Quote-unquote reading

I was asked to contribute to this column in late 2019, and like many writers and editors who’ve contributed before me, my first thought was about how little I’ve read recently, and how I’d get around that problem. I’m pretty sure I only finished one book published in 2019 during that year, and that was only out of necessity—my postgraduate study is partly on the American poet and novelist Ben Lerner, and his new book The Topeka School came out. (I liked it.)