Now, as to books, I'd go with most of Blixa's. Despite some overlap, here are some of mine:
The Magic Mountain--of course Demons The Brothers Karamazov Crime and Punishment The Idiot Notes from Underground The Double Tom Sawyer--just read this to my eight-year-old Kim--Was it Eliot who read this once a year? Huckleberry Finn--Twain for grownups Lots of Conrad: Nostromo Lord Jim The Secret Agent The Heart of Darkness
Moby Dick Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Dubliners The Good Soldier anything by Evelyn Waugh The Portrait of a Lady Death in Venice The Wild Ass's Skin--Balzac The Sun of the New Urth Anything by Trollope, especially the Barchester novels
There are many, many more.
For fun and escape: H. P. Lovecraft The Lord of the Rings Sherlock Holmes Robert A. Heinlein S.J. Perelman Sax Rohmer Isaac Asimov
I've got a nonfiction list, too, but I think I'll stop here.
I can't decide whether this is a great book or, to use Nabokov's phrase, "topical trash encased in granite." At any rate, I found it absorbing--and very strange.
hans castorp wrote:I used to live around the corner from Mailer (in a cheap, tiny studio apartment, in case you get any ideas). It was fun to see him browsing the porno tapes at the video store, taking bites from a Goldberg's Peanut Chew, or reading the racing page of the Daily News on the subway. Never did talk to him, though. I liked some of his old Esquire columns, but in the main I find him unreadable.
How funny. I only have Steve Buscemi.
Sadly, I agree that much of his work is unreadable. The Executioner's Song, however, reads differently to me than other Mailer and I think that's because several writers more or less wrote it.
From the Ernest L. Wilkinson Diaries: "ELW dreams he's spattered w/ grease. Hundreds steal his greasy pants."
I can't decide whether this is a great book or, to use Nabokov's phrase, "topical trash encased in granite." At any rate, I found it absorbing--and very strange.
WOW! That does look strange. And compelling. I'll have to read it!
From the Ernest L. Wilkinson Diaries: "ELW dreams he's spattered w/ grease. Hundreds steal his greasy pants."
I can't decide whether this is a great book or, to use Nabokov's phrase, "topical trash encased in granite." At any rate, I found it absorbing--and very strange.
WOW! That does look strange. And compelling. I'll have to read it!
I'd meant to read it for years, having an interest in Arthuriana, but it was hard to get hold of in the US, and expensive. I finally got it from the library. I'd love to know what you make of it.
There's another book of his that's intriguing: Porius. In fact, I just ordered it! (My wife will skin me alive.)
American Pastoral -- Philip Roth The Autobiography of Malcolm X -- Alex Haley Big Sleep (or anything else) -- Raymond Chandler The Cain Mutiny -- Herman Wouk Great Expectations -- Charles Dickens Leaves of Grass -- Walt Whitman Chicago (poetry) -- Carl Sandberg Poems -- Robert Frost Of Mice and Men; East of Eden -- Steinbeck Frankenstein -- Mary Shelley Scaramouche -- Rafael Sabatini The Brothers Karamazov -- Fyodor Dostoevsky The Count of Monte Cristo -- Alexandre Dumas The Man Who Would be King -- Rudyard Kipling A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man -- James Joyce A Confederacy of Dunces -- John Kennedy Toole Henderson the Rain King -- Saul Bellow Haroun and the Sea of Stories -- Salman Rushdie Typee -- Herman Melville Huckleberry Finn -- Twain Catch 22 - Joseph Heller Lonesome Dove -- Larry McMurtry Winesburg, Ohio -- Sherwood Anderson Martin Eden -- Jack London Lolita -- Vladimir Nabokov Night -- Elie Wiesel Collected Poems -- Wallace Stevens The Naked and the Dead -- Norman Mailer The Moveable Feast -- Ernest Hemingway Slaughterhouse-Five -- Kurt Vonnegut All the King's Men; poetry -- Robert Penn Warren One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest -- Ken Kesey Aubrey/Maturin novels -- Patrick O'Brian Blood Meridian -- Cormac McCarthy The Devil Drives -- Fawn M. Brodie Prayer for Owen Meany -- John Irving I, Claudius -- Robert Graves To Kill a Mockingbird -- Harper Lee Varieties of Religious Experience - William James The Magnificent Ambersons -- Booth Tarkington Lone Star Ranger -- Zane Grey (The first real novel I read. Thank you, Zane.)
Blixa wrote:I'm prepping this weekend for the beginning of my Detective Fiction course, so I was reminded of Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwal's excellent "Martin Beck" series of detective novels. I've never taught any of them because 1) I would have to spend too much time laying out background about Sweden and 2) you really need to read the whole series to get a sense of how politically unusual they are. (Yes, I know Stieg Larsson's works are popular, but please.)
Thank you. One of my book-a-week daughters seconded your recommendation (which makes me wonder how I've never heard of this series). Just got The Laughing Policeman.
Blixa wrote:I'm prepping this weekend for the beginning of my Detective Fiction course, so I was reminded of Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwal's excellent "Martin Beck" series of detective novels. I've never taught any of them because 1) I would have to spend too much time laying out background about Sweden and 2) you really need to read the whole series to get a sense of how politically unusual they are. (Yes, I know Stieg Larsson's works are popular, but please.)
Thank you. One of my book-a-week daughters seconded your recommendation (which makes me wonder how I've never heard of this series). Just got The Laughing Policeman.
My Finnish friend recommended them to me. They have also been the subject of many televised versions/series that run well beyond the original set (and are not written by Wahlöö and Sjöwal). I've never seen any of them. If you read the whole original ten novels--in order!--you will see the development of an interesting critique of law and order.
I too, love A Confederacy of Dunces and I'm sorry I left it off my list. Do you know the history of the attempts to film it? Or the roster of completely unacceptable actors who have been suggested for Ignatius? John Belushi? Chris Farley? Will Ferrell???? (John Candy and John Goodman have also been considered, and while I think they could have approached the role with the seriousness and not just comedy it deserves, they are also not especially inspired choices. If Zack Galifianakis were only taller, he could probably do the role justice. I still don't want it done though).
From the Ernest L. Wilkinson Diaries: "ELW dreams he's spattered w/ grease. Hundreds steal his greasy pants."