One of my biggest fears is being stuck somewhere without anything to read, so I always keep a stack of books on hand. When I get close to the end of whatever it is I’m thumbing through, I even slide an extra book in my bag alongside my lip balm and blotting papers. Lately, though, I’ve been dumping my have-reads in with the will-reads and have been getting very confused indeed. Still, it’s a rather impressive stack, no? Here’s the list, with will-reads in bold.
- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
- The London Eye Mystery by Susan Dowd
- Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir — which I wrote about recently and will write about again soon
- With Bold Knife and Fork by M. F. K. Fisher
- Bangkok Haunts by John Burdett — which is part of a series, so don’t read it without first picking up Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo
- Through the Children’s Gate: A Home in New York by Adam Gopnik
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- The Angel of Knowlton Park by Kate Flora — who is a wonderful writing instructor, in case you were wondering
- Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
- The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food by Judith Jones
- miscellaneous Walking Deads by Robert Kirkman
- miscellaneous Invincibles by Robert Kirkman
- Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design edited by Michael Bierut — which was a birthday present from my friend Ben
- The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski — also a birthday present, but from Keith
- Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink edited by David Remnick — yet another birthday present, but from my friend Melissa
- Light on Snow by Anita Shreve
- Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac
- A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
- Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
- Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler
- The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
- Stealing Buddha’s Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen
- In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan — the last of the birthday books, also from Keith
- The Sun in the Morning by M.M. Kaye — who wrote one of my favorite children’s books, The Ordinary Princess
- Nextwave: This Is What They Want by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen
- Truman by David McCullough
- Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky
