Year in Reading 2015

End of year lists. A bit played out and commenting on them being played out is too. But I think it's important to look back on what this year meant for me, literaturely. Along with starting to volunteer at Open Books as well as working on an event with Asymptote (stay tuned!), I've been writing more, sometimes for money, sometimes creatively, sometimes not at all (more often than I should). But the bones of a novel came out of it. If you're reading this blog and are interested in reading a surrealist tale about language, identity, memory, and perception, with indulgent experiments in form and more namedrops to philosophers, writers, musicians, and other pop culture references than I probably should have made, I will absolutely let you read it while I figure out where to go with it next.

But enough about what I wrote, here is what I read:

Reading list (1/2)'15

First half of 2015 is up. Been keeping busy this year. I'm a firm believer that you can't be a better writer without being a better reader. Here's what I read for the first half of the year. Bolded my favorites. Gonna try to devote the second half of the year to reading more 2015 stuff.

Uki Goni - The Real Odessa (2002)
Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go (2005)
James Tadd Adcox - Does Not Love (2014)
Jami Attenberg - The Melting Season (2011)
John Darnielle - Wolf in White Van (2014)
Leslie Jamison - The Empathy Exams (2014)
Aleksandar Hemon - Nowhere Man (2002)
Eugene Ionesco - Rhinoceros and Other Plays (1994 edition / originally written in 1959)
Louise Erdich - The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse (2001)
Orhan Pamuk - My Name is Red (1998)
Ron Currie Jr - God is Dead (2007)
Albert Camus - The Rebel (1951)
Djuna Barnes - Nightwood (1936)
Wallace Shawn - the Fever (1990)
Italo Calvino - Marcovaldo (1963)
Jack Kerouac - The Dharma Bums (1958)
Jessica Hopper - The First Collection of Criticism By A Living Female Rock Critic (2015)
Aleksandar Hemon - The Making of Zombie Wars (2015)
Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979)

Ron Currie, Jr. - Everything Matters! (2009)

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - Slaughterhouse Five (1969) (reread) (just as good as it was in high school)
Wallace Shawn - The Designated Mourner (1996) (reread)

Apparently The Empathy Exams is my favorite book I've read recently I haven't written about. I think I was so surprised by how captivating it was that I didn't realize how much I was in love with it until much later on. Not to mention it's one of the few non-fiction books I've read this year. Anyway. That is all. On to the next ones...

Favorite Music of 2012

So I threw some stuff up on Frontier Psychiatrist and Windy City Rock already, but here is my personal list. Can do a definite top 10, followed by other favorites.

1) Fiona Apple - the Idler Wheel...



2) Miike Snow - Happy to You



3) Frank Ocean - Channel Orange



4) Grimes - Visions



5) Netherfriends - Middle America




6) Ed Schrader's Music Beat - Jazz Mind



7) Sharon Van Etten -Tramp



8) Liars - WIXIW



9) BBU - bell hooks



10) Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light



Other Favorites:
Delicate Steve - Positive Force
the Evens - the Odds
Guardian Alien - See the World Given to a One Love Entity
Young Magic - Melt
Paper Mice - the Funny Papers
Thee Oh Sees - Putrifiers II
Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror
Of Montreal - Paralytic Stalks
Chandeliers - Founding Fathers
Dustin Wong - Dreams Say View Create Shadow Leads
Kids These Days - Traphouse Rock

Didn't Listen to Enough, But Still Solid:
Air - Le Voyage Dans la Lune
Jens Lekman - I Know What Love Isn't
Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music
Mellowhype - Numbers
Memoryhouse - the Slideshow Effect
Menomena - Moms
Patti Smith - Benga
Passion Pit - Gossamer
Twin Shadow - Confess
Ty Segall - Slaughterhouse
the XX - Coexist
Thee Satisfaction - Awe Naturale

Books I Read in 2012

35 books this year. Next year's goal = 52. All by women, minority, international, or LGQBT writers. Here's to 2013.   

Jennifer Egan - A Visit From the Goon Squad (2010)
Christopher Hitchens - Hitch 22 (2010)
Michel Houellebecq - the Map and the Territory (2012)
Aleksandar Hemon - the Lazarus Project (2008)
Sylvia Plath - the Bell Jar (1963)
Ben Marcus - the Flame Alphabet (2012)
Pico Iyer - the Man Within My Head (2012)
Teju Cole - Open City (2011)
Azar Nifisi - Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)
Jay-Z - Decoded (2010)
Roald Dahl - the Umbrella Man and Other Short Stories (1996)
Truman Capote - In Cold Blood (1966)
Adam Levin - Hot Pink (2011)
Jonah Lehrer - Imagine (2012)
Mike Royko - Sez Who Sez Me (1983)
Rick Bass - In My Home There Is No More Sorrow (2012)
Michael Czyzniejewski - Chicago Stories (2012)
Franz Kafka - Amerika (trans. 1996)
David Eggers - You Shall Know Our Velocity (2002)
Etgar Keret - Suddenly a Knock on the Door (2012)
Toni Morrison - the Bluest Eye (1970)
David Eggers - a Hologram for the King (2012)
William Burroughs - Naked Lunch (1959)
Toni Morrison - Home (2012)
Zadie Smith - White Teeth (2000)
Zadie Smith - NW (2012)
Michel Houellebecq - the Elementary Particles (1998, trans. 2000)
Michael Chabon - Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000)
Saul Bellow - the Adventures of Augie March (1953)
Peter Orner - Love and Shame and Love (2011)
Junot Diaz - This is How you Lose Her (2012)
Junot Diaz - the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007)
Michael Pollan - The Omnivore's Dilemma (2006)
Adam McOmber - the White Forest (2012)
John Kennedy Toole - Confederacy of Dunces (1980)