I am very, very close to finishing up Mahajan's The Association of Small Bombs. I think this will make its way onto the honorable mention list, so it's moderately important I finish this up tomorrow.
I was able to return a fair number of books at Riverdale on my way downtown. I did pick up W. G. Sebald's Austerlitz, so that will join Carol Shields's Swann as books that have bogarted their way into the reading pile. I actually own Sebald's The Rings of Saturn, though whether I could put my hands on it quickly is not clear.* I don't have a timeline in my head, but I think I will get through Austerlitz fairly quickly. Then at some point, I will borrow and read Vertigo. Then I will read my copy of The Rings of Saturn. I may change my mind, but at the moment I think I will skip over Emigrants.
I ordered a copy of the Dover reprint of What Maisie Knew. It is supposed to have the Gorey cover, but I have my doubts. I was actually able to have it sent up here without too much trouble, so I'll find out soon.
I have the two Conrad books and the Gogol in my shopping cart, but I haven't pulled the trigger just yet. Maybe next year, which is of course right around the corner. I suspect before I actually order anything, I'll add Exley's A Fan's Notes to the stack. This isn't a book Gorey covered, but I'd make sure to get the Vintage Contemporary version. I actually saw this at Circus Books a while back, but the pages were pretty yellowed, so I passed. I keep checking whenever I am at BMV, but they don't have it. A lot of the stores that would have had this (in the distant or even recent past) have closed. Sad...
I do need to balance out this spending on myself. I had already donated to a number of causes but made a new donation to the YMCA and a gift to Call Auntie (inspired by the talk-back after Hypothetical Baby). Call Auntie is a not-for-profit but not actually set up as a charity, so I don't get a tax receipt, making it likely this will be a one-off gift.
I reminded myself that I still haven't ordered Mr. X: Pokerface. I have a whole post talking about Mr. X and whether it makes sense to wait for Mr. X: Excavations, though that certainly seems delayed. I'll try to hold out a bit longer.
I think the next book I am scheduled to read is Maxwell's The Chateau followed by McCarthy's The Group, both of which I own in LOA editions. Now it might take a while to actually get there, given all the library books I still have out. If I do go to Buffalo in early February, I am leaning toward reading Tim O'Brien's new novel, America Fantastica, on the bus. For the trip to Ottawa and Montreal, it's a toss-up between Steinbeck's East of Eden and something by Dickens, either Nicholas Nickleby or Dombey and Son. One thing's for sure, I won't be running out of books to read in the immediate future!
* So the next time I really dig through the boxes in the basement, I need to keep an eye out for the Pushkin, The Rings of Saturn, and a collection of plays by Di Filippo. I was also looking for my copy of Bright Lights, Big City, but since I reread it recently, it isn't as pressing. It turns out Everett riffs on Ellison's Invisible Man throughout Erasure (and teaching the two back-to-back would be a great idea), so I might need to reread Invisible Man as well, which means retrieving it from the basement. (At least I think I know where my copy is.) It's probably been 15+ years since the last time I reread this masterpiece, and this (Erasure) is a timely prompt. Maybe I will get to it in 2024.
Edit (01-04): The Rings of Saturn did turn up, while I haven't made a concerted effort on the others yet.
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