Reading List, Week of 2013-10-20

I usually have more than one book going at a time, so I like to keep track of my progress with a reading list. These lists won't include random articles or blogs I read online, or all the stuff I read for work. These are mainly books, although I'll list an essay here from time to time, like the one in this week's list: appropriately enough, for this topic, William Gass's excellent essay on lists, "I've Got a Little List," from his book Test of Time. If you're at all interested in lists, I highly recommend this essay. Check out his list of organizing principles of lists:

The organizing principles of lists, then, are
a. as encountered or found (the contents of the pocketbook), or as remembered (a guest list), or as needed (to reorder when supplies run out); or
b. as arranged by an already ordered external system, often so that the items on the list can be easily found (alphabetically or numerically, for instance), a systematizing which sometimes becomes hierarchical; or
c. as dictated by the order of the things themselves (library list and library shelves), certain inventories, or the table of contents of a book; or
d. as rated in terms of some principle of value or importance. (pp. 81-82)

Yeah! Now we're talking. He goes on to mention some authors famous for incorporating lists in their work, but he neglects to mention one of my favorites: Gilbert Sorrentino. Later on maybe I'll quote a few Sorrentino lists; he was a true master. But before this gets away from me, here's my reading list from last week:

Reading List 2013-10-21:

*Bushmiller, Ernie. Nancy Eats Food (started)

*Perec, Georges. Life: A User’s Manual (started)

*Turow, Scott. Identical (started/finished)

*Gass, William. “I’ve Got a Little List,” in Tests of Time (started/finished)

*Bushmiller, Ernie. How Sluggo Survives (finished)

*Heller, Peter. The Dog Stars (finished)

*Hyde, Lewis. Common as Air (in progress)

*Shakespeare, William. The Tempest (Arden ed., 3rd series, ed. Vaughan & Vaughan) (reread/in progress)

*The Wire Primers: A Guide to Modern Music, ed. Rob Young (in progress)

*Weldon, Michael J. Psychotronic Video Guide (in progress)