25 days of reading
Someone tweeted a marvelous idea this morning – an advent reading calendar. I sipped my coffee and let my eyes wander over the slim titles of someone else’s 25-day reading plan, and I knew immediately that I wanted to do the same. My brain has been anchored in politics and final novel edits for a manuscript that is finally in my agent’s capable hands and out of my mind for a while (hooray!), and so a little nudge to get me reading broadly and haphazardly is very welcome. I love reading with a plan and often follow a thread from one book to another, but sometimes it’s nice to cast a wide net and see what that can spark.
The only book I’ve been able to focus on recently is Skyfaring by Mark Vanhoenacker, and it is really lovely, but it’s an escape as well, giving me distance from the planet and very gentle commentary on the human love of height, speed, and flying. It’s a great read but I need more and am not sure where to go.
So here is a list of short stories and essays that I’ve never read, that I have already on my shelves and that I’d like to read over the next 25 days. I’ve deliberately left myself four empty spots* because I’m hoping any of you might give me some suggestions and throw me in wild and varied directions – so what is the best short story or essay you’ve read recently?
* I’ve gotten some wonderful suggestions, but would welcome more…
| 1 Dec | Jane Bowles – A Day in the Open |
| 2 Dec | Jane Hirshfield – The World is Large and Full of Noises |
| 3 Dec | Phyllis Rose – Tools of Torture: An Essay on Beauty & Pain |
| 4 Dec | James Baldwin – Exodus |
| 5 Dec | Katherine Anne Porter – St.Augustin and the Bullfight |
| 6 Dec | Anne Carson – Kinds of Water |
| 7 Dec | Kate Chopin – An Egyptian Cigarette |
| 8 Dec | Constance Fenimore Woolson – Miss Grief |
| 9 Dec | Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni – The Lives of Strangers |
| 10 Dec | Ada Leverson – Suggestion |
| 11 Dec | Charles Simic – Reading Philosophy at Night |
| 12 Dec | Olive Schreiner – Three Dreams in a Desert |
| 13 Dec | Jamaica Kincaid – Figures in the Distance |
| 14 Dec | James Baldwin – 5th Ave, Uptown: A Letter from Harlem |
| 15 Dec | Geoff Dyer – Otherwise Known as the Human Condition |
| 16 Dec | Rebecca Solnit – Two Arrowheads |
| 17 Dec | Sherman Alexie – The Toughest Indian in the World |
| 18 Dec | Michelle Cliff – Transactions |
| 19 Dec | Lucia Berlin – A Manual for Cleaning Women |
| 20 Dec | Jan Carson – Settling |
| 21 Dec | Eudora Welty – A Sweet Devouring |
| 22 Dec | Anna Kavan – The Brother |
| 23 Dec | Alice Walker – The Flowers |
| 24 Dec | |
| 25 Dec | |
Michelle Bailat-Jones 
8 Responses to “25 days of reading”
I saw Grant’s tweet and was inspired to make a little tower of possible skinny reads and aim to at least get a handful in by year end—but thought better of actually outlining a specific plan. I am looking at books under 150 pages, including the three new Cahier Series releases that were kindly sent to me and are still safely packed up! I do have one rather fat book on the go for a critical review due to be submitted in early January (and I am such a poky reader) plus a couple of items I am still imagining I will get through—best laid plans and all that!
As for a recommendation, the Cahier Series, from American University in Paris/Sylph Editions are always wonderful. The Swan Whisperer by Marlene van Niekerk from last fall (#25), if you have not read it, is simply fantastic.
I’ve just ordered a few of the new Cahier, and I’m so excited about reading them. I love this series. I don’t have The Swan Whisperer and so will look for it… perhaps a holiday purchase? Thank you for the recommendation
Great idea – I’m very, very tempted…..
A wonderful idea; especially to read texts you already have on your shelves. Hoping for short reviews & comments!
🙂
I am looking these days at old personal favorites and I’ll mention the Nachman stories by Leonard Michael, or as a single story, The Stone woman by AS Byatt.
Great idea! Today I read Settling by Jan Carson, which is one of the stories in The Glass Shore, an anthology of stories by women from the north of Ireland, you can read it here via The Irish Times:
Settling, a short story by Jan Carson
You can find paperbacks in French of Hermann Burger’s Diabelli for next to nothing. Incredible. Also the Gospudinov cahier is magnificent.
It’s a little late, but a few more: “Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life” by Yiyun Li, ‘The Delusions of Certainty’ by Siri Hustvedt and ‘Runaway’ by Alice Munro.
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