As I did last year and the year before, here’s a list of books I read for the first time in 2011. Mostly confined to fiction, but including two popular-academic books that I (uncharacteristically) read from cover to cover.

• Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Half of a Yellow Sun (2008).
• Aira, César. The Literary Conference (2010).
• Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities (1978).
• Carson, Anne. Autobiography of Red (1998).
• DeLillo, Don. Libra (1988). [Ducks head in shame.]
• Egan, Jennifer. A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010).
• Graeber, David. Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011).
• Johns, Adrian. Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates (2010).
• McCarthy, Tom. Remainder (2007).
• Miéville, China. The City and the City (2009).
• Millet, Lydia. Oh Pure and Radiant Heart (2005).
• O’Brien, Tim. In the Lake of the Woods (1994).
• Sayles, John. A Moment in the Sun (2011).
• Vollmann, William. Europe Central (2005).
• Wallace, David Foster. The Pale King (2011).

Not a record-breaking effort, I’d say, but a pretty fun year. I didn’t get to either Theroux or Esterházy as I’d hoped, but there’s always next year, right? Same goes for Dickens — I picked up and put down Our Mutual Friend a couple of times and keep meaning to go back to it. Oh, and I’m maybe twenty pages into Arthur Phillips’ The Tragedy of Arthur, which seems nifty so far. I’ve gotten a couple of other recommendations, but am always happy to have more …