I’ve always gotten bogged down in Joyce’s Ulysses. There are some books you need to be in the right headspace to attack.
I should probably read the Bible and the Koran, speaking of literature I’ve never had the mental energy to take up.
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?
Tiger Riding for Beginners 