BOOKS
Year-End List Of Books
That I Managed To Read This Year
Another year tip-toes by. Another set of books devoured engrossingly. This year, I focussed more on short reads, exploring the landscapes of a plethora of writers, whenever time permitted. My fascination with Japanese writers remained as always, while I started exploring Korean literature, that has been translated into English. Although I don’t like to keep a count of books read, as it really seems like a rat race, increasing the counts rather than enjoying the book itself, courtesy of Goodreads, I could see I’ve managed to finish 26 books in total, this year. Not bad, eh?
Here, I list the 11 which I loved the most, not in any particular order:-
The Trees Witness Everything(Poetry)- Victoria Chang
In The Trees Witness Everything, Victoria Chang reinvigorates language by way of concentration, using constraint to illuminate and free the wild interior. Largely composed in various Japanese syllabic forms called “wakas,” each poem is shaped by pattern and count. This highly original work innovates inside the lineage of great poets including W.S. Merwin, whose poem titles are repurposed as frames and mirrors for the text, stitching past and present in complex dialogue. Chang depicts the smooth, melancholic…
