I love lists. Lists of books, specifically, but also lists of bookish gifts available on the Etsy or lists of bookish quotes beloved by random Buzzfeed commentators.
This past week has been a good one for lists. There were the 20 books on the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist, of which 13 are debuts. Another 13 are on the longlist for the Man Booker International Prize, which is awarded for one book translated into English and published in the UK in the last year, with the £50,000 prize split evenly between author and translator. Elsewhere, I found a list of must-read YA books for the spring and a towering list of 115 works written by women posted for International Women’s Day.
And I have a confession to make: lists work on me. Especially ones accompanied by pretty book covers and witty capsules. There’s a monthly list of five new books out in translation that I rarely don’t buy something from. Publishers’ back-catalogues are temptations straight from the devil.
Yet any one can make a list; even amazon.com has a list of 100 books you should read before you die. Yes, Amazon is trying to lure me into spending money by delightfully numbering books in an approximation of hierarchy and cultural worth. How dare they. They know how many books are already on my wishlist.
To counter the power of other people’s lists over my mind and my wallet, I’ve made a few of my own:
Books that have been sitting on my shelves for far too long and have probably given up all hope of ever being read:
• “The Red and the Black” by Stendhal – I’m very confused about what this book is even about. But it kept showing up on lists of worthy classics, and so here it is.
• The second and third volumes in “The Last Policeman” series by Ben Winters — I’ll sing the praises of the first book to anyone who will listen and yet, and yet…
• “Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel — Every time I go to crack the cover I remember all the hype that accompanied this National Book Award finalist. I worry that it won’t live up… I worry that it will live up … and worrying, I put it back on my shelves.
Books by Natsuo Kirino that have been translated into French but not into English:
• “Intrusion”
• “Disparitions”
• “L’ile de Tokyo”
Every few months, I try to test myself to see if I can read French well enough to appreciate these books. The test consists of this: Can I understand the summary on the back cover?
If no, I probably can’t read this book. If yes, I still probably can’t read this book.
Books of short stories by Ali Smith that may change my life if I ever get around to them:
• “Free Love and Other Stories”
• “Other Stories and Other Stories”
• “The Whole Story and Other Stories”
• “The First Person and Other Stories”
• “Public Library and Other Stories”
Also, her essays on art and literature in “Artful” and “The Book Lover.” Is there really a modern writer comparable to Ali Smith? No. Behold their sleek white covers and add them to your cart.
