Waggish

David Auerbach on literature, tech, film, etc.

Books of the Year 2013

It was a pretty good year, especially for fiction. I stand no chance of ever catching up on my backlog of books to read, so these are less “Books of the Year” than “Books of My Year,” ones which happened to be published in 2013 (or late 2012). A boom in non-Waggish writing resulted in me not having time to write up some of these books, which I really do regret. I spent a month rereading old Pynchon novels alongside Bleeding Edge, which was blessedly worthwhile, but did not help my productivity. Reading list longa, vita brevis.

The order is fairly random though I have tried to put my favorites toward the top of each section. Krasznahorkai’s Seiobo was probably foreordained to be at the top, while the final appearance of Lem’s Summa Technologiae in English was a major event for me. (See my review here.) As with War and War when I first read it, I don’t have a lot to say about Seiobo right now. Maybe in ten years.

As with last year, I haven’t read the entirety of some of the nonfiction selections: Judith Herrin’s two volumes of essays will take some time, while the Maimonides book had me flagging on several topics that just aren’t my thing.

If anyone’s curious as to why some book or other made the list, feel free to ask in the comments. Thanks again for reading my work here or elsewhere.

(As always, I do not make any money from these links; they’re just the easiest way to get the thumbnails.)

 

Literature

Seiobo There Below (Ndp; 1280)

Price: $17.95

57 used & new available from $4.78

Towards the One and Only Metaphor

Price: $22.00

20 used & new available from $18.00

Tapestry

Price: $15.00

15 used & new available from $14.16

The Black Spider (New York Review Books Classics)

Price: $15.95

37 used & new available from $5.00

Anti M

Price: $19.00

3 used & new available from $19.00

Phaedra: with New Year's Letter and Other Long Poems

Price: $11.00

3 used & new available from

Blinding

Price: ---

0 used & new available from

The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller: Vol. 2

Price: $52.35

9 used & new available from $52.35

Dossier K: A Memoir

Price: $6.28

5 used & new available from

The Enchanted Wanderer: and Other Stories

Price: $4.89

11 used & new available from

Mo Said She Was Quirky: A Novel

Price: $6.50

35 used & new available from $4.00

When the Time Comes

Price: $16.00

45 used & new available from $7.75

The Forbidden Kingdom (Pushkin Collection)

Price: $42.88

5 used & new available from

Cannonball

Price: $12.39

8 used & new available from $12.38

Bleeding Edge

Price: $27.40

96 used & new available from $1.57

Middle C (Vintage International)

Price: $15.73

48 used & new available from $4.26

All That Is

Price: $18.96

78 used & new available from $1.30

His Wife Leaves Him

Price: $21.65

26 used & new available from $5.49

The Childhood of Jesus

Price: $17.43

78 used & new available from $1.23

The Sinistra Zone

Price: $13.00

11 used & new available from $11.58

The Guy Davenport Reader

Price: $30.00

17 used & new available from $20.75

The Adjacent

Price: $16.30

12 used & new available from $5.59

The Book of Monelle

Price: $13.69

44 used & new available from $4.92

Georges Perec and the Oulipo: Winter Journeys (Atlas Anti-classics)

Price: $32.64

50 used & new available from $22.49

A Hero of Our Time (Oxford World's Classics)

Price: $13.95

28 used & new available from $6.98

Alexander Vvedensky: An Invitation for Me to Think (NYRB Poets)

Price: $16.00

20 used & new available from $3.11

 

Nonfiction

Summa Technologiae (Volume 40) (Electronic Mediations)

Price: $40.48

8 used & new available from

Savage Energies: Lessons of Myth and Ritual in Ancient Greece

Price: $31.00

18 used & new available from $26.70

The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000

Price: $42.49

34 used & new available from $31.88

Properties as Processes

Price: $9.99

1 used & new available from $9.99

The Self: Naturalism, Consciousness, and the First-Person Stance

Price: $117.97

7 used & new available from $35.00

Oral Tradition and the Internet: Pathways of the Mind

Price: $34.45

18 used & new available from $26.00

Foundations of Modern International Thought

Price: $25.55

28 used & new available from $15.96

The Circle of Socrates: Readings in the First-Generation Socratics

Price: $23.75

17 used & new available from $9.00

Baroque Science

Price: $80.39

11 used & new available from $45.51

Language, Truth, and Literature: A Defence of Literary Humanism

Price: $130.00

6 used & new available from $130.00

Dirty Wars: The World Is A Battlefield

Price: $14.36

107 used & new available from $3.99

The Matter and Form of Maimonides' Guide

Price: $52.50

20 used & new available from $44.50

Consciousness and the Social Brain

Price: $22.19

27 used & new available from $4.08

The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease

Price: $35.74

43 used & new available from $3.27

Trade and Romance

Price: $54.50

9 used & new available from $35.31

Unrivalled Influence: Women and Empire in Byzantium

Price: $16.17

1 used & new available from $16.17

Margins and Metropolis: Authority across the Byzantine Empire

Price: $17.60

1 used & new available from $17.60

Complexity and the Arrow of Time

Price: $25.00

31 used & new available from $16.65

The Engine of Complexity: Evolution as Computation

Price: $45.00

22 used & new available from $5.00

How Did Poetry Survive?: The Making of Modern American Verse

Price: $37.00

6 used & new available from $30.79

Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea

Price: $29.22

38 used & new available from $2.33

The Essential Hirschman

Price: $30.95

27 used & new available from $4.90

Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O. Hirschman

Price: $16.00

54 used & new available from $4.25

Quantum Computing Since Democritus

Price: $51.60

30 used & new available from $43.75

 

Comics

Incidents in the Night: Volume 1

Price: $19.82

24 used & new available from $2.10

Black Paths

Price: $11.07

24 used & new available from $4.50

Interiorae

Price: $14.99

23 used & new available from $6.49

Walt Disney's Donald Duck: The Old Castle's Secret

Price: $23.80

27 used & new available from $12.49

Barnaby Volume One

Price: $35.00

21 used & new available from $18.78

Hand-Drying in America: And Other Stories

Price: $15.09

37 used & new available from $4.32

7 Comments

  1. I see several titles on Albert Hirschman. I tend to pay attention more to what political or sociological books you selected! I’m definitely checking out those Hirschman titles.

    I wonder if a supposed book of his, “Senile Lines by Dr. Awkward,” has ever been widely published.

  2. I’m very curious to hear your thoughts on Philip Kitcher’s book on Death in Venice. What did you like about it? Did it avoid the usual pitfalls of analytic philosophers writing on literature?

    • It’s not a work of aesthetic analytic philosophy, to be sure. There’s no modal analysis of fictional statements or anything like that. It’s closer to the philosophical-literary criticism of J.P. Stern, Erich Heller, and Clayton Koelb, looking at Mann through the influences of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. It’s very well-researched, concise, and says some new things. I plan to post on it in the near future.

  3. Hey David,

    I’ve been a fan of your blog for a few years now. I’m always learning about new writers from your posts, this one being no exception. I had only heard of a few of the writers your list here, and I hope I can acquaint myself with some of them in the near future.

    I didn’t read much new stuff this year (I feel like I’m always catching up on older writers, for better or worse), although I did enjoy two books of poetry: pH Neutral History by Lidija Dimkovska and Tranfer Fat by Aase Berg. Not sure if you’re a fan of postmodern/contemporary poetry, but these books both have a an odd, spastic magic to them and are well worth checking out.

    Anyway, thanks for all of your posts. I really enjoy them!

  4. Jonah Paritzky

    7 April 2014 at 14:49

    David,

    How does the Dirty Wars book compare to the documentary? I’ve already seen the documentary. Is it worth reading the book?

    Thanks

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