Once again, December brings an opportunity to reflect upon the year’s books. Like previous years, this “most engaging books” list is idiosyncratic and by no means reflects “the best”, only what i found most engaging and most rewarding … this is a  selection of what i considered the most fascinating / useful / generative books of the year. Seek out these volumes, every one will reward the search (and your local, independent, bookstore can help…). This is the cream of the crop for 2013:

Heimrad Bäcker. Seascape. Patrick Greaney, trans. (Brooklyn: Ugly Duckling Presse)

Jen Bervin and Marta Werner. The Gorgeous Nothings. (New York: New Directions).

Jaap Blonk klinkt. (Gent: het balanseer).

Craig Dworkin. No Medium. (Cambridge: MIT Press).

Kenneth Goldsmith. Seven American Deaths and Disasters. (Brooklyn: Powerhouse)

Jeet Heer. In Love with Art: Françoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman. (Toronto: Coach House).

bpNichol. A book of variations: love-zygal-art facts. Stephen Voyce, ed. (Toronto: Coach House).

Yoko Ono. Acorn. (New York: OR)

Rachel Simkover, ed. An Anthology of Concrete Poetry. (Berlin: Motto).

Nick Thurston. Of the Subcontract (York, UK / Toronto: information as material / Coach House)

Emmett Williams. Anthology of Concrete Poetry (New York: Primary Information)

Andrew Zawacki. Video Tape. (Denver: Counterpath)

Paul Zits. Massacre Street (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press)