Eighteen Books I Didn’t Read in 2021

I have asked the question many times: how many books should a person read at a time? I still don’t know the answer. But I do know that I have a tendency to read several at once, somewhere between three or seven, more than that if you count the ones that are on the shelf or the bedside table or my desk, waiting to be picked up again.

One thing I wanted to do, after cataloguing the books I read in 2021, was list out the books I did not finish reading.  The thing about these is that I intend to finish reading most of the books on this list.

So here is that list. It’s not provided in any particular order.

American Pastoral by Phillip Roth

This one has been slow going. I have it on both Kindle and audiobook but something about it has become a chore. It’s a familiar pattern, one you’ll see repeated throughout this list: I like a book by an author so I read another, usually diving straight into it. Sometimes it’s the second book by the author that stalls me out. Other times, I make it through three of four by the author before hitting a wall.

In the case of John le Carre—listed next—I read eleven books by him in 2021, but it would’ve been twelve if I’d finished…

The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carre

I first started reading in paper book form over the summer because I found a used copy of it. Something about it seemed unwieldy. I thought audiobook might be easier but quickly found it to be nearly entirely incomprehensible when consumed in a torrent of spoken words without a page to hold onto (although the narrator, Michael Jayston, does all the other le Carre books and is a gifted narrator.) So now I have it on both Kindle and audiobook and I’m getting into it, mostly reading it but occasionally switching to Audible for parts of the commute, although I often find myself re-reading those sections later to ensure I didn’t miss anything. 

The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro

This book is insane. I have no idea what’s going on and I’m somewhere in the middle of it. It’s either about a gifted pianist who keeps having waking nightmares in a nameless European city or it’s about a man imagining himself to be a pianist while trying to wade his way through a broken marriage and abandoned child or maybe it’s about both of those things or maybe it’s merely about existential dread. I don’t know what it is but it’s not an easy read. I have no idea what’s going on. 

So I made this to capture my experience reading The Unconsoled.

Already Dead by Denis Johnson

I’ve had a harder time getting into this one, when compared to the rest of DJ. It seems to be one of his lesser novels, whatever that means. 

Child of God by Cormac McCarthy

I’ve also had a hard time getting into this one. Similar reasons.

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link

I read one story from this collection when I was in college, in an anthology, and I’ve thought about it ever since. Stone Animals, although I often misremember the name as Haunted. I think it’s one of the best ghost stories I’ve read, although there aren’t any ghosts in it and I’m not sure that it’s a ghost story. Like a lot of books of short stories, I drifted away from this but I still intend to finish it. 

Including a cover of this book to try to inspire you to go read it, even before I’ve finished reading it.

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

I hated this book. I won’t be picking it up again. I wrote more about it when I compared it unfavorably to The Girl on the Milk Carton.  

As I said in that other blog post, and the point stands: What is this? Why would anything ever be written this way? My answer to that question remains: I think Sally Rooney is writing novels that can be adapted to the screen as easily as possible, without much concern for literary quality beyond that.

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

This is a good book but I already watched the television show and, as I was reading it, I wondered why exactly I was reading it and decided it felt too much like rewatching the show. So I put it aside and read a different, similar book. I can’t remember which one. 

The Complete Stories of John Cheever

I have still not made it all the way through this. I want to read this in order. I’m somewhere in the middle. It’s long, and it can be easy to overdose on a book of short stories, all by the same author. Even more daunting when it’s literally every story the author ever wrote. I’ll get through it eventually, cover to cover. 

The Seventh Function of Language by Laurent Binet

Reading this now, but I began it in 2021, twice, one when I put it down because it seemed like something a little tougher than what I was reading, and the second time, recently, which has carried me over to now. I wrote it a little bit here.

CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders

I bought this on vacation and now I can’t figure out where I put it, which is why it’s unfinished. It’s really something. You gotta read it, if you haven’t. 

Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson

A re-read, one that I stalled out on. 

Dune by Frank Herbert

This seemed like more than I was up for tackling, a few chapters in. I would like to read it but it’s something you seem to really need to be dedicated to. 

The Martian by Andy Weir

This was free on Audible and then it wasn’t, so I stopped reading it. 

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L Shirer

I wanted to read this on Audible. I don’t know that that’s the right way to consume this. I’ve learned a lot while reading it so far but it’s not exactly a light read. 

LA Confidential by James Ellroy

I’ve read the first two books of Ellroy’s LA Quartet. Both of them were gruesome, brutal mysteries. I thought I was ready to read the third installment but found myself, again, stalling out, remembering how gruesome and messed-up his novels become. This one is on the shelf. I intend to read it eventually. 

Single & Single by John le Carre

Another le Carre that I stalled out on. I intend to keep reading it but so far it’s been a little slower than a lot of his others. (And you can’t fault me. I’ve read so much by this guy lately!)

Mao II by Don Delillo

Delillo is a great writer. He writes some stunning sentences. But this story didn’t do it for me. Moments seemed prophetic but mostly it seemed dated and irrelevant. There is one line, I liked, one that seems to sum up the entire world we live in, despite the book having been written in 1991:

We understand how reality is invented. A person sits in a room and thinks a thought and it bleeds out into the world.

And that seems like a good note to end this blog post with.