Essential Reading: November

Posted by bennardfajardo on November 8, 2012 · 6 Comments 

I know that it’s already very late to be posting this but I will anyway in order to have a semblance of order in this blog and also to maintain the monthly posting of my monthly essential reading list. As it is with my essential reading list for the month, I have a theme and the theme for November is (are?) books written by Nobel winners. But before I proceed, I will have a recap for the books that I’ve read last October and the essential reads last month comes first:

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (4/5)
• Le Bal by Irene Nemirovsky (3/5)
• The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith (4/5)

And my two non-essential reads last October (both are buddy reads):

• A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood (5/5)
• The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (5/5)

Surprisingly, both of my non-essential reads turned out to be the highlight of my reading last month. Also, I have now created a backlog comprising of these books:

• The Twenty-Seventh City by Jonathan Franzen – from my September list. I just can’t seem to finish this book although there is good writing within. Must be because of other books capturing my attention.
• Mrs. Dalloway by Virgina Woolf – from my October list.
• Bonjour, Tristesse by Francois Sagan – from my October list.

The two October books were stymied because my attention was captured by the numerous series that I’ve been watching so that I have no time to read these books. Although I hope I can finish them at the end of the year.

And now, for my November Essential Reads:

• Women as Lovers by Elfried Jelinek
• Leaf Storm and Other Stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa
• Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe
• Beneath the Wheel by Hermann Hesse

I will admit that, except for Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I know nothing about the books that I am going to read this month. All I know is that they all won Nobel Prizes for Literature and, since reading is about discovery, I think its a good way to acquaint myself with new authors. As for Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I need to read a work of his since it’s my birth month and I need to give a gift to myself in the form of literature.

There you have it, folks. My reading list for the month of November. Wish me luck so that I will not have to add a book to my backlog at the end of the month.

Filed under Books, Reading List · Tagged with Beneath the Wheel, Books, Death in the Andes, Elfriede Jelinek, Essential Reading, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Hermann Hesse, Kenzaburo Oe, Leaf Storm and Other Stories, Mario Vargas Llosa, Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids, Women as Lovers