THE STALK of the LIST
1. Humanimals: A Project for Future Children by Bhanu Khapil
2. A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird
3. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
4. The Years by Virginia Woolf
5. Green Girl by Kate Zambreno
6. Travels through Italy and France by Tobias Smollett
7. And The Land Lay Still by James Robertson
8. Hello America by J.G. Ballard
9. Vinland by George Mackay Brown
10. How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
11. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
12. Who Was Changed And Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns
13. Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky
14. Glaciers by Alexis M. Smith
15. Not Merely Because of the Unknown that was Stalking Toward Them by Jenny Boully
16. Inferno (A Poet’s Novel) by Eileen Myles
18. Reality, Reality by Jackie Kay
The Sproutling book shelf
In 2011, I did not read nearly enough beautiful, quiet, teeming, mind-blowing, experimental, informative, infuriating, challenging wonderful books. This is terrible. Terrible. So, for 2012, I’m going to try to read a book a week, allowing for two weeks if the book is particularly long or troublesome. This is where I am cataloguing my epic reading list, and link to the reviews I write.
My hope is that readers here will discover titles that might have otherwise slipped them by, or will contribute their opinions, disagreements, topical digressions, or best of all suggestions for this project.
I am regularly updating this page to reflect the organic growth of the list – which is mostly dependent on what I can find at the local library, on what books I might receive as gifts from family or friends, and perhaps the odd spendthrift purchase I just have to make or else be overcome with the sadness of having been a good book denied.
M.F.K. Fisher’s collection THE ART OF EATING. Incredible traveler.
I hadn’t even thought of food writing, thank you!
The Places In Between- Rory Stewart
and
Pleasures and Landscapes- Sybille Bedford
I’ll look those up Lyra!
Looks like I am going to have to save up my pennies for one or other of these, though perhaps my library has the first…they both look great.
The Snow Tourist by Charlie English – seasonal too!
“Charlie English’s book about his quest to find the world’s purest, deepest snow”) from the Metro review on Amazon – sounds delightful!
Death by Black Hole, by Neil deGrasse Tyson. It’s a wonderful collection of essays on several topics. I really enjoyed it.
Oh good, space stuff – I’ve always wondered myself, that question about what happens when you fall in a black hole…
The Art of Physics by Leonard Shlain. And not just because I knew him when he was alive, but because in it, he looks at simultaneous breakthroughs in art and physics. Sort of like Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (Hofstadter), only a bit more accessible.
That sounds really interesting…I saw an artist’s grant once, for a placement at CERN. Applicants had to be melding art and physics to be eligible. I hope it’s still going.
Oh my goodness, I want to recommend so many books but it’s going to have to be Sarah Hall, unless you have read her already? How to Paint a Dead Man, The Carhullan Army or the Beautiful Indifference are my favourites.
I have heard so much about the Beautiful Indifference, but never sought it out. I think I should. Recommendations are always welcome! Especially if the books can be had from the library.