Reading Resolutions

I’m not really one for New Year’s Resolutions. I figure if I am going to exercise it shoud be a thing I want do to, not just a thing I need to do by x date. The thing that I want to do more of in 2018 is read experimental fiction. After a semester teaching Carter, and speaking at a conference on Ethics in Utopias and Dystopias, I’m inspired to pick up more experimental fiction. This is probably also aided by reading Eimar McBride‘s A Girl is a Half Formed Thing (a cute boy recommended it to me and I’m as superficial as the next person and wanted to impress him. That encounter didn’t go past the first date, but I did end up with this New Year’s Resolution and a subscription to Salvage Quarterly, so I’m calling it a win.)In pursuit of this aspiration, I’m currently reading The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck (review forthcoming, I’m halfway through), and Alexis Wright‘s Tracker is next on the list. I’ve also hit up the 2017 Goldsmith’s Prize list and picked up Will Self‘s Phone (look Ma! I do read books by men voluntarily), and I’m going to revisit some challenging texts that I never quite finished because reading for class/thesis/reality television got in the way ( I’m looking at you Michel Faber). However these are all fairly substantive books (I’m not about to body shame books, but they’re definitely my people). So I’m interested in finding some experimental fiction that might be in novella form, something that we can add to Book Club later in the year. Leave your suggestions in the comments below.

Do you have a reading resolution? If so, what is it? I’m keen to hear from y’all.