Attached is a list of the books I read so far
in 2020. Sometimes I add markers like (*) to indicate books I
particularly like. I also try to keep track of how many books of
a particular kind (novel, etc.) and from a given country and
century (Eng. 19th, etc.), I read each year. For the complete
list of my reading since 1958, see
http://www.seltzerbooks.com/readall.html
Richard
Seltzer seltzer@seltzerbooks.com January 1 Alain
de Boton 11 How to Think More about Sex BRITISH 21st 1 ESSAY 1
2 Longus Daphnis and Chloe [second time] GREEK 3rd 1 NOVEL 1
3 Vikram Seth 1 ***The Golden Gate INDIAN 20th 1 NOVEL 2 POETRY 1
4 William Shakespeare 38 Sonnets BRITISH 16th 1 POETRY 2
5 Louisa May Alcott 1 ****Little Women AMERICAN 19th 1 NOVEL 3
6 Christopher Marlowe 5 The Massacre at Paris BRITISH 16th 2 PLAY
1
7 John Fowles 3 ***The French Lieutenant's Woman BRITISH 20th 1
NOVEL 4 February
8 Lucien Febvre 1 Life in Renaissance France FRENCH 20th 1 HISTORY
1
9 William Shakespeare 39 Venus and Adonis BRITISH 16th 3 POETRY 3
10 Louisa May Alcott 2 Good Wives AMERICAN 19th 2 NOVEL 5
11 Robert Kalechofsky An Intellectual/Psychological Journey
[second time] AMERICAN 21st 1 BIOGRAPHY 1
12 Kathalynn Turner Davis 1 Kiss Me, Swami AMERICAN 21st 2
BIOGRAPHY 2
March
13 George Eliot 3 Adam Bede BRITISH 19th 1 NOVEL 6
14 John Crowley 1 Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land AMERICAN
21st 2 NOVEL 6
15 Virginia Woolf Orlando [second time] BRITISH 20th 2
NOVEL 7
my novel Parallel
Lives published by All Things That Matter Press
April
16 E. M. W. Tillyard 1 The Elizabethan World Picture BRITISH 20th
3 ESSAY 1
17 C. S. Lewis 7 The Discarded Image BRITISH 20th 4 ESSAY 2
18 George Eliot 4 Daniel Deronda BRITISH 19th 2 NOVEL 8
May
19 Julian Barnes 16 Nothing to the Frightened of [second
time] BRITISH 21st ESSAY 3
20 Matthew Pearl 6 *** The Dante Chamber AMERICAN 21st 3 NOVEL 9
21 Christopher Moore 3 Shakespeare for Squirrels AMERICAN 21st 4
NOVEL 10
22 Jules Renard 1 *** Poil de Carotte FRENCH 19th 1 NOVEL 11
23 Max Beerbohm 1 Seven Men and Two Others BRITISH 20th 5 STORIES
1
June
24 Somerset Maugham 6 Complete Short Stories Volume 2 BRITISH 20th
6 STORIES 2
25 Tan Twan Eng 1 *****The Garden of Evening Mists MALAY 1 NOVEL
12
26 James Shapiro 2 A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare 1599
AMERICAN 21st 5 ESSAY 4
27 Charles Dickens 17 ***The Pickwick Papers BRITISH 19th 1 NOVEL
13
28 P. G. Wodehouse 1 *Joy in the Morning BRITISH 20th 7 NOVEL 14
29 Virgil translated by Mandelbaum **Aeneid ROMAN BC 1 NOVEL 15
July
30 Joyce Carol Oates 1 *****We Were the Mulvaneys AMERICAN 20th 1
NOVEL 16
31 Christopher Marlowe 6 Edward II BRITISH 16th 4 PLAY 1
32 Tan Twan Eng 2 *****The Gift of Rain MALAY 2 NOVEL 17
33 William Shakespeare 40 King Edward III BRITISH 16th 5 PLAY 2
34 William Shakespeare 41 Sir Thomas More BRITISH 16th 6 PLAY 3
35 J. Courtney Sullivan 5 Friends and Strangers AMERICAN 21st 5
NOVEL 18
36 William Shakespeare 42 Two Noble Kinsmen BRITISH 16th 7 PLAY 4
37 Sophie Powell 1 The Mushroom Man AMERICAN 21st 6 NOVEL 19
38 Zadie Smith 5 Intimations BRITISH 21st 1 ESSAYS 3
August
39 Noemi Jaffe 1 What Are the Blind Men Dreaming?
BRAZILIAN 21st 1 BIOGRAPHY 3
40 Suzanne Hinman 1 The Grandest Madison Square Garden AMERICAN
21st 7 HISTORY 2
41 Afia Atakora 1 Conjure Women AMERICAN 21st 8 NOVEL 20
41A Charles Chesnutt 1 The Conjure Woman AMERICAN 19th NOVEL 21
September
42 Christina Baker Kline 2 ***The Exiles AMERICAN 21st 9 NOVEL 21
43 Wendy Steiner The Scandal of Pleasure AMERICAN 20th 2 ESSAY 4
44 Charles Nicholl 1 The Reckoning (about Christopher
Marlowe BRITISH 20th 7 HISTORY 3
45 Shirley Jackson 1 ***The Lottery and Other Stories AMERICAN
20th 3 STORIES 3
46 Alexander Bulatovich 4 My Third Journey to Ethiopia,
1899-1900 RUSSIAN 20th 1 HISTORY 4
47 J. Paul Seltzer 1 Life Lessons AMERICAN 21st 10 BIOGRAPHY 4
48 Susanna Clarke 3 Piranesi BRITISH 21st 2 NOVEL 22
49 Somerset Maugham 7 * Cakes and Ale BRITISH 20th 8 NOVEL 23
50 Somerset Maugham 8 *****The Painted Veil BRITISH 20th 9 NOVEL
24
51 Elizabeth Chatsworth 1 Ten Minutes Past Teatime AMERICAN
21st 10 NOVEL 25
52 Thomas Wolfe 3 *****The Lost Boy AMERICAN 20th 4 NOVEL 26
53 Somerset Maugham 9 ****Up at the Villa BRITISH 20th 10 NOVEL 27
54 Dylan Thomas 3 *A Child's Christmas in Wales WELSH 20th 1
POETRY 1
55 Neil Gaiman 3 ***** The Ocean at the End of the Lane BRITISH
21st 2 NOVEL 28
56 Dylan Thomas 3 Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog
WELSH 20th 2 BIOGRAPHY 4
57 Shirley Jackson 1 The Haunting of Hill House AMERICAN 20th 5
NOVEL 29
58 Somerset Maugham 10 ****The Narrow Corner BRITISH 20th 11 NOVEL
30 October
59 Anonymous The Taming of a Shrew BRITISH 16th 8 PLAY
5
60 Somerset Maugham 11 *****Theatre BRITISH 20th 12 NOVEL 31
61 Neil Gaiman 4 ***Anansi Boys BRITISH 21st 3 NOVEL 32
62 Thomas Nashe 1 Pierce Penniless BRITISH 16th 9 ESSAY 5
November
63 Julie Wosk 1 *****My Fair Ladies AMERICAN 21st 11 ESSAY 6
64 Julie Wosk 2 **Playboy, Mad Men, and Me AMERICAN 21st 12
BIOGRAPHY 5
65 William Shakespeare King Lear [fourth time] 16th
BRITISH 8 PLAY 5
66 William Shakespeare Hamlet [third time] 16th
BRITISH 9 PLAY 6
67 William Shakespeare Macbeth [third time] 16th BRITISH 10
PLAY 7
68 William Shakespeare Tempest [fifth time] 16th BRITISH 11
PLAY 8
69 James Shapiro 3 ***The Year of Lear AMERICAN 21st 13 CRITICISM
1
70 Alexander McCall Smith 24 How to Raise an Elephant BOTSWANA
21st 1 NOVEL 33
71 Bill Henderson (editor) Pushcart Prize XXXIX AMERICAN
21st 14 STORIES 4
my novel Nevermindpublished by All Things That Matter Press
December
72 Tana French 8 The Searcher IRISH 21st 1 NOVEL 34
73 Jane Smiley 12 Perestroika in Paris AMERICAN 21st 14
NOVEL 35
74 Libby Waterford 1 Can't Help Falling in Love
AMERICAN 21st 15 NOVEL 36
75 Maggie O'Farrell 1 Hamnet BRITISH 21st 3 NOVEL 37
76 Madeline Miller 2 ***Circe AMERICAN 21st 16 NOVEL 38
77 Lee Woodman 1 ***Homescapes AMERICAN 21st 17 POETRY 1
78 Somerset Maugham 12 ***Mrs. Craddock BRITISH 20th 13 NOVEL 39
79 Anonymous The Book of Enoch HEBREW BC 1 RELIGION 1
80 Neal Stephenson 13 ****Fall AMERICAN 21st 18 NOVEL 40
81 James Gleick 6 ***Isaac Newton AMERICAN 21st 19 BIOGRAPHY
6
82 Taryn Ambrose 1 Hold On AMERICAN 21st 20 POETRY 2
83 Francis Porretto 1 Priestesses AMERICAN 21st 21 NOVEL 41
84 Lee Woodman 2 ***Mindscapes AMERICAN 21st 22 POETRY 2
