Well, university is all over bar the handing-in tomorrow, so I thought that I'd make a partial summer reading list, composed indiscriminately of books that people have given me, books which I've bought but not read, books on one of my various lists of 'books to read' lists (some based on recommendations, some because I came across them while doing research for my literature essays, and some for no reason that I can recall), new and forthcoming books by favourite authors, books which I've been meaning to re-read, and academic books which I don't seriously think I'm actually going to get through. In no particular order:
Günter Grass - The Flounder
Nikolai Gogol - Dead Souls
Alasdair Gray - A History Maker
Joseph Heller - Catch 22
Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains Of The Day
Vladimir Nabokov - Pale Fire
Tim Winton - The Turning
Marcel Proust - Swann's Way
Raymond Queneau - The Bark Tree
Italo Calvino - If On A Winter's Night A Traveler
Thomas Pynchon - Mason & Dixon
Ian Watson - Chekhov's Journey
A S Byatt - Possession
Aragon - La Mise à Mort
Gérard de Nerval - Aurélia
Louis Guilloux - Le Sang Noir
Amélie Nothomb - Antechrista
China Miéville - Looking For Jake
Terry Pratchett - Thud
George R R Martin - A Feast For Crows [though I'll probably have to go back and read the earlier ones first, to refresh my memory]
Zadie Smith - On Beauty
Jacques Derrida - Of Grammatology
Edmund Husserl - Ideas
Also, a couple of names: Alison Lurie and Ivy Compton-Burnett.
Anyway, obviously I won't read all of those (and, conversely, will read many not on the list), but I can't help but feel that the making of a list like this is an optimistic gesture, in ways which extend beyond just reading and literature.
