So, in my review of this year’s reading I vowed to make no reading resolutions for 2013, not because I don’t have some ideas, but writing about them pretty much guarantees serendipity will lead me in a completely different direction. But I’m going to chuck a few ideas into the void, for no other reason than it helps me think.
Since my post dealing with feminine writing, I’ve started to identify a series of writers that I plan to read more thoroughly, more Cixous obviously. My touchstone book for 2012 was Kate Zambreno’s brilliant Heroines. The book is the sort of polymorphous text that opens up new possibilities for biography, literary criticism and memoir. Read if you must but don’t be mislead by reviews of Heroines that reveal more about the prejudice of the reviewer than the text. Helen’s or Michelle’s reviews offer a more balanced, less blimpish point of view. I’ll be taking inspiration from both Kate Zambreno’s blog (a project now ended) and Heroines and reading writers like Jean Rhys, Djuna Barnes, Olive Moore, obviously more Clarice Lispector and Claude Cahun. I’m also interested in those treading similar ground, writers like Chris Kraus, Vanessa Place, Tamara Faith Berger and Dodie Bellamy. I also plan to read some Julia Kristeva and Kate Zambreno’s earlier Green Girl.
There are some thrilling new books due next year, so I will definitely be reading any new books that appear by László Krasznahorkai, JM Coetzee’s The Childhood of Jesus and the collection of letters between Coetzee and Paul Auster, Giorgio Agamben’s Nymphs, Amelie Nothomb’s Life Form, Sonallah C Ibrahim’s That Smell and Notes from Prison and William Gass’s Middle C. The second (and possibly third) volume of Reiner Stach’s Kafka biography is due and unmissable.
I’ve started reading Benoît Peeters’ Derrida biography and plan to read more Derrida. I’ve got plans to read Wittgenstein, Deleuze and Adorno more deeply, and want to explore further what Ray Brassier is doing. Oh, and I seriously intend to get back to Thomas Bernhard and Peter Handke.
If I achieve half of these goals I’ll be happy and no doubt serendipity will hijack my intentions along the way.
Thanks for reading Time’s Flow Stemmed. Have a good holiday.
Time's Flow Stemmed 
I ran across Peeters’ Derrida biograph thought it might be good. Look forward to hearing what you think about it when you get around to it.
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Four chapters in and enjoying the early years material, which often kills my enthusiasm for a biography.
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Goodness, you got some big goals! I read Clarice Lispector’s Hour of the Star earlier this year and loved it. I plan on reading more of her next year too. I read a really good review of Derrida’s bio in the London Review of books. He sounds like a very interesting man and the bio sounded good too.
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Big goals, Stefanie, always have those but usually get diverted off course by some passing idée fixe.
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Thomas Bernhard and Peter Handke is on my list for 2013 too. In addition I plan to read all the works by Anne Carson and Lydia Davis, and to reread Beckett, but poetry will be my main focus.
Wish you all the best for 2013!
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Behind the plans stated in the post I always intend to read more Carson and Beckett. I need to get started on Lydia Davis’s books too.
Very best for you for 2013 too, Sigrun!
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This is really great to read – gives me much inspiration for my own future lists. I am hoping to have more time for my own reading projects in 2013 – and so will be putting together my own lists in a few days time.
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Look forward to reading those, Michelle. Thanks.
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