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
Deaths in Venice: The Cases of Gustav von Aschenbach (Leonard Hastings Schoff Lectures)
Kitcher, Philip (Author)
Columbia University Press
The Adjacent
Priest, Christopher (Author)
Gollancz
The Four Chinese Classics: Tao Te Ching, Analects, Chuang Tzu, Mencius
Hinton, David (Translator)
Counterpoint
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
The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000
Brown, Peter (Author)
Wiley-Blackwell
Properties as Processes
Seibt, Johanna (Author)
Ridgeview Publishing Digital
The Nonlinear World: Conceptual Analysis and Phenomenology (Springer Series in Synergetics)
Oono, Yoshitsugu (Author)
Springer
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
The Mind within the Brain: How We Make Decisions and How those Decisions Go Wrong
Redish, A. David (Author)
Oxford 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
The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease
Lieberman, Daniel (Author)
Pantheon
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
The Outer Limits of Reason: What Science, Mathematics, and Logic Cannot Tell Us (MIT Press)
Yanofsky, Noson S. (Author)
The MIT 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
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
Allie Brosh (Author)
Touchstone 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
Hand-Drying in America: And Other Stories (Pantheon Graphic Library)
Katchor, Ben (Author)
Pantheon
5 December 2013 at 18:17
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.
6 December 2013 at 10:59
Hirschman’s three short books are all fantastic. I’ve written about all of them: The Passions and the Interests, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, and The Rhetoric of Reaction.
It looks like Senile Lines may have been an edition of….one.
6 December 2013 at 02:25
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?
6 December 2013 at 11:05
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.
8 December 2013 at 20:51
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!
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
7 April 2014 at 14:55
Definitely. It’s like the documentary, except much much more so.