Last year the general theme for my readings was English Classics, aka books that one would find on a high school or college reading list, mainly Gothic fiction like Dracula, Frankenstein, and Wuthering Heights but also Heart of Darkness and Brave New World which happened to be my favorite that year and the second time reading it. This year I did not set a particular theme, I merely picked up the first book I recognized at my local Barnes & Noble, and to my surprise the first book I found was Tender Is the Flesh infamous for its explicitly macabre themes and scenes. What followed were books that I would consider classics but expanded to include non-English books and authors. So far I have not been disappointed with any book. I’m hoping by the end of the year I’ll have 2 short essays up on this site, one on last year’s favorites and the other of this year’s.
Books Read So Far:
- Tender Is the Flesh – Agustina Bazterrica
- The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea – Yukio Mishima
- Siddhartha – Hermann Hesse
- The Stranger – Albert Camus
Books to Read:
- The Story of a Youth – Hermann Hesse (Currently Reading)
- The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
- Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
- The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka
- Sexual Personae – Camille Paglia
- The Book of Thoth – Aleister Crowley
- Capitalist Realism – Mark Fisher
- The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property – Lewis Hyde
- Collected Fictions – Jorge Luis Borges
Manga Read/Started So Far:
- Vagabond – Takehiko Inoue
- Sakamoto Days – Yuto Suzuki
- Dandadan – Yukinobu Tatsu
- Kaiju No. 8 – Naoya Matsumoto
- Kagurabachi – Takeru Hokazono
- Dai Dark – Q Hayashida
- Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – Kanehito Yamada
Manga to Read:
- Choujin X – Sui Ishida
- Witch Hat Atelier – Kamome Shirahama
- Blue Period – Tsubasa Yamaguchi
- The Summer Hikaru Died – Mokumokuren
At the Crossroads 