More than ever before, we are inundated with forecasts about the “best” books on the horizon or the ones you must read to be
au courant
or woke or anything else you are supposed to desire (vigilantly armed against the spirit of the age, perhaps, whatever that is alleged to be). These can be annoying, inadvertently hilarious, and so on, but apart from all that, such advance notices can also be diverting, sometimes even intoxicating. If you are a bookish person, you probably have lists, notes, printouts (especially if you’re old, as I am), pages torn neatly from magazines, and so on—or maybe you have all that sort of thing on your phone.