cut grass lies frail

2026

• [in progress] Der Stimmenimitator • Thomas Bernhard
• To Rule All Under Heaven: A History of Classical China, from Confucius to the First Emperor • Andrew Seth Meyer
• The Left Hand of Darkness • Ursula K. Le Guin
• [in progress] We Had It Coming: and other fictions • Luke O’Neil
• Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 • Eric Foner
• How China Works • Xiaohuan Lan
• Spring Snow • Yukio Mishima
• The Great Global Transformation • Branko Milanović
• The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View • Ellen Meiksins Wood
• A Brief History of Commercial Capitalism • Jairus Banaji
• The Jakarta Method • Vincent Bevins
• What Every Web Developer Should Know About HTTP • K. Scott Allen
• The Perspective of the World • Fernand Braudel
• The Wheels of Commerce • Fernand Braudel

2025

• Clown Town • Mick Herron
• The Structures of Everyday Life • Fernand Braudel
• Murphy • Samuel Beckett
• The Age of Empire: 1875–1914 • Eric Hobsbawm
• L’ère du capital: 1848–1875 • Eric Hobsbawm, tr. Eric Diacon
• The Age of Revolution: 1749–1848 • Eric Hobsbawm
• Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union • Vladislav M. Zubok
• The Wars for Asia, 1911–1949 • S.C.M. Paine
• The Penguin History of the USA • Hugh Brogan
• Kleine Geschichte Chinas • Kai Vogelsang

2024

• Der Knochenmann • Wolf Haas
• Auferstehung der Toten • Wolf Haas
• Scientific Babel • Michael D. Gordin
• A Month in the Country • J.L. Carr
• Beton • Thomas Bernhard
• Kalmann und der schlafende Berg • Joachim B. Schmidt
• Mahomet • Maxime Rodinson
• Kalmann • Joachim B. Schmidt
• Saisonarbeit • Heike Geißler
• Die Physiker • Friedrich Dürrenmatt
• They Called It Peace • Lauren Benton
• Player of Games • Iain M. Banks
• Seeing Like a State • James C. Scott

2023

• Footnotes in Gaza • Joe Sacco
• Palestine • Joe Sacco
• A Savage War of Peace • Alistair Horne
• Naming Things • Tom Benner
• The Song of Achilles • Madeline Miller
• The 100 Years War on Palestine • Rashid Khalidi
• The Dog of the South • Charles Portis (re-read)
• The Good Soldier • Ford Madox Ford
• The Divine Comedy • tr. C.H. Sisson
• Beowulf • tr. Seamus Heaney
• Tales from Ovid • tr. Ted Hughes
• Book VI • tr. Seamus Heaney
• The Aeneid • tr. Sarah Ruden
• The Odyssey • tr. Emily Wilson
• War Music • Christopher Logue (re-read)

2022–2014 (unordered)

• Nada • Jean-Patrick Manchette
• Fatale • Jean-Patrick Manchette
• Le petit bleu de la côte ouest • Jean-Patrick Manchette
• La position du tireur couché • Jean-Patrick Manchette
• Pond • Claire-Louise Bennett
• The Dog of the South • Charles Portis
• The Thirty Years War • C.V. Wedgwood
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy • John le Carré
• A Perfect Spy • John le Carré
• Jane Eyre • Charlotte Brontë
• Wuthering Heights • Emily Brontë
• A House and its Head • Ivy Compton-Burnett
• Speedboat • Renata Adler
• The Bridge on the Drina • Ivo Andrić, tr. Lovett F. Edwards
• A Question of Upbringing • Anthony Powell
• Märchen deutscher Dichter • ed. Elisabeth Borchers
• Das Parfum • Patrick Süskind
• Die Wand • Marlen Haushofer
• Der bunte Schleier • W. Somerset Maugham, tr. Anna Kellner and Irmgard Andrae
• Kurzgeschichten / Nouvelles • Bertolt Brecht
• Deutsche Kurzerzählungen / Nouvelles allemandes • ed. Alain Lance and Reiner Müller
• Deutsche heutige Kurzerzählungen / Nouvelles allemandes contemporaines • ed. Michel Lemercier
• Das große Heft • Agota Kristof, tr. Eva Moldenhauer
• Der Beweis • Agota Kristof, tr. Erika Tophoven-Schöningh
• Die dritte Lüge • Agota Kristof, tr. Erika Tophoven
• A Legacy • Sybille Bedford
• The Good Soldier Švejk • Jaroslav Hašek, tr. ?
• Memorial • Alice Oswald
• On the Road to Babadag • Andrzej Stasiuk, tr. Michael Kandel
• In Europe • Geert Mak, tr. Sam Garrett
• Verbrechen • Ferdinand von Schirach
• Frau Sartoris • Elke Schmitter
• Fake Accounts • Lauren Oyler
• Manhunt • Gretchen Felker-Martin
• Exercices de style • Raymond Queneau
• The Price of Salt • Patricia Highsmith
• Little Women • Louisa May Alcott
• Prague Tales • Jan Neruda, tr. Michael Henry Heim
• The Gift • Vladimir Nabokov
• Loving • Henry Green (re-read)
• The Radetzky March • Joseph Roth, tr. ?
• Voyage au bout de la nuit • Louis-Ferdinand Céline
• Une vie • Guy de Maupassant
• Le testament français • Andreï Makine
• Les sauvages (tome 1) • Sabri Louatah
• Light Years • James Salter
• HHhH • Laurent Binet
• A Handful of Dust • Evelyn Waugh
• Desperate Characters • Paula Fox
• Slow Horses • Mick Herron
• Dead Lions • Mick Herron
• Real Tigers • Mick Herron
• Spook Street • Mick Herron
• London Rules • Mick Herron
• Joe Country • Mick Herron
• Slough House • Mick Herron
• Bad Actors • Mick Herron
• Faire l’amour • Jean-Philippe Toussaint
• Fuir • Jean-Philippe Toussaint
• La perfection du tir • Mathias Enard
• Offshore • Penelope Fitzgerald
• The Leopard • Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, tr. Archibald Colquhuon (re-read)
• An Essay On French Verse: For Readers of English Poetry • Jacques Barzun

2013–2008

• Invisible Dragon • Dave Hickey
• Air Guitar • Dave Hickey
• Canti • Giacomo Leopardi, tr. Jonathan Galassi
• Tenth of December • George Saunders
• Autobiography of Red • Anne Carson
• Autoportrait • Edouard Levé
• Swann’s Way • Marcel Proust, tr. Lydia Davis
• Voyage de noces • Patrick Modiano
• Leah • Seymour Epstein
• Madame Bovary • Gustave Flauvert, tr. Lydia Davis
• The Tragic Menagerie • Lydia Zinovieva-Annibal, tr. Jane Costlow
• Antigone • tr. Robert Fagles
• 7 Greeks • tr. Guy Davenport
• War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy, tr. Louise and Aylmer Maude
• Amsterdam Stories • Nescio (J.H.F. Grönloh), tr. Damion Searls
• Skylark • Dezso Kosztolanyi, tr. Richarc Aczel
• At Last • Edward St Aubyn
• Mother’s Milk • Edward St Aubyn
• Some Hope • Edward St Aubyn
• Bad News • Edward St Aubyn
• Never Mind • Edward St Aubyn
• Memoirs of Hadrian • Marguerite Yourcenar, tr. Grace Frick
• Stoner • John Williams
• Cousin Bette • Honoré de Balzac, tr. Sylvia Raphael
• Middlemarch • George Eliot
• The Wife of Martin Guerre • Janet Lewis
• Jakob Von Gunten • Robert Walser, tr. Christopher Middleton
• What Maisie Knew • Henry James
• The Portrait of a Lady • Henry James
• The Story of Art • E.H. Gombrich
• The Peregrine • J.A. Baker
• The Runaway Bride • Elizabeth Kendall
• The Brown Decades • Lewis Mumford
• Frozen Desire • James Buchan
• War Music • Christopher Logue
• Ancient Greek Lyrics • tr. Willis Barnstone
• The Iliad • Robert Fitzgerald
• Sentimental Education • Gustave Flaubert, tr. ?
• Payback • Margaret Atwood
• The Goshawk • T.H. White
• Journey by Moonlight • Antal Szerb, tr. Len Rix
• Poets in a Landscape • Gilbert Highet
• The Red and the Black • Stendhal, tr. ?
• Selected Stories • Robert Walser, tr. Christopher Middleton
• The Soul of Kindness • Elizabeth Taylor
• Fathers and Sons • Ivan Turgenev, tr. ?
• The Leopard • Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, tr. Archibald Colquhuon
• Alien Hearts • Guy de Maupassant, tr. Richard Howard
• Bel Ami • Guy de Maupassant, tr. Douglas Parmée
• Beware of Pity • Stefan Zweig, tr. Phyllis Blewitt
• The House in Paris • Elizabeth Bowen
• The Castle • Franz Kafka, tr. Willa and Edwin Muir
• Stories • Anton Chekhov, tr. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
• The Road into the Open • Arthur Schnitzler, tr. Roger Byers
• The Great Gatsby • F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Loving • Henry Green
• Pnin • Vladimir Nabokov
• They Came Like Swallows • William Maxwell
• Red Cavalry Stories • Isaac Babel, tr. ?
• Emma • Jane Austen
• Shakespeare • Mark Van Doren
• Plays • William Shakespeare
• Pale Fire • Vladimir Nabokov
• Lolita • Vladimir Nabokov
• Elective Affinities • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, tr. ?
• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man • James Joyce
• Dubliners • James Joyce
• Time Will Darken It • William Maxwell
• Down and Out in Paris and London • George Orwell
• Homage to Catalonia • George Orwell
• Gulliver’s Travels • Jonathan Swift
• Paradise Regained • John Milton
• Paradise Lost • John Milton
• The Divine Comedy • Dante Alighieri, tr. Jean and Robert Hollander
• Storm of Steel • Ernst Jünger, tr. Michael Hofmann
• The Aeneid • tr. Robert Fitzgerald
• The Odyssey • tr. Robert Fagles
• The Iliad • tr. Robert Fagles
• The Histories • Herodotus, tr. Aubrey de Sélincourt
• Lucky Jim • Kingsley Amis
• Walden • Henry David Thoreau
• The Culture of Narcissism • Christopher Lasch
• The First World War • John Keegan
• The Russian Revolution • Sheila Fitzpatrick
• Poetic Meter and Poetic Form • Paul Fussell
• Cataclysm: The First World War as Political Tragedy • David Stevenson
• Moby Dick • Herman Melville
• Dead Souls • Nikolai Gogol, tr. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
• In Parenthesis • David Jones
• The Brothers Karamazov • Fyodor Dostoevsky, tr. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
• White Noise • Don DeLillo
• The Quiet American • Graham Greene
• The Master and Margarita • Mikhail Bulgakov, tr. ?
• The Great War and Modern Memory • Paul Fussell
• Notes from Underground • Fyodor Dostoevsky, tr. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
• Hunger • Knut Hamsun, tr. Sverre Lyngstad
• Journey to the End of the Night • Louis-Ferdinand Céline, tr. Ralph Manheim
• Blood Meridian • Cormac McCarthy
• The Road • Cormac McCarthy
• The Trial • Franz Kafka, tr. ?
• The Stranger • Albert Camus, tr. ?
• The Guns of August • Barbara W. Tuchman