What I Read in 2013

While I didn’t read quite as many books this year as last, it was pretty close. I ended up reading less poetry and drama than last year, but read more fiction and non-fiction. I also made it through several epic non-fiction works. I did write more about the books I read with my kids, and took several camping trips - which cut into my reading time a bit. I also spent some of my blogging time writing on theological and religious issues.

Past installments:

2011 Reading List

2012 Reading List (with links)

As with last year, I have broken these down by genre: Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama.

Non-fiction:

We Thought We Heard the Angels Sing          James Whittaker                                                  1-3-13

Studies in Words                                                  C. S. Lewis                                                            1-19-13

The Souls of Black Folk                                     W.E.B Du Bois                                                     2-13-13

The Perfect Wagnerite                                        George Bernard Shaw                                         2-20-13

Railroaded: The Transcontinentals…             Richard White                                                      3-3-13

Why Does the World Exist                                Jim Holt                                                                 3-27-13

Iron Curtain                                                          Anne Applebaum                                                  4-3-13

City Life                                                                Witold Rybczynski                                              5-7-13

Alarms and Diversions                                       James Thurber                                                     5-20-13

St. Francis of Assisi                                             G. K. Chesterton                                                  6-3-13

On the Map                                                          Simon Garfield                                                     6-17-13

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions          Thomas Kuhn                                                      8-13-13

England Under the Stuarts                                 G. M. Trevelyan                                                   10-7-13

The Violinist’s Thumb                                        Sam Kean                                                             11-7-13

Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar            Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein                     11-21-13

Divine Vintage                                                     Randall Heskett & Joel Butler                          12-9-13

Impossible Journeys                                           Matthew Lyons                                                   12-24-13

Fiction:

Thank You, Jeeves                                              P. G. Wodehouse                                                 1-16-13

Rilla of Ingleside                                                  L. M. Montgomory                                             1-23-13

The Man of Property                                          John Galsworthy                                                  2-7-13

The Scarlet Letter                                                Nathaniel Hawthorne                                         2-28-13

A Duty to the Dead                                             Charles Todd                                                        3-7-13

Gold Boy, Emerald Girl                                         Yiyun Li                                                                3-10-13

The Secret Agent                                                 Joseph Conrad                                                     3-28-13

No Name                                                               Wilkie Collins                                                       4-22-13

A Princess of Mars                                              Edgar Rice Burroughs                                         4-24-13

A Curtain of Green                                              Eudora Welty                                                       5-22-13

The Reluctant Fundamentalist                         Mohsin Hamid                                                     6-26-13

Framley Parsonage                                             Anthony Trollope                                                  7-3-13

Black Swan Green                                               David Mitchell                                                     7-20-13

I am Half-sick of Shadows                                    Alan Bradley                                                        8-1-13

Our Kind of Traitor                                             John le Carre                                                        8-30-13

Daniel Deronda                                                    George Eliot                                                          9-15-13

The Wee Free Men                                              Terry Pratchett                                                     10-1-13

The Quest for Christa T.                                     Christa Wolf                                                         10-13-13

The Picture of Dorian Gray                               Oscar Wilde                                                          10-27-13

The Sunday Philosophy Club                           Alexander McCall Smith                                   11-22-13

Biffen’s Millions                                                  P. G. Wodehouse                                                 12-18-13

Poetry:

archy and mehitabel                                           Don Marquis                                                        1-20-13

Selected Poems                                                    Anne Bradstreet                                                   2-18-13

Selected Early Poems                                         W. B. Yeats                                                           4-9-13

The Lady of the Lake                                        Sir Walter Scott                                                    5-26-13

Selected Poems                                                    Pablo Neruda                                                       8-18-13

Poems (1833)                                                       Alfred, Lord Tennyson                                       10-23-13

Drama:

Medea                                                                   Euripides                                                               1-10-13

Pippa Passes                                                         Robert Browning                                                 2-17-13

The Man of Mode                                               Sir George Etheredge                                           5-15-13

Porgy and Bess (Libretto version)                    DuBose Heyward                                                    6-10-13

Richard II                                                             William Shakespeare                                          7-17-13

I also was able to see the following plays live this year:

The Cherry Orchard                                            Anton Chekov (CSUB)                                      May 2013

Midsummer Night’s Dream                               Shakespeare (Empty Space)                             Sept 2013

Henry V                                                                 Shakespeare (BC)                                               Oct 2013

Reading with the Kids:

Mythology                                                            Traditional                                                            2-12-13

The Hobbit                                                           J. R. R. Tolkien                                                     4-20-13

Island of the Blue Dolphins                               Scott O’Dell                                                          5-30-13

The Wind in the Willows                                    Kenneth Grahame                                               7-30-13

The Jungle Books                                                Rudyard Kipling                                                  10-3-13

Halloween Edition                                               R. Browning, Coleridge, Irving                          10-30-13

Non-fiction:      17

Fiction:              21

Poetry:              6

Drama:              8   

Kids:                 6

Total:                58

Christmas Books 2013

Two years ago, I made a short post about the books I received as gifts for Christmas. I never got to it last year, although I did note some birthday books. I wanted to do it again this year, so here goes. 

As usual, I will update this page with links to the reviews of the books as I read and write them. 

1. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

I read this recently (in a library edition) but lacked a nice hardback for my own library. My wife found a used one to match my already extensive collection of The World’s Best Reading editions published by Readers Digest.

2. A Sense of Life by Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Exupéry is best known for The Little Prince, which is the most read book in the French language. Oddly, I do not believe I have ever read it. I have, however, read Night Flight, a novella based in part on Exupéry’s experience as an aviator. (He would later die while flying a reconnaissance mission for the Allies in World War II.) This book is a collection of essays, and promises to be quite interesting. Also a used book find by my wife.

3. Washington Square by Henry James

Another present from my wife, who has a nose for used book deals. This is a Heritage edition boxed hardback. Probably unread. (I never cease to be amazed how many unread used books we find. It’s sad.) I first read Henry James a few years back. (My review of those novellas are here.) This book is based on a story that James heard at a dinner party.

4. Ill Met By Moonlight by W. Stanley Moss

I have wanted to read this book for some time, and was disappointed that it isn’t in our library system. This is a story that would have been considered too improbable for a novel. Except that it really happened. Moss and another officer along with a small group of Cretan partisans managed to kidnap the German general in charge of the occupation of Crete and escape to the coast where they were picked up by a vessel. (Also, bonus points for stealing the title from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.)

5. The Voyage of Bran, Son of Febal translated by Kuno Meyer

This was a gift from my sister-in-law and her husband. One of several Irish seafaring sagas that date back centuries, this was one of the sources that influenced C. S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

6. Too Far to Walk by John Hersey

I am including a few books here that weren’t technically gifts, but were used book store finds during our recent vacation. Close enough ;) John Heresy is best known for Hiroshima, but he also wrote fiction. I previously reviewed A Single Pebble. I also enjoyed reading Time and Time Again and Life Sketches several years ago, before I started blogging my reading. I have no idea what this book is about, but Hersey is a consistently good writer. 

7. Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery

My wife found this one for me. I loved Barbery’s other book, The Elegance of the Hedgehog. This is her first book, about a food critic (think Anton Ego in Ratatouille), who is now dying, and is still seeking for another taste epiphany. If this one is as good as the other, it should be quite enjoyable.  

8. An Editor’s Tales, Tales of All Countries (Second Series), and Rachel Ray by Anthony Trollope

Okay, by now, it should be obvious that I love Anthony Trollope. Even though these books violate my usual rule of limiting myself to hardbacks (we already lack shelf space), I went ahead and bought them because they are hard to find anywhere, and cost next to nothing because they were “used.” Not “used” in the sense of being actually read or anything like that, but they had supposedly been previously owned. I am particularly interested in exploring the shorter works.