Anticipation

New Read-alongs with the New Year

I am feeling alive with the possibilities.

I have plunged into James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain , an author I have never read who is featured in the 2026 reading schedule of Matthew Long . Already I am caught by fourteen year old John’s suddenly deep awareness of his life and individuality. How will he cope on this, his birthday, and how will he launch himself into the rest of his fraught but meant-to-be brilliant life?

Then immediately I opened Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and the trepidation of plunging into another lengthy book was immediately soothed by the Scheherazade voice of the consummate storyteller who is immersing me in not one but maybe five storylines at once, so that I am contrasting a Heidelberg medical education with a Himalayan lake crossing on a boat poled by the original old man of the world. This read-along is one of several offered by Simon Haisell .

My next date according to the my selected upcoming schedules will be Byung-Chul Han’s Non-Things. This is a slight book with a thought-disrupting philosophical punch that I am both intimidated by and drawn to, which I have put into today’s reading plan. Jared Henderson is the host of the philosophy book club.

And then there’s The Old Curiosity Shop which I’ve been reading for months along with Henry Eliot . Nell’s passivity is driving me nuts but how can I stop now?

Will I add Jack London’s Call of the Wild to my January reading? Maybe. (also Henry Eliot )

Finally, adding gravitas to the pile of January books is The Brothers Karamazov. I am halfway through this massive read, marooned by a slow-read venture of last year that fizzled out for reasons unknown. Now, not one but two of the reading enthusiasts I follow are offering a guided tour ( Sam Granger and Henry Eliot ). I want to drop in on both discussions, but the year-long version will be my door post. I hope to pass through and beyond this time.

What fun, and how lucky am I to have other dear readers fuelling the flames of desire for intrepid mental travel on all these levels of human desiring. I’m thinking especially of five friends who dip into my readerly wanderings with interesting diversions of their own.

And You! Off we go.