians, Nicola J. Watson and Shafquat Towheed (17 March)

*  The Thing About December, Donal Ryan (23 March)

* On Poetry, Glyn Maxwell (27 March)

*  Cuba In Mind, Maria Finn Dominguez (30 March)

*  The Lonely Londoners, Sam Selvon (7 April)

*  Casanova in Venice: A Raunchy Rhyme, Kildare Dobbs (8 April)

*  Questions of Travel, Elizabeth Bishop (14 April)

*  A Death in the Family, Karl Ove Knausgaard (17 April)

*  Falling Out of Time, David Grossman (18 April)

*  A Man in Love, Karl Ove Knausgaard (22 April)

*  The Emigrants, W. G. Sebald (23 April)

*  The Twentieth Century, Sara Haslam and Sue Asbee (24 April)

*  Boyhood Island, Karl Ove Knausgaard (5May)

*  Dancing at Lughnasa, Brian Friel (6 May)

*  The Lie, Helen Dunmore (14 May)

*  Updike, Adam Begley (5 June
*  The Charlton Men, Paul Breen (7 June)

*  The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton (17 June)

*  Mendelssohn is on the Roof, Jiri Weil (29 June)

*  Rattle the Hatches, Young Foyle Poets (1 July)

*  The Railway Man, Eric Lomax (7 July)

*  Battle for The Valley, Rick Everitt (13 July)

*  Remarks on Frazer’s Golden Bough, Ludwig Wittgenstein (14 July)

*  All My Puny Sorrows, Miriam Toews (20 July)

*  The World’s Wife, Carol Anne Duffy (30 July)

*  Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky (3 August)

*  How to Preside at Holy Communion, Charles Read (5 August)

*  Unspeakable Things, Laurie Penny (19 August)

*  Red or Dead, David Peace (2 September)

*  Where The Air Is Sweet, Tasneem Jamal (21 September)

*  The Children Act, Ian McEwan (28 September)

*  Colorless Tskuru Tazaki And His Years of Pilgrimage, Hiruki Mirakami, (14 October)

*  Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe (22 October)

*  Lila, Marilynne Robinson (28 October)

*  From Conflict to Communion, Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity (3 November)

*  Journey by Moonlight, Antal Szerb (3 November)

*  World Light, Haldor Laxness (26 November)

*  Light Years, James Salter (30 November)

*  Burning Boats: Seventeen New Zealand Short Stories, Owen Marshall (3 December)

*  The Faber Book of Beasts, Paul Muldoon (11 December)

*  The Honorary Gentleman, Sebastian Barry (15 December)

*  Always Dalkey, Always the Sea, Bernie Kenny (24 December)

*  The Pity, Judith Palmer (24 December)

*  Beautiful Losers, Leonard Cohen (24 December)

*  Poetry of the First World War, Marcus Clapham (27 December)

*  A Book of Silence, Sara Maitland (31 December)

*  Reputations, Elaine Moohan (31 December)