Once again it is time for my annual roundup of mostly non-work-related reading. Being done with my own first book and successfully past the tenure process definitely facilitated more and better reading for pleasure this year than last. Nevertheless, I will shamelessly begin my year-in-books roundup with a new category (although let’s be honest, they’re always all new categories):
Book published: The Andalusi Literary and Intellectual Tradition. By me.
With that out of the way, here’s what I read in the year that was:
Would have read very differently if I had read it in April, 2016, when it was recommended to me by a friend, rather than when I finally got to it, in early January of this year: Limonov by Emmanuel Carrere
<— Relatedly, since we’re all in the same profession, everyone to whom my friend recommended the book posed for a picture in an Andalusi monument (mine was at the top of the tower of the church of San Román in Toledo) and sent it to her.
Read it for work but would have read it for pleasure all the same: The Full Severity of Compassion by Chana Kronfeld
Hate-read it for work: The Myth of an Andalusian Paradise by Darío Fernández-Morera
Thinking about how I want to work post-tenure: The Slow Professor by Maggie Berg and Barbara Seeber
Thinking about (at least a part of my) audience post-tenure: The Public Professor by Lee Badgett
I can justify reading graphic novels when they’re about textual transmission and written in Spanish: El secreto del salmo 46 by Brian Moriarty and Iván Sende
…or even when they’re sort of bilingual/Spanglishy/mostly English: El Ilumniado by Ilan Stavans
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!: Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman
Ars longa vita brevis: Everything is Happening by Michael Jacobs
Spain books: The above, The Vanishing Velázquez by Laura Cumming, and Moorish Culture in Spain by Titus Burkhardt
Brought it to Spain again, didn’t read it again: Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner
Bought-in-Spain books:
Abu Dhabi book: Temporary People by Deepak Unnikrishnan
Wanted to read it before going to Abu Dhabi but didn’t quite get to it: H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
Canada book: Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
And because my trip to Canada involved an unexpectedly large number of googly eyes:
Cuba books: Freedom’s Mirror by Ada Ferrer, My Brigadista Year by Katherine Paterson, Cecilia Valdés by Cirilio Villaverde**, Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capó Crucet, and Papyrus by Osdany Morales
There was a prequel…: Nights of Awe by Hari Nykkanen
There was a sequel?!: Jacobo reloaded by Mario Bellatín
Written in an English least like the one I know: Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brien
Favorite story from the Complete Sherlock Holmes**: “The Adventure of the Yellow Face” (or maybe “The Sign of the Four”)
Favorite novel from the Complete Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles
(although ultimately I think this was a stronger start than a finish)
Least favorite story or novel from the Complete Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet (sacrilege, I know, I just found it so tedious)
Story or novel from the Complete Sherlock Holmes most interestingly adapted into an episode of Elementary: “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box”/”Ears to You”
Most disappointing story or novel from the Complete Sherlock Holmes, having watched Elementary first: “Silver Blaze”/”The Marchioness” (Whorls? Whorls.)
Favorite narrator of the Complete Sherlock Holmes audiobooks: Stephen Fry
Least favorite narrator of the Complete Sherlock Holmes audiobooks: Simon Vance
Didn’t quite get the voice of the Orientalist narrator right, but full marks for effort and an interesting thought exercise: Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton
Almost but didn’t quite get the voice of the NYU literature professor right: Jeremy O’Keefe in Patrick Flannery’s I Am No One
Didn’t even come close to getting the voice of the NYU literature professor right: Alfred O’Malley in James Carse’s PhDeath
“Her grid, it seems to me, is true…”: Agnes Martin and Me by Donald Woodman
Because, 2017: Women and Power by Mary Beard
Listened to the audiobook read by Kenneth Branaugh before seeing the movie directed by Kenneth Branaugh: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Saw the musical before reading the book: Hamilton by Rob Chernow**
Best Federalist Paper: #78
Books purged in the interest of shelf space:
Book purged after two chapters so that I wouldn’t have to keep reading paragraphs like these: The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith
Absolute favorites of the year, in no particular order: Limonov, Temporary People, and The Full Severity of Compassion, Freedom’s Mirror
The definitive answer to the question: How many books is too many books to have in bed? This many. I have too many books in my bed.
** Two stars mark the long ones that are 2017 starts and will be 2018 finishes. For Sherlock Holmes, I got through The Hound of the Baskervilles; the second half of the collected works will be for next year.
And finally: Normally my year-in-books roundup only comprises things that I read outside of work because keeping track of everything that I read, half-read, skimmed, read the relevant chapters of, threw at a wall in disgust, etc., would be total chaos. Plus, work reading is as much if not more articles — and fragmentary medieval text bits — than books. However, this fall I was on my post-tenure sabbatical. And although I have a second book project in mind, my main sabbatical goal was to treat the time like I was back in grad school, but smart enough to know how to handle it this time around. The goal was to read, and to read broadly and well and wherever it took me. So I made myself a reading and rereading list and just read. And yes, some of it was in the service of the next project, but even there, I tried to read as broadly and widely as possible; I no longer have to read just what I know I need to read to finish a book before a Damoclean deadline. Since academic calendars and the rest of the world’s calendars don’t align perfectly, I’m still on sabbatical for just about a full month into 2018 I’m going to wait until I’m back to teaching, but there will be a Part 2 of work-related reading soonish.