It’s time for my obligatory THIS IS WHAT I READ THIS YEAR blog post.

The 2012 goal was to read 100 books, and it is time to admit I am not going to make it. BUT I’M ONLY 4 SHORT SO IT’S FINE. There’s no chance I’ll be able to read four books in a day, so I’m going to call it at 96; and you know, that’s not bad. He’s a numbered, monthly list.

2012

JANUARY

1 – Alyssa Knickerbocker – Your Rightful Home

2 – Jhumpa Lahiri – The Namesake

3 – Garth Greenwell – Mitko

4 – Arda Collins – It Is Daylight

5 – Andrea Cohen – Long Division

6 – James Tate – The Lost Pilot

7 – Michael Montlack – Cool Limbo

8 – Randall Mann – Breakfast with Thom Gunn

9 – Sarah Manguso – Siste Viator

 

FEBRUARY

10 – Heather Christle – The Trees the Trees

11 – Dennis Cooper – The Dream Police

12 – Nikky Finney – Head Off & Split

13 – Randall Mann – Complaint in the Garden

14 – Amy Newman – Dear Editor

15 – Anne Carson – If Not, Winter

 

MARCH

16 – Alexander Chee – Edinburgh

17 – D.A. Powell – Useless Landscape

18 – Rigoberto Gonzalez – Black Blossoms

19 – Michael Dickman – The End of the West

20 – Tracy K. Smith – Life on Mars

21 – Marie Howe – What the Living Do

22 – Mark Bibbins – The Dance of No Hard Feelings

 

APRIL

23 – Eduardo C. Corral – Slow Lightning

24 – C. Dale Young – Torn

25 – Ross Gay – Bringing the Shovel Down

26 – Michael Dickman – Flies

27 – Jason Shinder – Stupid Hope

28 – Jason Bredle – Standing in Line for the Beast

29 – Dara Wier – Selected Poems

 

MAY

30 – Kathy Fish – Together We Can Bury It

31 – Traci Brimhall – Rookery

32 – Jac Jemc – My Only Wife

33 – Emily Pettit – Goat in the Snow

34 – Bruce Snider – The Year We Studied Women

35 – Mark Wunderlich – Voluntary Servitude

36 – Bruce Snider – Paradise, Indiana

37 – D.A. Powell – Tea

38 – Chris Adrian – The Great Night

39 – Jack Spicer – My Vocabulary Did This to Me

40 – John Brandon – Arkansas

41 – Ryan Van Meter – If You Knew Then What I Know Now

 

JUNE

42 – David Trinidad – Dear Prudence

43 – Robin Blaser – The Holy Forest

44 – Richard Siken – Crush

45 – Robert Duncan – The Opening of the Field

46 – Colllier Nogues – On the Other Side, Blue

47 – Natasha Trethewey – Native Guard

 

JULY

48 – Julia Kasdorf – Eve’s Striptease

49 – Paul Guest – Notes for My Body Double

50 – Maurice Manning – A Companion for Owls

51 – Éireann Lorsung – Music for Landing Planes By

52 – Shane McCrae – Mule

53 – Quan Barry – Water Puppets

54 – Brandi Wells – Please Don’t Be Upset

55 – Dorianne Laux – The Book of Men

56 – Karen Rigby – Chinoiserie

57 – Rodney Jones – Salvation Blues

58 – Paige Ackerson-Kiely – My Love Is a Dead Arctic Explorer

59 – Brian Henry – Lessness

60 – M.A. Vizsolyi – The Lamp with Wings

61 – Cate Marvin – Fragment of the Head of a Queen

62 – Bryan D. Dietrich – Prime Directive

63 – Megan Mayhew Bergman – Birds of a Lesser Paradise

64 – Philip Carr-Gomm – A Brief History of Nakedness

65 – Yusef Komunyakaa – Warhorses

 

AUGUST

66 – Charles Simic – That Little Something

67 – James Baldwin – Giovanni’s Room

68 – Matthea Harvey – Sad Little Breathing Machine

69 – T Fleischmann – Syzygy, Beauty

70 – Gabrielle Calvocoressi – Apocalyptic Swing

 

SEPTEMBER

71 – Patrick Rosal – My American Kundiman

72 – Stephen Motika – Western Practice

73 – Erika Meitner – Ideal Cities

74 – Adrian Matejka – The Devil’s Garden

 

OCTOBER

75 – Lauren Slater – Lying

76 – Madeline Miller – The Song of Achilles

77 – Rodney Jones – Imaginary Logic

78 – Maureen Seaton – Cave of the Yellow Volkswagen

79 – Jay Hopler – Green Squall

80 – Sharon Dolin – Whirlwind

81 – Patricia Smith – Blood Dazzler

82 – Craig Arnold – Shells

83 – Tao Lin – Richard Yates

 

NOVEMBER

84 – Forrest Hamer – Rift

85 – Patrick Rosal – Boneshepherds

86 – Terrance Hayes – Wind in a Box

87 – Lewis Warsh – Dreaming as One

88 – Brad Land – Goat

89 – Marcus Wicker – Maybe the Saddest Thing

90 – Ryan Teitman – Litany for the City

91 – Toi Derricotte – The Black Notebooks

92 – Brian Teare – Pleasure

 

DECEMBER

93 – Jack Gilbert – The Great Fires

94 – David Wojnarowicz – In the Shadow of the American Dream

95 – Timothy Donnelly – The Cloud Corporation

96 – Dorothea Lasky – Thunderbird

…and I’m halfway through Kevin Wilson’s debut novel, The Family Fang, which I’m enjoying immensely and might finish before the end of the year, but I don’t want to rush it.

I spent most of this year trying to read contemporary poets and canonized gay poets that I probably ‘should have read by now.’ Which, I think, is the way to go. In 2013, I’m going to continue in that direction, but expanding to lesser-known writers and eco-poetics, and I also want to read more essay collections—since, you know, I’m trying to write those now. Or something. I’m not sure.

I read an excerpt from “We Take Me Apart” by Molly Gaudry.

There’s a new site called A Poem from Us, in which we average people read poems they love. It’s really neat. I recorded an excerpt of Molly Gaudry’s book-length poem We Take Me Apart for the project. Molly is great. She runs The Lit Pub, if you didn’t already know.

Anyway, you should check the site out…and contribute a poem you love!

Between applying to grad schools, graduating college, working, starting grad school, grading, etc., I managed to read 72 books in 2011.

I have to say, I’m pretty impressed that I was able to read 72 books in 2011. It was a year filled with monumental life changes, and I had only read 50 in 2010. But I told myself that if I’m going to be a “real” writer, I’ve got to read more. And that’s what I did. I’m hoping to hit at least 88 in 2012. Yes, that’s an arbitrary number I just came up with.

Now I’m going to talk about books that taught me something.

Erin Elizabeth Smith’s The Chainsaw Bears taught me that you can write a whole chapbook of poems with the same name and it won’t necessarily be intolerable. I had thought of doing it in the past, but Smith’s was the first that didn’t make me want to stop. Those wooden bears made me feel things.

xTx’s Normally Special taught me to be blunt. I’ve been having trouble saying what I want to say in my own work, largely fearful that it might be too much for readers to handle, but xTx taught me to throw those thoughts away. I shouldn’t be placing such restrictions on myself, especially in the early stages of writing. I can do what I want, and the right readers will find me. I am the right reader for xTx.

Kevin Young’s Jelly Roll taught me how musical short lines can be. Previous to Young’s work, I’d been quite adamant about my hatred for short lines—mostly because I find Kay Ryan’s work quite trite and, overall, terrible—but something in Young’s diction showed me that I shouldn’t make such sweeping judgments. His poems are incredible, and I’ve been writing in short-lined couples ever since. Emulation.

And Cathy Park Hong’s Dance Dance Revolution taught me a lot about language acquisition and interpretation.

Otherwise, I read a lot of fabulous books this year, of which I heartily recommend the following:

Molly Gaudry’s We Take Me Apart

Ryan Call’s The Weather Stations

Philipp Meyer’s American Rust

James Wright’s The Branch Will Not Break

Carl Phillips’s From the Devotions

and Roxane Gay’s incomparable Ayiti

So, that’s the year in reading. I’m looking forward to 2012’s book list—many of which are patiently waiting for me in a stack in my bedroom.

2011 Books 11-25

As previously discussed, I am not a consistent blogger. I’m dealing with it.

I in fact did not stop reading after finishing Cavafy (while I could have, he’s so good). I have now read 25 books this year, which is halfway to my (revised) goal of reading “at least 50.” Having done this about 15 days before the temporal midpoint, I’m feeling optimistic. The list:

12: Molly Gaudry‘s We Take Me Apart: It’s gorgeous but I’m not sure I ‘got it.’ The imagery is bold, bright, and I loved how the line breaks were naturally determined by the language’s pauses (or whenever a comma or ‘and’ would naturally be placed). It’s one of my favorite novels-in-verse and I’m definitely going to reread it at some point, to figure out what exactly happened.

13: Ariel Dorfman’s In Case of Fire in a Foreign Land: Poems from Chile concerning the dictatorship and ‘disappearances’ of his detractors. Extremely powerful poems, though more for their content than their poetic competence.

14: Michelle Cheever‘s You’ll Miss Me But That’s Good: This collection of short stories was released by the student-run Wilde Press at Emerson. I reviewed it here. Cheever is stunning and I’m sure she’ll make a name for herself in the years to come. You can read two of her stories here and here.

15: CAConrad’s The Book of Frank: This book-length series of poems is, well, odd. Lots of avian imagery, lots of unexpected twists. I’m still not sure what I think about it.

16: Miranda July‘s No One Belongs Here More Than You: I read this to prep for an interview that kind of fell through. Met her, though, and she’s so wonderful and soft-spoken. I don’t think I fully understand the things she tackles in her films, performances, or even these stories, but I find something in her character’s subdued decay fascinating and oddly humorous. She’s like a light version of Tao Lin. Maybe.

17: Julia Leigh’s Disquiet: This was a beautiful little novella (which Penguin labeled a ‘story’ because, I suspect, people are afraid of the word ‘novella’). The writing was pristine but all I thought while reading it was, “Wow, I guess rich people have problems, too.”

18: Blake Butler‘s There Is No Year: The book is physically gigantic. The sentences are pretty. The design was pretty. I have no idea what happened.

19: Jac Jemc‘s These Strangers She’d Invited In: I love the Greying Ghost chapbooks. I only own four of them, but they’re all gorgeous and, as expected, the writing more than keeps up. There’s something so charming about being introduced to a list of characters and that’s that. Jemc is one of my favorite up-and-comings and I can’t wait for her novel.

20: Brian Malloy’s Brendan Wolf: I will be gentle in saying this book was not my cup of tea. When I finished it I contemplating getting a Good Reads account just to vent.

21: James Kaelan’s We’re Getting On: I remember liking this but I can’t remember why. And I’m too lazy to go find it and refresh my memory. I think I wanted to post about this separately later anyway.

22: Sara Levine’s Short Dark Oracles: Buy this before they’re gone. These stories were wonderful and just-quirky-enough.

23: Rose Metal Press’s They Could No Longer Contain Themselves: I plan to post on this later, but I’ll suffice to say I loved three of the five chapbooks, was ok with one, and despised the fifth. The book itself is beautiful and a great idea; I hope to be included in such an anthology one day!

24: Daniel Wallace’s Big Fish: I never say this, but I liked the movie better. It just had a sense of magic, of true story-ness, that I don’t think the novel had. I wish I could explain why.

25: Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping: Literally finished this right before making this list. The first paragraphs were too slow and then the ending seemed rushed. But I’m not complaining because each and every sentence was painfully beautiful: some of the best sentences I’ve read since her Gilead. I think I’ll try to read everything she’s written.

2011 Book 10: Cavafy’s Selected Poems

A few weeks ago my BFA advisor asked me if I’d ever read C.P. Cavafy. He kind of freaked out when I said I hadn’t. So I went to the library and got a couple translations. This collection, translated by Avi Sharon, was my favorite. They just felt so contemporary and wonderful.

Then again, that’s why I don’t really like translations: They’re never exactly what the writer intended. Sharon’s versions were so different than the others I read, it was startling. Granted I thought they were the best ones, but it’s strange to think of other readers thinking about Cavafy in completely different ways.

Cavafy was a Greek poet living in Alexandria at the turn of the century. He was basically ‘out’ before ‘out’ was a thing, which peppers both his life and his poetry with some intrigue. When I was reading, I was constantly surprised at how blunt some of the poems were—no allusions to homosexual love, it’s just there. His frankness is something to aspire to, I think.

My favorite poem was “One of Their Gods,” in which various townspeople watch a stranger coming into town before he ducks into an alleyway, where ‘those who know better’ are very aware of who awaits him. The coolest.

2011 Book 9: The Bee-Loud Glade

Steve Himmer, editor of Necessary Fiction (one of the best online journals, period), is a lecturer in my department at Emerson College. The Bee-Loud Glade, his debut novel, will be released this April, and The Berkeley Beacon was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy—which I reviewed.

My main (and pretty much only complaint) is about the book’s ‘humor.’ As I’ve said and will continue to say, I have problems with written humor; I either miss it completely or laugh at something that wasn’t the joke. But I know enough to say definitively that ball jokes aren’t funny after the fourth one. They just aren’t.

But I don’t want that abundance to stop people from reading it, because it more than deserves to be read. The questions it raises about authorship, identity, and man’s place in nature are ones crucial to the writer’s existence. So while it may have made me cringe in places, the time I spent thinking about my role as a writer post-read more than made up for it.

And who knows, I’m sure many others won’t find that particular brand of humor as juvenile as I do.

2011 Book 8: How They Were Found

It usually takes me a very long time to read story collections I like, and Matt Bell‘s How They Were Found is no exception. What happens is this: I’ll say to myself, “Wow, that was a good story, you should save some for later.” And that sounds ridiculous, I’m sure, but there are few things better than a great short story before bed, so I’ll read one on nights I have trouble falling asleep.

My favorite story of the bunch, “The Receiving Tower,” gave me nightmares, imagining myself stranded amidst never-ending ice like those poor men. And I think that’s what good stories should do: leave you with images you can’t scrape from your brain, no matter how hard you try. Between that and a drowned girl held in a meat freezer, How They Were Found certainly gives me my fill.

I’d suggest anyone interested should read the review of the book at TriQuarterly Online, who does a better job than I could at explaining what I like most about these characters, how they seem to see the world through a “filmy gauze.”