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)
Krasznahorkai, László (Author), Mulzet, Ottilie (Translator)
New Directions

Towards the One and Only Metaphor
Szentkuthy, Miklos (Author), Wilkinson, Tim (Translator), Hanshe, Rainer J. (Introduction)
Contra Mundum Press

Tapestry
Terry, Philip (Author)
Reality Street

The Black Spider (New York Review Books Classics)
Gotthelf, Jeremias (Author), Bernofsky, Susan (Translator)
NYRB Classics

Anti M
Samuels, Lisa (Author)
Chax Press

Phaedra: with New Year's Letter and Other Long Poems
Marina Tsvetaeva (Author)
Angel Books

Blinding
Cartarescu, Mircea (Author), Cotter, Sean (Translator)
Archipelago

The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller: Vol. 2
Emshwiller, Carol (Author)
NonStop Press

Dossier K: A Memoir
Kertész, Imre (Author), Wilkinson, Tim (Translator)
Melville House

The Enchanted Wanderer: and Other Stories
Leskov, Nikolai (Author), Pevear, Richard (Translator), Volokhonsky, Larissa (Translator)
Knopf

Mo Said She Was Quirky: A Novel
Kelman, James (Author)
Other Press

When the Time Comes
Winkler, Josef (Author), West, Adrian (Translator)
Contra Mundum Press

The Forbidden Kingdom (Pushkin Collection)
Slauerhoff, Jacob (Author), Vincent, Paul (Translator)
Pushkin Press

Cannonball
McElroy, Joseph (Author)
Dzanc Books

Bleeding Edge
Pynchon, Thomas (Author)
Penguin Press

Middle C (Vintage International)
Gass, William H. (Author)
Vintage

All That Is
Salter, James (Author)
Knopf

His Wife Leaves Him
Dixon, Stephen (Author)
Fantagraphics Books

The Childhood of Jesus
Coetzee, J. M. (Author)
Viking

The Sinistra Zone
Bodor, Adam (Author), Olchváry, Paul (Translator)
New Directions

The Guy Davenport Reader
Davenport, Guy (Author), Reece, Erik (Afterword)
Counterpoint

The Adjacent
Priest, Christopher (Author)
Gollancz

The Book of Monelle
Schwob, Marcel (Author), Schluter, Kit (Translator)
Wakefield Press

Georges Perec and the Oulipo: Winter Journeys (Atlas Anti-classics)
Perec, Georges (Author), Audin, Michèle (Author), Bénabou, Marcel (Author), Bens, Jacques (Author), Braffort, Paul (Author)
Atlas Press

Tales of the German Imagination from the Brothers Grimm to Ingeborg Bachmann (Penguin Classics)
Wortsman, Peter (Editor), Wortsman, Peter (Translator), Wortsman, Peter (Introduction)
Penguin Classics

A Hero of Our Time (Oxford World's Classics)
Lermontov, Mikhail (Author), Pasternak Slater, Nicolas (Author), Kahn, Andrew (Author)
Oxford University Press

Alexander Vvedensky: An Invitation for Me to Think (NYRB Poets)
Vvedensky, Alexander (Author), Ostashevsky, Eugene (Editor), Yankelevich, Matvei (Translator), Ostashevsky, Eugene (Translator)
NYRB Poets

 

Nonfiction

Summa Technologiae (Electronic Mediations)
Stanislaw Lem (Author), Joanna Zylinska (Translator)
Univ Of Minnesota Press

Nagarjuna's Middle Way: Mulamadhyamakakarika (Classics of Indian Buddhism)
Siderits, Mark (Author), Katsura, Shoryu (Author)
Wisdom Publications

Being, Humanity, and Understanding
Lloyd, G. E. R. (Author)
Oxford University Press

Savage Energies: Lessons of Myth and Ritual in Ancient Greece
Burkert, Walter (Author), Bing, Peter (Translator)
University of Chicago Press

Properties as Processes
Seibt, Johanna (Author)
Ridgeview Publishing Digital

The Self: Naturalism, Consciousness, and the First-Person Stance
Ganeri, Jonardon (Author)
Oxford University Press

Oral Tradition and the Internet: Pathways of the Mind
Foley, John Miles (Author)
University of Illinois Press

Foundations of Modern International Thought
Armitage, David (Author)
Cambridge University Press

The Circle of Socrates: Readings in the First-Generation Socratics
Boys-Stones, George (Translator), Rowe, Christopher (Translator)
Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.

Baroque Science
Gal, Ofer (Author), Chen-Morris, Raz (Author)
University of Chicago Press

Language, Truth, and Literature: A Defence of Literary Humanism
Gaskin, Richard (Author)
Oxford University Press

Dirty Wars: The World Is A Battlefield
Scahill, Jeremy (Author)
Nation Books

The Matter and Form of Maimonides' Guide
Stern, Josef (Author)
Harvard University Press

Was Hitler a Darwinian?: Disputed Questions in the History of Evolutionary Theory
Richards, Robert J. (Author)
University of Chicago Press

Consciousness and the Social Brain
Graziano, Michael S. A. (Author)
Oxford University Press

Trade and Romance
Murrin, Michael (Author)
University of Chicago Press

Unrivalled Influence: Women and Empire in Byzantium
Herrin, Judith (Author)
Princeton University Press

Margins and Metropolis: Authority across the Byzantine Empire
Herrin, Judith (Author)
Princeton University Press

Complexity and the Arrow of Time
Lineweaver, Charles H. (Editor), Davies, Paul C. W. (Editor), Ruse, Michael (Editor)
Cambridge University Press

The Engine of Complexity: Evolution as Computation
Mayfield, John (Author)
Columbia University Press

How Did Poetry Survive?: The Making of Modern American Verse
Newcomb, John Timberman (Author)
University of Illinois Press

Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea
Blyth, Mark (Author)
Oxford University Press

The Essential Hirschman
Hirschman, Albert O. (Author), Adelman, Jeremy (Editor), Adelman, Jeremy (Introduction), Rothschild, Emma (Afterword), Sen, Amartya (Afterword)
Princeton University Press

Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O. Hirschman
Adelman, Jeremy (Author)
Princeton University Press

Quantum Computing Since Democritus
Aaronson, Scott (Author)
Cambridge University Press

 

Comics

Incidents in the Night: Volume 1
B., David (Author), Evenson, Brian (Translator)
Uncivilized Books

Black Paths
B., David (Author)
SelfMadeHero

The Amazing, Enlightening And Absolutely True Adventures of Katherine Whaley
Deitch, Kim (Author), Deitch, Kim (Artist)
Fantagraphics Books

Interiorae
Giandelli, Gabriella (Author), Giandelli, Gabriella (Artist)
Fantagraphics Books

Walt Disney's Donald Duck Vol. 5: "Christmas On Bear Mountain" (Vol. 5) (The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library)
Barks, Carl (Author), Groth, Gary (Editor), Barks, Carl (Artist)
Fantagraphics Books

Walt Disney's Donald Duck: The Old Castle's Secret
Barks, Carl (Author), Groth, Gary (Editor), Barks, Carl (Artist)
Fantagraphics Books

Barnaby Volume One (Vol. 1) (Barnaby)
Johnson, Crockett (Author), Reynolds, Eric (Editor), Nel, Phillip (Editor), Johnson, Crockett (Artist)
Fantagraphics Books