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It's a week with a Wednesday in it, if not actually Wednesday anymore, and I'm still short on time. Not so short that I can't post my list of books read in 2019, though.

2019 was a banner year because I came to the end of Anthony Burgess' list in 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939. I really can't recommend this list highly enough if you want a reading challenge that is seriously challenging and full of weird and wonderful surprises. Burgess and I don't always agree on what we want out of a book, but he knows what he's doing and he's enough of an oddball to be interesting. It's not a one-year reading list unless you are way less easily distracted than me and have a lot of free time. It took me five years, but I was reading a lot of other things, too.



(*) indicates a 99 Novels book, (***) means it was a re-read.

January

1. Understanding Computers - Thomas H. Crowley (NF)
2. Another Country - J. Baldwin* (F)
3. The Innocent Moon - H. Williamson* (F)
4. Dostoevsky: The Miraculous Years, 1865-1871 - T. Frank (NF)
5. U is for Undertow - S. Grafton (F)
6. Pale Fire - V. Nabokov* (F)
7. Last Things - C. P. Snow* (F)
8. Poetry Jan. 2019 - various (P)
9. Leaving the Land - D. Unger (F)
10. It Was the Nightingale - H. Williamson* (F)
11. Letters From Alabama Cheifly Concerning Natural History - P. Gosse (NF)
12. Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson - A. Sisman*** (NF)
13. The Social Significance of the Modern Drama - E. Goldman (NF)
14. A Wizard of Earthsea - U.K. LeGuin (F)
15. Grace Harlowe's Junior Year at High School - Jessie Graham Flower, A.M. (F)
16. Things to Do With Your Apple Computer - various (NF)
17. Dreamers of a New Day - S. Rowbotham (NF)
18. Elsie's Girlhood - M. Finley (F)
19. The Power of the Dead - H. Williamson* (F)

February
20. The Tombs of Atuan - U.K. LeGuin (F)
21. The Phoenix Generation - H. Williamson* (F)
22. Anarchist Voices - P. Averich (NF)
23. Stories of Your Life and Others - T. Chiang (F)
24. The Heat's On - C. Himes (F)
25. Poetry Feb. 2019 - various (P)
26. A Wild Sheep Chase - H. Murakami (F)
27. A Solitary War - H. Williamson* (F)
28. Lucifer Before Sunrise - H. Williamson* (F)
29. The Sorrows of Young Werther - J.W. Goethe (F)
30. Hitler Vol. 1 - I. Kernshaw (NF)
31. V is for Vengeance - S. Grafton (F)
32. Emma Dunning Banks's Original Recitations with Lesson-Talks - E.D. Banks (NF)
33. An Experiment in Criticism - C.S. Lewis (NF)
34. The Cat Who Had 14 Tales - L.J. Braun (F)
35. Elsie Dinsmore - M. Finley (F)

March
36. Strange Fruit - Lillian Anderson (F)
37. The Gale of the World - H. Williamson* (F)
38. Poetry March 2019 - various (P)
39. Virtual Muse - Experiments in Computer Poetry - C.O. Hartmann (P)
40. Hitler Vol. II - I. Kernshaw (NF)
41. Encyclopedia of Etiquette vols. I and II - Emily Holt (NF)
42. The Unlimited Dream Company - J.G. Ballard* (F)
43. Unknown London - Walter George Bell (NF)
44. A Bend in the River - V.S. Naipaul* (F)
45. Neuromancer - W. Gibson (F)
46. The Rover Boys on the River - A. M. Winfield (F)
47. The Girl With the Silver Eyes - W.D. Robinson (F)
48. Literary Impostors: Canadian Autofictions of the Early 20thC - Rosmarin Heidenreich (NF)
49. Ex Libris - A. Fadiman (NF)
50. Then They Came for Me: Martin Niemoller, The Pastor Who Defied the Nazis - MD Hockness (NF)
51. Goethe's Faust trs. Walter Kaufmann - (P)
52. Last Car over the Sagamore Bridge - P. Orner (F)
53. A Book of One's Own - People & Their Diaries - T. Malloy (NF)

April
53. An Error of Judgment - P.H. Johnson* (F)
54. Dostoevsky - J. Frank (NF)
55. Just A Normal Marriage - L. Michaels (F)
56. An Autobiographical Novel - Kenneth Rexroth (?)
57. Frankenstein - M. Shelley (F)
58. Advertisements for Myself - N. Mailer (various)
59. Late Call - A. Wilson* (F)
60. The Spire - W. Golding* (F)
61. The Slaves of Solitude - P. Hamilton (F)
62. Lowney's Cook Book - M. W. Howard (NF)
63. Ishmael - D. Quinn (F)
64. Guapa - S. Haddad (F)
65. Orphans of the Sky - R. Heinlein (F)
66. The Women Troubadours - M. Bogin (NF)
67. Fevered Lives: Tuberculosis in American Culture Since 1870 - K. Ott(NF)
68. U.P. - RA Riekki (F)
69. The Adman in the Parlor - E. G. Garvey*** (NF)
70. Doing Literary Business - S. Coultrap-McQuin*** (NF)
71. Tacoma Stories - R. Wiley (F)
72. Tuck Everlasting - N. Babbitt (F)
73. Proust - D. May (NF)
74. Station Eleven - E. St.John Mandel (F)
75. Hatchet - G. Paulsen (F)

May
76. Humbolt's Gift - S. Bellow* (F)
77. The Coup - J. Updike* (F)
78. Salinger's Catcher: Clamor vs. Cricticism - various (NF)
79. Poetry April 2019 - various (P)
80. Black Spring - H. Miller (F)
81. Selections from Contemporary Portuguese Poetry - Longland (P)
82. When Found, Make a Verse of - H. Bevington (P)
83. Poetry May 2019 - various (P)
84. Her Montana Twins - C. Aarsen (F)
85. Herzog - S. Bellow* (F)
86. A Detroit Anthology - various (F) and (NF)
87. Then, There - H. Dos Santos (F)
88. A Man of the People - C. Achebe* (F)
89. Say, Fellows! - W.C. Smith (NF)
90. How to Behave in a Crowd - C. Bordas (F)
91. The Luzhin Defense - V. Nabokov* (F)
92. The Mandelbaum Gate - M. Spark* (F)
93. The Devotion Field - C. Keelan (P)
94. Poetry June 2019 - various (P)
95. Writing Brave and Free: Encouraging Words for People Who Want to Start Writing - T. Kooser and Steve Cox (NF)
96. On Teaching Writing - W. Stegner (NF)
97. Utopic - C. Keelan (P)
98. The Writers Home Companion - J. Bolker (NF)
99. Bird by Bird - A. Lamott (NF)
100. Half in Love - M. Meloy (F)
101. Florence: A Delicate Case - D. Leavitt (NF)

June
102. The Odyssey - H. & R. Fagels (P)
103. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (selection) - tr. V.F. Hopper (P)
104. Boswell's London Journals Nov. 1762-1763 - J. Boswell (NF)
105. Something Real - H. Demetrios (F)
106. Less - A.S. Greer (F)
107. Galileo's Daughter - D. Sobel (NF)
108. Heartland - W. Harris* (F)
109. Community Helpers - Berman, Fryer, Barnard (NF)
110. Noise: Fiction Inspired by Sonic Youth - various (F)
111. Small Gods - T. Pratchett (F)
112. Hindoo Holiday - J.K. Ackerly (F)
113. Relativity for the Layman - J.A. Coleman (NF)
114. Stories of Ohio - W.D. Howard (NF)

July
115. Ashlin & Olivia - A.G. Gray (F)
116. The Lockwood Concern - John O'Hara* (F)
117. We the Animals - J. Torres (F)
118. The Relic - E. de Quieroz (F)
119. The Third Bank of the River - C. F. Arnold (NF)
120. Like a Fading Shadow - A. Munoz Molina (F)
121. A Personal Anthology - J.L. Borges (F) and (P)
122. Last Night - J. Salter (F)
123. The Late Bourgeois World - N. Gordimer* (F)
124. The Vendor of Sweets - R.K. Narayan* (F)
125. The Last Gentleman - W. Percy* (F)
126. Silence and Song - M.R. Thron (F)
127. Pavane - K. Roberts* (F)
128. Oculus - S.W. Mao (P)
129. Dead Aquarium - C.M. Sarvis (F)
130. Lisbon Tales & Trails - various (F)
131. Granta 145 -Ghosts - various (V)

August
132. Kristin Lavransdatter - S. Undset (F)
133. Giles Goat-Boy - J. Barth* (F)
134. The Image Men - J.B. Priestley* (F)
135. Harper's New Monthly Magazine - May 1892 - various (V)
136. Fordlandia - G. Grandin (NF)
137. Sowing Seeds in Danny - N. MacClung (F)
138. Cocksure - M. Richler (F)
139. Norwegian Wood - H. Murakami (F)
140. Introduction to Problems of American Culture - H. Rugg (NF)
141. Chinaberries & Crows - various (V)
142. Bomber - L. Deighton* (F)
143. How to Save Your Own Life - E. Jong* (F)
144. Modern News Reporting - C.N. Warren (NF)
145. Why? Children's Questions, What They Mean and How to Answer Them - A. Gurian and R. Formanak (NF)
146. The Largesse of the Sea Maiden - D. Johnson (F)
147. Kitchen Confidential - A. Bourdain (NF)
148. Poetry July/August 2019 - various (P)
149. The French Lieutenant's Woman - J. Fowles* (F)
150. Sonnets - W. Shakespeare (P)

September

151.Poetry September 2019 - various [P]
152. The Art of Living - J. Gardner [F]
153. Free Lunch *1 - various [P]
154. The Vanishing Man - C. Finch [F]
155. Japanese Gestures - M. Tada [NF]
156. Music 1950 - various [NF]
157. Sophie's Choice* - W. Styron [F]
158. Courting Anna - C. Simon [F]
159. Leonardo da Vinci - W. Isaacson [NF]
160. Lanark - A. Gray* [F]
161. Old Farmer's Almanac 2006 - various [V]
161. Exhalation - T. Chiang (F)
162. The Crown Ain't Worth Much - H. Abdurraqib (P)
163. The Paying Guests - S. Waters (F)
164. Sweet Dreams - M. Frayn* (F)
165. You Don't Have to Say You Love Me - S. Alexie (NF)
166. The History Man - M. Bradbury* (F)

October
167. Ancient Persia - M. Waters (NF)
168. Light in August - W. Faulkner (F)
169. The Siege of Tel-Aviv - H. Kestin (F)
170. Staying On - P. Scott* (F)
171. Life in the West - B. Aldiss* (F)
172. Farewell Companions - J. Plunkett* (F)
173. The Small Blades Hurt - E. Dawson (P)
174. Tales of Manhattan - L. Auchinloss (F)
175. The New Age Directory - V. Kulvinskas (NF)
176. Book History - Vol 12 (2009) - various (NF)
177. Riddley Walker - R. Hoban* (F)
178. The Doctor's Wife - B. Moore* (F)
179. Dubin's Lives - B. Malamud* (F)
180. You Are Not Stendhal - D. Harris (P)
181. Codependence - A. Long (NF)
182. Clean Up Your Act! Effective Ways to Organize Paperwork and Get It Out of Your Life - D. Bosher (NF)

November
183. Gravity's Rainbow - T. Pynchon* (F)
184. The Good Soldier Svejk - J. Hasek (F)
185. Death in Venice and seven other stories - T. Mann (F)
186. Creation - Gore Vidal* (F)
187. The Marrow of Tradition - C.W. Chesnutt (F)
188. The Painted Veil - W.S. Maugham (F)
189. The Wake of the Year - K. Autry (P)
190. A Gift of Air - P. Huggins (P)
191. Return Flights - J. Davis (P)
192. Composition and Grammar (1929) - A. Hitchcock (NF)
193. Le Petit Prince - A. St-Exupery*** (F)
194. Darconville's Cat - A. Theroux* (F)
195. Poetry October 2019 - various (P)
196. Pattee's Dietetics (1935) - A.F. Pattee (NF)
197. Poetry November 2019 - various (P)
198. Breaking and Entering - J. Williams (F)
199. The Mosquito Coast - P. Theroux* (F)
200. Poetry December 2019 - various (P)

December
201. My Literary Passions - W.D. Howells (NF)
202. Lilith's Brood - O. Butler (F)
203. Blood Heir - A.W. Zhao (F)
204. The Rebel Angels - R. Davies* (F)
205. A Visit From the Goon Squad - J. Egan (F)
206. The Silence of the Girls - P. Barker (F)
207. Ancient Evenings - N. Mailer* (F)
208. Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls - T Kira Madden (NF)
209. Outdoor Portraiture - W. Mortensen (NF)
210. The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics - O. Waite (F)
211. Be Frank With Me - J. C. Johnson (F)
212. Great True Spy Stories - ed. A. Dulles (NF)
213. The Old Tobacco Shop - W. Bowen (F)
214. You've Had Your Time - A. Burgess (NF)
215. The Novel Now - A. Burgess (NF)
216. The Reivers - W. Faulkner (F)
217. The Gambler - F. Dostoevsky (F)
218. Poetry January 2020 - various (P)



Goals for 2020: read more of the books I already own, double back and find some of the recs I've been "meaning to check out" for the past 5-10 years, finish Sue Grafton's Alphabet of Destruction series, support local booksellers (but not too much). If I keep all my resolutions, the number of books read next year should shrink a little as I try to shift a little more time to other hobbies. But that part is highly aspirational, so who knows?
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