1973. I haven't read this Deluxe Edition, and I don't know what additional resources or text it contains. I'll find out soon enough; this is my read for January. For better or worse, and probably for worse, I've learned more about the individual experience of war from Pynchon and Heller's comedies -- and from journals -- than from any summative historical works.

1939. I'm rereading this along with The Worst Hard Time and several dust bowl journals & narratives. I remember crude (and more effective for being crude) renderings of villians' thoughts and statements, especially a car dealer. In all Steinbeck's stories, honesty is either the principle marker of a virtuous person or the complete realization of virtue. It's an ethic that serves his writing well.

1957. I've never read this, and it strikes me as the sort of book it's best to read while still young and impressionable. It's my read for April, alongside "Howl" and some nonfiction narrative accounts of the Beat generation.

1966. A novel of the 60s, allegedly; it carries Pynchon's recommendation as essential twentieth century fiction. I'm not familiar with the book itself. It might be brilliant. It might catch itself up too thoroughly with the college environment of the sixties, and fail to reach out. It's my read for June.

1913. Something I've always meant to read. My second read for July.

1932. This is my read for August.

1961. One of my favorite comic works, simple and incisive. It's my read for September, and I'm going to enjoy it thoroughly, again.

1953. My wife wants to read this together; it's my (our) read for October, alongside some accounts of censorship in the twentieth century, and maybe a book or two that investigates the author's claims about the destructive qualities of modern media.

1969. Our read for December, alongside accounts of the bombing of Dresden.