Best of 2014

Despite a nearly month-long hiatus (now thankfully ended), I've managed over 10 books per month, but unlike last year, way behind on what came out this year, especially in translation. So I won't opine on candidates for the Best Translated Book Award except to say that I expect Yale/Margellos to make a good showing on the longlist (and perhaps a first appearance by Counterpoint, for Dovlatov's Pushkin Hills) (but in a month or so I may have more to say about all this). Nearly half of my reading was first encounters, many of which augur further visits down the road.

But, if I have to select just one title from amongst all the excellent reading (and I have to), it has to be Classical Chinese Poetry: An Anthology (David Hinton) [FSG]: As I said before, not just an anthology (nor just great translation) but wrapped in the context of the development of the tradition and the aesthetic. As such, it was the book from which I drew the most, and that's saying a lot (though there's a lot of competition out there).

While this year I've been diligent about keeping an inventory of monthly reading, I don't think I'll be continuing the practice into the new year. The blog is just one of many things I'd like to take in a different direction. After all, it's worked for the reading ...