Friday 27 December 2013

2013 - the year in books

horsemouth has only been keeping an accessions and readings diary since august - nevertheless he will attempt a list of the books read this year. broadly the books are in order - most recently read first. 

new books of the year: the stalin organ - gert ledig, camilo jose cera - journey to the alcarria, the polish complex - tadeusz konwicki

re-read of the year: the marvellous adventure of cabeza de vaca - haniel long, though it was fun to re-read steppenwolf by herman hesse.

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two ghost stories (including 'casting of the runes' from m.r. james collected)
7 stories - sigizmund kizhizhanovsky
the lover - marguerite duras 
collected aubrey beardsley - introduction by arthur symonds
the narrow road to the deep north (part) - basho
the stalin organ - gert ledig
germenine lecerteux - the goncourt brothers
philosophy and social hope - richard rorty - liked the lilies
arthur lee - barney hoskins
exile and kingdom - albert camus
(first few stories from) billy budd - herman melville
a month in the countryside - author forgotten
the desert fathers - in penguin
steppenwolf - herman hesse
children and their books - gillian avery, julia briggs
the island - anton chekov
moorish spain - richard fletcher
ishi in two worlds - author forgotten
the prince - machiavelli (last half - not the advice on hiring mercenaries)
hangmen of britain - author forgotten
erik satie - allan m. gilmor
illuminations - walter benjamin (first few essays)
soldier in paradise - louise collis
letters to a young poet - rainer maria rilke (first part)
a good parcel of english soil - richard mabey
october ferry to gabriola - malcolm lowry
fragments - benjamin wilkomirski
the quest for corvo -a.j.a. symons
the blue lamp - colette
in the prison of her own skin,
the golden buttons - violette leduc
a week on the concord and merrimack rivers - h.d. thoreau
the lifted veil - (uncharacteristic gothic) george ellliot
akenfield revisited - author forgotten
report to an academy - kafka
the lives of animals -j.m.coetzee
a murky business - balzac
j. sheridan le fanu - through a glass darkly
camilo jose cera - journey to the alcarria
marie herbert - the snow people 
james boswell - some of  'life of johnson' and some of 'the journals'
the war - marguerite duras
the marvellous adventure of cabeza de vaca - haniel long
old goriot, gobseck - honore de balzac
reveries of a solitary walker - rousseau
abc of communism - bukharin and preobrazhensky
bob dylan - chronicles one
echolalias - daniel roazen hiller
ham on rye - charles bukowski
george perec - life a user's manual
(plus one short story mentioned in it  'into the abyss - by luigi pirandello)
elisabeth gille - dreamed memories of irene nemirovsky by her daughter
the successor - ismael kadare
(gerard de nerval and restif de la bretonne)
richard jenkins - being danish
gavin maxwell - lord of the atlas
rob young - electric eden
j.q. merquior - foucault
the polish complex - tadeusz konwicki
jessica mitford - book on journalism
g.m. goshgarian's introduction to 
louis althusser's 'the humanist controversy'
china mieville - london's overthrow.

in addition horsemouth started a number of other books but made no progress with them that he is comfortable about claiming to 'have read'.,,

the birth of the hero - otto rank,
seven types of ambiguity - william empson
the acquisition of literacy - ethnographic perspectives
iona and  peter opie -  the lore and language of schoolchildren