The following list catalogs what I read over the course of the past year. Broken down into four sections–fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and significant articles and essays–this list outlines the range of texts I read during 2018. It is not comprehensive; there were many other titles I read. But these are the ones that stick out.
Fiction
1. The Story of My Teeth, Valeria Luiselli
2. Abel Sanchez, Miguel de Unamuno
3. The Map and the Territory, Michel Houellebecq
4. Call Me By Your Name, André Aciman
5. The Rings of Saturn, W.G. Sebald
6. The Elementary Particles, Michel Houellebecq
7. Saturday, Ian McEwan
8. Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward
9. What We Lose, Zinzi Clemmons
10. Minty Alley, C. L. R. James
11. Labyrinths, Jorge Luis Borges
12. Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
13. “The Balloon”, Donald Barthelme
14. “Killings”, Andre Dubus
Nonfiction
15. The Hatred of Poetry, Ben Lerner
16. Pictures & Tears: A History of People Who have Cried In front of Pictures, James Elkins
17. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder
18. Let It Be (33 1/3 series), Steve Matteo
19. Pipers at the Gates of Dawn (33 1/3 series), John Cavanagh
20. The Square and the Tower, Niall Ferguson
21. Beauty, Roger Scruton
22. Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left, Roger Scruton
23. Rocket and Lightship: Essays on Literature and Ideas, Adam Kirsch
24. False Papers: Essays on Exile and Memory, André Aciman
25. Out of Egypt, André Aciman
26. John Waters: Interviews, James Egan, ed.
27. An Unexplained Death: The True Story of a Body at the Belvedere, Mikita Brottman
28. Charm City: A Walk through Baltimore, Madison Smartt Bell
29. On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt
30. On Truth, Harry G. Frankfurt
31. Orwell on Truth, George Orwell
32. Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell
Poetry
33. Poems of the Night, Jorge Luis Borges
34. Canti, Giacomo Leopardi
35. The Poems of Matthew Arnold, Matthew Arnold
36. Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Edward FitzGerald
Articles + Essays
37. “Beauty and Desecration” (2014), Roger Scruton
38. “The Deadly Jester” (2008), Adam Kirsch
39. “The Afrofuturism behind 'Black Panther'“ (2018), Brent Staples
40. “The Revolutionary Power of 'Black Panther'“ (2018), Jamil Smith
41. “Reflections of an Uncertain Jew” (2000), André Aciman
42. “Why You Should Read W.G. Sebald” (2011), Mark O’Connell
43. “Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern” (2004), Bruno Latour
44. “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” (1964), Richard Hofstadter
45. “The Conspiracy Theory of Society”, Karl R. Popper
46. “From the Critique of Institutions to an Institution of Critique” (2005),
Andrea Fraser
47. “Marcel Duchamp: The Afternoon Interviews”, Calvin Tomkins
48. “Idol Thoughts” (2006), Jerry Saltz
49. “Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain: Its History and Aesthetics in the Context of 1917” (1987), William Camfield
50. “Ready-Made Originals: The Duchamp Model” (1986), Molly Nesbit
