My (Lack of) 2022 Reading Plans
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Dorothy Richardson
12 min read
The author mentions committing to read Richardson's Pilgrimage novels as her one reading plan for 2022. Richardson was a pioneering modernist writer who developed stream of consciousness technique, and her 13-volume Pilgrimage sequence is considered a landmark in literary history that most readers know little about.
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Duino Elegies
13 min read
The author references having read Rilke's Duino Elegies and found it 'amazing.' This is one of the most influential poetry collections of the 20th century with rich historical context about its decade-long composition at Duino Castle, making it ideal for deeper exploration.
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Rwandan genocide
17 min read
Scholastique Mukasonga's 'Our Lady of the Nile' is mentioned as a priority read. Mukasonga is a Rwandan author who survived the genocide that killed most of her family, and understanding this historical tragedy provides essential context for her literary work.
Last January I compiled a list of authors it’s practically a crime I haven’t read yet, with the idea that I might try to read some of them throughout the year. Which I did! Out of 13 authors I listed, I read 7. Of those, some I absolutely loved (Natalia Ginzburg, Roland Barthes, Mary Ruefle), some were good but didn’t speak to me in quite the way I’d hoped (Anne Carson, Fleur Jaggy), some I found a little disappointing, perhaps because I chose the wrong book to start with (Robert Walser, Rachel Cusk). It was fun to have the list handy because it helped me decide what to read when I was feeling a little at sea. It was not a reading plan, but just a list I might choose from if I felt like it, and it worked well.
I thought I’d compile another list for this year, again with the understanding that this is not a reading plan, but merely a list of possibilities. I used to create reading lists for the new year and make elaborate plans for everything I was going to accomplish. But my problem is that any plans I make I work very hard at fulfilling. My goals become burdens. I’ll stress about totally arbitrary, pointless plans and let them go only when I absolutely have to. So it’s better not to make plans or set goals at all. I need to be free!
That said, I am making one reading plan for 2022, which to read Dorothy Richardson’s Pilgrimage novels with the group that Kim McNeil has organized. Yes, I’m being inconsistent here, because this is actually a big undertaking, one that involves reading four large volumes and devoting the whole year to it. I’m incapable of being completely free, it seems. But I will do my best not to stress about this.
Unlike my list from last year, this one isn’t focused solely on authors I haven’t read yet (although some of those authors are listed here), but instead is about books that have been on my mind as potentially meaningful. So here they are, the authors and books I might possibly read in 2022, but also might not:
Scholastique Mukasonga, Our Lady of the Nile (translated by Melanie Mouthner): Mukasonga was on last year’s list. She’s an important author in translation I need to read.
Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor and/or
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