October 2010 is ...

Nobel Prize for Literature Month.

A new laureate will be announced and many will scratch their heads wondering why this writer was chosen. A handful of this writer's devoted fans will jump for joy. A speech will be delivered by this writer before the end of the year. And the world will continue to turn on its axis.

Meanwhile I plan to finish the following books ...

• Don Quixote - for the "Windmills for the Mind" whirlwind reading, hosted by Stu at Winstonsdad's Blog. It's supposed to end on September, but you know how it is with thickness.

• The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt - the Fall Read of Conversational Reading is now on its second week.

• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - the Classic Group Read of one of my groups in Shelfari.

• Dance Dance Dance by Murakami Haruki - the 6th book in my ongoing "Murakami Q Reading Plan," in which I read the Japanese novelist's first 9 books in chronological order of their Japanese publication

• The Jaguar by João Guimarães Rosa - I've read the first three stories and so far the selection, translated by David Treece, are no less than brilliant. They show off, in dazzling prose, some recognized Rosean virtues such as neologism, stream of consciousness, and wordplay. I hope (pray) Prof. Treece takes on the dream project of bringing a new version of Grande Sertão: Veredas and the first publication in English of the novellas in Corpo de Baile. These two works, both originally published in 1956, are said to constitute the essential corpus of Guimarães Rosa, arguably the epitome of Latin American writing of the past century.

... and start another book by César Aira, a book from NYRB, and a collection of poems (by Akhmatova or Vallejo or Szymborska).

I humbly accept the prize of reading for pleasure, whether or not J. M. Coetzee finally snags the Nobel.

(tee-hee)