The Year in Reading (What I actually read)

I set myself a goal of reading 50 books this year (almost to dare myself to read that many), with the idea of starting off with a set of particular books I planned to read. But I have had quite the year of exploring new books and of deliberately seeking out books in the genres I'm most interested in cultivating (books from the Fascist period in Italy, for example). That means that I often will put aside a book I am reading to make room for a new arrival. Hence, the best laid plans of mice and men....But here's what I actually wound up reading:

Books I read:
1. L'Isola di Arturo -- Elsa Morante
2. La Lunga Vita di Marianna Ucria -- Dacia Maraini
3. Sagittario -- Natalia Ginzburg
4. Le voci della sera -- Natalia Ginzburg (re-read)
5. Happiness as Such -- Natalia Ginzburg
6. Suspended Sentences (Part I) -- Patrick Modiano
7. Paris Nocturne -- Patrick Modiano
8. Villa Triste -- Patrick Modiano
9. Suspended Sentences (Trilogy -- Part II) -- Patrick Modiano
10. L'uomo che non ho sposato -- Rossana Campo
11. Country Girl (memoir) -- Edna O'Brien
12. Harry Potter, Book 3
13. Wide Sargasso Sea -- Jean Rhys
14. Best American Essays, 2018
15. Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewell -- Pico Iyer
16. Starting Out in the Evening -- Brian Morton
17. A Girl Returned -- Donatella Di Pietrantonio
18. County Girls trilogy (fiction) -- Edna O'Brien
19. Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories (edited by Jhumpa Lahiri)
20. Je vois des antennes partout -- by Julie Delporte (in French, yes, but it is a graphic novel and I missed lots of words)
21. In Patagonia -- Bruce Chatwin
22. Harry Potter, Book 4
23. Harry Potter, Book 5 (new fave in the series?!)
24. The Little Book of Sleep: The Art of Natural Sleep, Nerina Ramlakhan
25. Walden

Annual re-reading
26. A Christmas Carol -- Charles Dickens (I have read it now for several years running)

(More after the jump)




Have just started (but will finish)
27. Permanent Record -- Edward Snowden (memoir)

Books I re-read for my Literature of Travel class (not sure they count -- b/c skimming in part)
Tropic of Cancer -- H. Miller
Il Giorno della Civetta/Day of the Owl (first time reading it in English!) -- Sciascia
Out of Africa -- Isak Dinesen
Aran Islands -- Synge

Books I only read partway for various reasons

A Small Place -- Jamaica Kincaid
Menzogna e sortilegio -- Elsa Morante (insanely long -- may take a while!)

The Brutal Friendship -- by Deakin (ditto!)
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous -- Ocean Vuong
Le parole tra noi leggere -- Lalla Romano

Books I read for book reviews
Lost in the Spanish Quarter -- Heddi Goodrich

Books I'd like to read in 2020

A Stranger's Pose -- Emanuel Iduma
La strada che va in citta' -- Natalia Ginzburg

Books I planned to read when I began this list but did not:
Tutti i nostri ieri -- Natalia Ginzburg (AGAIN)
Cattiva -- Rossella Milone
Il Partigiano Johnny -- Beppe Fenoglio
War in Italy, 1943-1945 -- R. Lamb

Bold = Read this NOW