PROMPT: Books

Bloganuary writing prompt
What books do you want to read?

I’d love to read all the good ones, but even with my voracious approach to reading I barely make a dent.

Here’s the top of the list of books I’m excited about right at the moment, by category:

Travel lit related to an impending trip to the Caucasus region: “A Man Was Going Down the Road” by Otar Chiladze; “Ali and Nino” by Kurban Said; “The Burning Tigris” by Peter Balakian; and “Kvachi” by Mikheil Javakhishvili.

Related to a Chinese literature (in translation) kick that I’m on: “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms” Luo Guanzhong; “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio” by Pu Songling; “In the Thick Woods a Deer Is Seen at Times” and “A Pair of Swallows Fly” [The latter two are bilingual poetry translations of works from the Tang Dynasty and the Book of Poetry, respectively.]

Books and editions coming out this year: “Judo Unleashed” by Neil Ohlenkamp; a new verse translation of Kamo no Chomei’s “Hojoki” translated by Matthew Stavros; “Nuclear War” by Annie Jacobsen; and a new translation of Natsumi Soseki’s “Kokoro.”

Related to things I’m working on presently: “Thinking, Fast and Slow” Daniel Kahneman; “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell; “Gut Feelings” by Gerd Gigerenzer; and “The Meaning of Travel” by Emily Thomas.

Long overdue: “Metamorphoses” by Ovid; “The Decameron” by Giovanni Boccaccio, and I should probably finish Joyce’s “Ulysses”

Odds and Ends: “Rental Person Who Does Nothing” by Shoji Morimoto; “Is This Anything?” by Jerry Seinfeld; “Sick in the Head” by Judd Apatow.

Are you sorry you asked yet?

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