Reading Goals for 2023

[Stevie B]

I know that we still have 2+ weeks left in 2022, but I still think it's not too early to beging thinking about reading goals for 2023. I've slightly modified the topics we've used in the past and I've also added a couple of new ones.

- 5 authors I want to read for the first time in 2023
- 3 authors I want to read more of in the next year
- 5 books that I most look forward to reading in 2023
- 1 doorstopper book (600 pages or more) that I vow to read
- 1 book that I've abandoned in the past that I will finish in the next year
- 2 (or more) personal reading goals for 2023

 

[Stevie B]

5 authors I want to read for the first time in 2023
- Gottfried Keller
- Anna Seghers
- Rosario Castellanos
- Arthur Schnitzler
- Bessie Head

3 authors I want to read more of next year
- Lucia Berlin
- Machado de Assis
- Irmgard Keun

5 books that I most look forward to reading in 2023
- The Evenings by Gerard Reve
- The River Ki by Sawako Ariyoshi
- The Lodging House by Khairy Shalaby (not sure why I haven't gotten to it yet)
- Aranyak by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay
- Broken Glass by Alain Mabanckou

1 doorstopper book (700 pages or more) that I vow to read in the next year
- Confessions by Jaume Cabré (751 pages)

1 book that I've abandoned in the past that I will finish in the next year
- My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad (I was enjoying this one, but never quite finished it. Might begin again on page one.)

2 (or more) personal reading goals for 2023
- I had a lot of upheaval this past year that negatively impacted my reading time (job searching, moving, starting a new job, and my son getting
married). My overall goal for the coming year is to simply get back into a regular reading routine. I don't think it would be too hard to double the number of books I read in the past year.
- Simply to get back to more of the classics from yesteryear (including some poetry).

 

[alik-vit]

Indeed, great goals. Sadly, not my modus operandi. As I said earlier, for me reading is very much about mapping, but directions of this mapping are very spontaneous.

 

[Stevie B]

Indeed, great goals. Sadly, not my modus operandi. As I said earlier, for me reading is very much about mapping, but directions of this mapping are very spontaneous.

Overall, I tend to be the same way. My books-to-be-read pile is never an actual pile, but a fluid mental list that is rarely followed as there are always new titles that suddenly cut the line. Still, I enjoy this annual WLF exercise as it does help me focus on some desired reading outcomes, and I always appreciate seeing new names and titles on other members' lists.

 

[alik-vit]

Overall, I tend to be the same way. My books-to-be-read pile is never an actual pile, but a fluid mental list that is rarely followed as there are always new titles that suddenly cut the line. Still, I enjoy this annual WLF exercise as it does help me focus on some desired reading outcomes, and I always appreciate seeing new names and titles on other members' lists.

Absolutely agree, such lists are inexhaustible sources of inspiration and new names.

 

[Leseratte]

Of late I even make some lists, so that I don´t forget what I want to read. But there are also books that interfere with the list.
I have to think a bit more about that.

 

[Ben Jackson]

I know that we still have 2+ weeks left in 2022, but I still think it's not too early to beging thinking about reading goals for 2023. I've slightly modified the topics we've used in the past and I've also added a couple of new ones.

- 5 authors I want to read for the first time in 2023
- 3 authors I want to read more of in the next year
- 5 books that I most look forward to reading in 2023
- 1 doorstopper book (700 pages or more) that I vow to read
- 1 book that I've abandoned in the past that I will finish in the next year
- 2 (or more) personal reading goals for 2023

Five authors to read:

Peter Handke
Orhan Pamuk
Andre Gide
Jaroslav Seifert
Antonio Lobo Antunes

Three authors to read more:

Nadine Gordimer
Virginia Woolf
Patrick White

Five books to read in 2023:

The Conservationist
Speak, Memory
Tree of Man
Death of Artemio Cruz
The Counterfeiters

Doorstopper Book to read:

Finishing the other six volumes of Proust.

Book abandoned and will try to finish:

The other six volumes of Proust, as I said earlier, alongside finishing the other three volumes of Durell's Quartet and two other volumes of Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy.

Two or more personal goals

Finish the books that has been on the shelves for some time now. And hopefully read some writers that awarded/serioulsy considered for the Nobel Prize (including the well known shortlisted writers)

 

[Stevie B]

Patrick White

Patrick White is another laureate I've yet to read. Any recommendations?

 

[Mise Eire]

Patrick White is another laureate I've yet to read. Any recommendations?

Any from the period 1948-1973, they are all stellar: The Aunt's Story, The Tree of Man, Voss, The Solid Mandela, The Vivisector, The Eye of the Storm. White's own favorite was The Solid Mandela followed by The Aunt's Story. I like both but prefer The Eye of the Storm.

 

[nagisa]

- 5 authors I want to read for the first time in 2023
Patricia Grace (Aotearoan indigeneity)
Garielle Lutz (US-American untranslatability)
Naguib Mahfouz (Egyptian social realism)
JM Machado de Assis (Brazilian master)
p.m. (aka Hans Widmer) (Swiss-German anarchist speculative fiction)
(+ Anne Carson, for the Wolfie; poetry)

- 3 authors I want to read more of in the next year
Robert Walser — I'm getting why E. Jelinek loves him to the point where she reputedly hides a sentence of his in everything she writes.
Denis Cooper — Intrigued to confirm whether this trangressive fiction cenote is worth the plumbing.
Anna Kavan — Kafka for the disenchanted post-WW2; only icier.
Jon Fosse/ALA (for the Wolfie)

- 5 books that I most look forward to reading in 2023
State of Siege (Juan Goytisolo) — My 10th Goytisolo; always a riot.
Austerlitz (WG Sebald) — My last of his 4 masterworks.
La lucidité (Saramago) — Time to read the "sequel" to L'aveuglement, more than a decade later.
Manhunt (Gretchen Felker-Martin) — Queer postapocalyptic horror.
Ensorcelés par la mort (Svetlana Alexievitch) — My last of hers, then I will have read her entire literary production (thus far).

- 1 doorstopper book (700 pages or more) that I vow to read
Forêt interdite (Mircea Eliade, 640p) — My BF is Romanian and threatening my life if I don't read it soon (Yes, it's under 700p but close enough; and I have a lower bar at 400-500p for doorstoppers anyway)

- 1 book that I've abandoned in the past that I will finish in the next year
I usually abandon books for a good reason and definitively, or not at all. Maybe Calasso's La ruine de Kasch counts, as I began to start it but put it aside for later because I could tell it would not be a casual read and I needed the right headspace.

- 2 (or more) personal reading goals for 2023
Leggere di più in italiano
Finish the Ernaux collective edition I own (still to read: Se perdre, L'occupation)

 

[Stevie B]

Any from the period 1948-1973, they are all stellar: The Aunt's Story, The Tree of Man, Voss, The Solid Mandela, The Vivisector, The Eye of the Storm. White's own favorite was The Solid Mandela followed by The Aunt's Story. I like both but prefer The Eye of the Storm.

Thanks for the recommendations. By the way, have you seen the film version of The Eye of the Storm? Even though it stars Geoffrey Rush and Charlotte Rampling, I heard it was a disappointment.

 

[kpjayan]

Here are mine..


5 authors I want to read for the first time in 2023

Lawrence Durell
Wolfgang Hilbig
Pascal Quinard
Bernardo Axtaga
Lima Barreto

5 authors I want to read more of in the next year

Clarice Lispector
Roberto Colasso
Kobo Abe
Patrick White
Max Frisch

5 books that I most look forward to reading in 2023

Tove Ditlevsen - Copenhagen Trilogy
Jozsef Lengyel - Acta Sanctorum
Multatuli - Max Havelaar
Isaac Bashevic Singer - Satan of Goray
Ivan Mandy - Postcard from London

2 doorstopper book (700 pages or more) that I vow to read

The Books of Jacob - Olga Tokarczuk
Wizard of the Crow - Ngugi Wa Thiong'O

3 books that I've abandoned in the past that I will finish in the next year

( Not abandoned, but procrastinated.. )

Thomas Mann - Magic Mountain
Nick Joaquin - The Woman who had two navels
Ivan Gonchorov - Oblomov

2 (or more) personal reading goals for 2023

5 books from Middle east/Arab world
12 books from other Indian Languages

 

[Ben Jackson]

Any from the period 1948-1973, they are all stellar: The Aunt's Story, The Tree of Man, Voss, The Solid Mandela, The Vivisector, The Eye of the Storm. White's own favorite was The Solid Mandela followed by The Aunt's Story. I like both but prefer The Eye of the Storm.

Out of the six you listed my friend, I have read Solid Mandala, Vivisector. Personal favourite for me is Solid Mandala. I love the way he depicted Artur and his twin brother Waldo. Remembered White saying both twins are composite of himself. Great work. I also read Twyborn Affair, another great work too but more experimental than the other two. A great writer no doubt.

 

[Stevie B]

- 5 authors I want to read for the first time in 2023
Patricia Grace (Aotearoan indigeneity)
Garielle Lutz (US-American untranslatability)
Naguib Mahfouz (Egyptian social realism)
JM Machado de Assis (Brazilian master)
p.m. (aka Hans Widmer) (Swiss-German anarchist speculative fiction)
(+ Anne Carson, for the Wolfie; poetry)

- 3 authors I want to read more of in the next year
Robert Walser — I'm getting why E. Jelinek loves him to the point where she reputedly hides a sentence of his in everything she writes.
Denis Cooper — Intrigued to confirm whether this trangressive fiction cenote is worth the plumbing.
Anna Kavan — Kafka for the disenchanted post-WW2; only icier.
Jon Fosse/ALA (for the Wolfie)

- 5 books that I most look forward to reading in 2023
State of Siege (Juan Goytisolo) — My 10th Goytisolo; always a riot.
Austerlitz (WG Sebald) — My last of his 4 masterworks.
La lucidité (Saramago) — Time to read the "sequel" to L'aveuglement, more than a decade later.
Manhunt (Gretchen Felker-Martin) — Queer postapocalyptic horror.
Ensorcelés par la mort (Svetlana Alexievitch) — My last of hers, then I will have read her entire literary production (thus far).

- 1 doorstopper book (700 pages or more) that I vow to read
Forêt interdite (Mircea Eliade, 640p) — My BF is Romanian and threatening my life if I don't read it soon (Yes, it's under 700p but close enough; and I have a lower bar at 400-500p for doorstoppers anyway)

- 1 book that I've abandoned in the past that I will finish in the next year
I usually abandon books for a good reason and definitively, or not at all. Maybe Calasso's La ruine de Kasch counts, as I began to start it but put it aside for later because I could tell it would not be a casual read and I needed the right headspace.

- 2 (or more) personal reading goals for 2023
Leggere di più in italiano
Finish the Ernaux collective edition I own (still to read: Se perdre, L'occupation)

Love the Anna Kavan description and your note about how Jelinek honors Robert Walser. I'd be very happy to read books by all three authors next year. By the way, I did go back and knock 100 pages off the doorstopper qualification. A 700-page minimum was a bit too hardcore.

 

[Stevie B]

Here are mine..


5 authors I want to read for the first time in 2023

Lawrence Durell
Wolfgang Hilbig
Pascal Quinard
Bernardo Axtaga
Lima Barreto

5 authors I want to read more of in the next year

Clarice Lispector
Roberto Colasso
Kobo Abe
Patrick White
Max Frisch

5 books that I most look forward to reading in 2023

Tove Ditlevsen - Copenhagen Trilogy
Jozsef Lengyel - Acta Sanctorum
Multatuli - Max Havelaar
Isaac Bashevic Singer - Satan of Goray
Ivan Mandy - Postcard from London

2 doorstopper book (700 pages or more) that I vow to read

The Books of Jacob - Olga Tokarczuk
Wizard of the Crow - Ngugi Wa Thiong'O

3 books that I've abandoned in the past that I will finish in the next year

( Not abandoned, but procrastinated.. )

Thomas Mann - Magic Mountain
Nick Joaquin - The Woman who had two navels
Ivan Gonchorov - Oblomov

2 (or more) personal reading goals for 2023

5 books from Middle east/Arab world
12 books from other Indian Languages

It seems very fitting that you procrastinated on completing Oblomov, especially if part of the reason was to give yourself more time to take naps.

 

[Stevie B]

2 (or more) personal reading goals for 2023

5 books from Middle east/Arab world

Since you're looking to expand your reading of Middle Eastern authors next year, perhaps I can convince you to join me in tackling The Lodging House by Egyptian author Khairy Shalaby?

 

[Benny Profane]

- 5 authors I want to read for the first time in 2023

Only Russian Literature (specially playwrights):

- Anton Chekhov;
- Andrei Ostrovsky;
- Ivan Goncharov;
- Ivan Turgeniev;
- Maxim Gorky

- 3 authors I want to read more of in the next year

- Fyodor Dostoevsky;
- Leo Tolstoy;
- Gustave Flaubert
EDIT: Henryk Ibsen (the sixth-man)

- 5 books that I most look forward to reading in 2023

- Andrei Bely: Petersburg

- 1 doorstopper book (600 pages or more) that I vow to read

War and Peace, Ana Karenina, The Brothers Karamazov, etc.

- 1 book that I've abandoned in the past that I will finish in the next year

- Andrei Bely: Petersburg

- 2 (or more) personal reading goals for 2023

1) My personal goal: to read a lot of dramas, because I'd like to write 4 plays (a tretalogy) based in some events of my life (they will be autobiographical with shades of avant-garde, magic realism, absurdism and neorealism).
2) I've been having a very difficult year in terms of reading. I've had to conciliate my personal readings for my exam for Diplomatics career and my book of poems. Yes, I did, guys!

I will do my plays on December 2023 and I wanna pass on my exam of 2023! I will do them, guys!!!

 

[Verkhovensky]

- 5 authors I want to read for the first time in 2023
Ivan Vladislavić
Ondjaki
Lyudmilla Petrushevskaya
Elias Canetti
Wild card
- 3 authors I want to read more of in the next year
Isaac Bashevis Singer + all five of the authors from the next question
- 5 books that I most look forward to reading in 2023
Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter
Vladimir Nabokov, Invitation to a Beheading
Ryszard Kapuscinski, Imperium
Peter Handke, The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick
Emmanuel Carrere, Yoga
- 1 doorstopper book (600 pages or more) that I vow to read
Celine, Journey to the End of the Night (I guess it is 600+, I have two-volume edition, I think every volume is ~300)
Durrell, Alexandria Quartet (If you count that as one book...)
- 1 book that I've abandoned in the past that I will finish in the next year
Not sure, maybe Quo Vadis if I find a more modern Croatian translation (the one I've been reading is near-contemporary to the original book, and it shows). On the other hand, since that is a rather slow book I could just continue where I've abandoned it, since I more or less already know the ending (spoiler: Nero kills the Christians, including our main characters).
- 2 (or more) personal reading goals for 2023
Don't set yourself a reading goal (as in, number of books read). It is just toxic, like now I am way behind (at 43 and my goal is 50) and I am more anxious and thinking about if the book I'll be reading could be squeezed into this year (or earlier when I was "on pace" to read 50, if it is short enough so I can stay on the pace) instead of thinking if the book I am reading is worth being read. So, no pressure. Quality > quantity.
My other goal is to read most of the books I've bought last month at the Zagreb Book Fair, which I detailed here.

 

[TrixRabbi]

I tend to do poorly with following preset goals like this so my more simple (although nevertheless ambitious) goal is to go through and finish Thomas Pynchon's core bibliography, including some rereads, and then also participate in the WLF Prize thread by reading Fosse, Mukasonga and Antunes, all of whom are blindspots.

I'd also like to check out Can Xue finally so that's another mental note.

edit: lol of course the first person to like this post is Benny Profane. V will be first up in January.

 

[Leseratte]

- 5 authors I want to read for the first time in 2023

Only Russian Literature (specially playwrights):

- Anton Chekhov;
- Andrei Ostrovsky;
- Ivan Goncharov;
- Ivan Turgeniev;
- Maxim Gorky

- 3 authors I want to read more of in the next year

- Fyodor Dostoevsky;
- Leo Tolstoy;
- Gustave Flaubert
EDIT: Henryk Ibsen (the sixth-man)

- 5 books that I most look forward to reading in 2023

- Andrei Bely: Petersburg

- 1 doorstopper book (600 pages or more) that I vow to read

War and Peace, Ana Karenina, The Brothers Karamazov, etc.

- 1 book that I've abandoned in the past that I will finish in the next year

- Andrei Bely: Petersburg

- 2 (or more) personal reading goals for 2023

1) My personal goal: to read a lot of dramas, because I'd like to write 4 plays (a tretalogy) based in some events of my life (they will be autobiographical with shades of avant-garde, magic realism, absurdism and neorealism).
2) I've been having a very difficult year in terms of reading. I've had to conciliate my personal readings for my exam for Diplomatics career and my book of poems. Yes, I did, guys!

I will do my plays on December 2023 and I wanna pass on my exam of 2023! I will do them, guys!!!

Benny said: "1 book that I've abandoned in the past that I will finish in the next year

- Andrei Bely: Petersburg"

Happy to discover that I'm not the only one!