Books and stuff
Well, just books actually. What the stuff is isn't clear. The excerpts
are there to remind me that there is such a thing as transcendence.
* favorites
Favorites not listed below:
- Miss Lonelyhearts, Nathanael West
- Second Skin, John Hawkes
- Letters, John Barth
- The Stranger, Albert Camus
- Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
Read since spring 1996 or so (most recent first) :
- Fancy Bear Goes Phishing, Scott Shapiro
- Liberation Day, George Saunders
- Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro
- On Being Blue, William Gass
- I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Iain Reid
- Huck Out West, Robert Coover
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
- The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Suzanne Collins
- Nutshell, Ian McEwan
- Machines Like Me, Ian McEwan
- The Good Lord Bird, James McBride
- Antkind, Charlie Kaufman
- Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
- Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
- The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
- Jar City, Arnuldur Indridason
- Disappearing Earth, Julia Phillips
- House Of Leaves, Mark Z Danielewski
- Fox 8, George Saunders
- The Code Book, Simon Singh
- Pricksongs and Descants*, Robert Coover
- The Brunist Day Of Wrath, Robert Coover
- The Origin Of The Brunists, Robert Coover
- Adjustment Day, Chuck Palahniuk
- Charity, Mark Richard
- Bagombo Snuff Box, Kurt Vonnegut
- Stepmother, Robert Coover
- Beautiful You, Chuck Palahniuk
- We Live In Water, Jess Walter
- Death Sleep and the Traveler, John Hawkes
- Citizen Vince, Jess Walter
- The Zero, Jess Walter
- The Day Of The Locust*, Nathanael West
- Eyes, William Gass
- Breaking The Rock: The Great Escape From Alcatraz, Jolene Babyak
- Pity The Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle And The Unlikely Comeback Of The Right, Thomas Frank
- Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir Of A Family and Culture In Crisis, J. D. Vance
- The Sweet Hereafter, Russell Banks
- Six Years With God: Life Inside Rev. Jim Jones's Peoples Temple
- Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People
- Seductive Poison, Deborah Layton
- A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jonestown, Julia Scheeres
- The Orphan Master's Son*, Adam Johnson
- A Child Again, Robert Coover
- The Wallcreeper, Nell Zink
- The Aleph and Other Stories*, Jorge Luis Borges
- Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges
- Haunted, Chuck Palahniuk
- The Financial Lives Of The Poets, Jess Walter
- Both Flesh And Not, David Foster Wallace
- You Are Not So Smart, David McRaney
- The Wall (Intimacy) and other stories, Jean-Paul Sartre
- Consider The Lobster*, David Foster Wallace
- One More Thing: Stories And Other Stories, by B. J. Novak
- Blood Will Out, Walter Kirn
- The First True Lie, Marina Mander
- Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
- The De-Textbook, Cracked
- Ready Player One, Ernest Cline
- Beautiful Ruins, Jess Walter
- The Circle, Dave Eggers
- Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, David Foster Wallace
- A Hologram For The King, Dave Eggers
- Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon
- Native Tongue, Carl Hiaasen
- Middle C, William Gass
- Rhinoceros, Eugene Ionesco
- The Real Life Of Sebastian Knight, Vladimir Nabokov
- Parasites Like Us, Adam Johnson
- Hash, Torgny Lindgren
- Pastoralia, George Saunders
- Illywhacker, Peter Carey
- The Development, John Barth
- Absurdistan, Gary Shteyngart
- Oblivion, David Foster Wallace
- A Visit From The Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
- Super Sad True Love Story, Gary Shteyngart
- The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- "In The Heart Of The Heart Of The Country"* and other stories, William Gass
- The Investment Answer, Dan Goldie
- The Big Short, Michael Lewis
- Omensetter's Luck*, William Gass
- More Pricks Than Kicks, Samuel Beckett
- Choke, Chuck Palahniuk
- The Eve Of Saint Venus, Anthony Burgess
- Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow
- Mr Toppit, Charles Elton
- The Pianoplayers, Anthony Burgess
- The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, Stieg Larsson
- The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larsson
- The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
- The Remains Of The Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
- A Happy Death, Albert Camus
- Diary, Chuck Palahniuk
- The Gambler / Bobok / A Nasty Story, Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Generation A, Douglas Coupland
- Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk
- Positively Fifth Street, James McManus
- Smilla's Sense Of Snow, Peter Hoeg
- Cartesian Sonata And Other Novellas, William Gass
- Armageddon In Retrospect, Kurt Vonnegut
- One Nation Under Fear: Scaredy Cats and Fear-Mongers in the Home of the Brave (And What You Can Do About It), Bob Cesca
- The Gum Thief, Douglas Coupland
- Letter To A Christian Nation, Sam Harris
- JPod, Douglas Coupland
- Ant Farm, Simon Rich
- The End Of Faith, Sam Harris
- Crossing To Safety, Wallace Stegner
- What Is The What, Dave Eggers
- God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens
- The Downhill Lie: A Hacker's Return To A Ruinous Sport, Carl Hiaasen
- An Underground Education, Richard Zacks
- The Happiest Baby On The Block, Harvey Karp
- Brainiac, Ken Jennings
- As She Climbed Across The Table, Jonathon Leyner
- The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman
- The Subtle Knife, Philip Pullman
- The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman
- The Best American Essays 2006, Lauren Slater (editor)
- The Dying Animal, Philip Roth
- Willie Masters' Lonesome Wife, William Gass
- The Basic Eight, Daniel Handler
- Straight Man, Richard Russo
- When Penguins Attack, Tom Tomorrow
- The Assault On Reason, Al Gore
- The Third Policeman, Flann O'Brien
- Eleanor Rigby, Douglas Coupland
- The Human Stain, Philip Roth
- The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, George Saunders
- Polaroids from the Dead, Douglas Coupland
- The Mezzanine, Nicholson Baker
- Where Three Roads Meet, John Barth
- Triangle, Katharine Weber
- The BFG, Roald Dahl
- Gilligan's Wake, Tom Carson
- Thumbsucker, Walter Kirn
- You Shall Know Our Velocity!, Dave Eggers
- The Chosen One, David Owen
- Hey Nostradamus!, Douglas Coupland
- A Man Without a Country, Kurt Vonnegut
- High School, David Owen
- What's the Matter with Kansas?, Thomas Frank
- My Usual Game, David Owen
- Abba, Abba, Anthony Burgess
- The Adventures of Lucky Pierre (Director's Cut), Robert Coover
- John's Wife, Robert Coover
- Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, James Joyce
- Aberration Of Starlight, Gilbert Sorrentino
- A Vision Of Battlements, Anthony Burgess
- When You Ride Alone, You Ride With Bin Laden, Bill Maher
- Life After God, Douglas Coupland
- Dude, Where's My Country?, Michael Moore
- The Thanatos Syndrome, Walker Percy
- Moneyball, Michael Lewis
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers
- Bob and Harv's Comics (American Splendor), Harvey Pekar/Robert Crumb
- The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Greg Palast
- Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, Al Franken
- Et Tu, Babe, Mark Leyner
- Positively Fifth Street (tape), James McManus
- Barrel Fever (tape), David Sedaris
- Minority Report and Other Stories (tape), Philip K Dick
- Lost In The Cosmos, Walker Percy
- The Freddie Stories, Lynda Barry
- The Cannibal, John Hawkes
- The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
- One Hundred Demons, Lynda Barry
- The Tunnel, William Gass
- Girlfriend In A Coma, Douglas Coupland
- Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis
- The Good Times Are Killing Me, Lynda Barry
- Miss Wyoming, Douglas Coupland
- The Lord Of The Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien
- The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien
- Lancelot, Walker Percy
- Girl With Curious Hair, David Foster Wallace
- The End of the World News, Anthony Burgess
- The Powerbook, Jeanette Winterson
- Ghost Town, Robert Coover
- The Passion, Jeanette Winterson
- When She Was Good, Philip Roth
- Shampoo Planet, Douglas Coupland
- I Married A Communist, Philip Roth
- American Pastoral, Philip Roth
- Cat and Mouse, Gunter Grass
- The Professor and the Madman, Simon Winchester
- The Public Burning, Robert Coover
- Cruddy, Lynda Barry
- Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
- Briar Rose, Robert Coover
- The Broom of the System, David Foster Wallace
- Pinocchio in Venice, Robert Coover
- Henderson the Rain King, Saul Bellow
- Krazy Kat, Jay Cantor
- The Waltz Invention, Vladimir Nabokov
- Underworld, Don DeLillo
- Art and Lies, Jeanette Winterson
- The Name of the Rose*, Umberto Eco
- The Ghost Writer, Philip Roth
- The Great American Novel, Philip Roth
- Microserfs, Douglas Coupland
- Timequake, Kurt Vonnegut
- Herzog, Saul Bellow
- Written on the Body, Jeanette Winterson
- The Adventures of Augie March, Saul Bellow
- Sabbath's Theater, Philip Roth
- The Frog, John Hawkes
- A Night at the Movies, Robert Coover
- On with the Story, John Barth
- The Universal Baseball Assn., J Henry Waugh, Proprieter, Robert Coover
- Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco
- Mary, Vladimir Nabokov
- Nightwood, Djuna Barnes
- The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kundera
- The Fermata, Nicholson Baker
- The Island of the Day Before, Umberto Eco
- Whatever Happened to Gloomy Gus of the Chicago Bears, Robert Coover
- The Rabbi of Lud, Stanley Elkin
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter Thompson
- The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
- The Eye, Vladimir Nabokov
- A Frolic of His Own, William Gaddis
- Postcards, E. Annie Proulx
- t zero, Italo Calvino
- Vox, Nicholson Baker
- Mrs. Ted Bliss, Stanley Elkin
We defended the city as best we could. The arrows of the Comanches came
in clouds. The war clubs of the Comanches clattered on the soft, yellow
pavements. There were earthworks along the Boulevard Mark Clark and the
hedges had been laced with sparkling wire. People were trying to understand.
I spoke to Sylvia. "Do you think this is a good life?" The table
held apples, books, long-playing records. She looked up. "No."
"The Indian Uprising", Donald Barthelme
"OH I wish there were some words in the world that were not the
words I always hear!" Snow White exclaimed loudly. We regarded each
other sitting around the breakfast table with its big cardboard boxes of
"Fear", "Chix", and "Rats". Words in the
world that were not the words she always heard? What words could those
be? "Fish slime", Howard said, but he was a visitor, and rather
crude too, and we instantly regretted that we had lent him a sleeping bag,
and took it away from him, and took away his bowl too, and the Chix that
were in it, and the milk on top of the Chix, and his spoon and napkin and
chair, and began pelting him with boxes, to indicate that his welcome had
been used up.
Snow White, Donald Barthelme
So I spoke up now too. A little. Coming round to meet him from the other
side. Lighting up the spook house with the ineffable and sublime. We're
not just these bruises in the winding sheets, I told him, and the proof
of a life and an identity ain't only X rays and dental records. There's
good deeds, I told him in my rabbi mode, and almost mentioned that I'd
fucked old Shelley that morning but said something instead about the wonderful
memories we make for the people who love us and whom we love. What's a
few yards of gnarled toenail compared to that?
The Rabbi of Lud, Stanley Elkin
Often, as I trudged home, my cigarette case empty, my face burning in
the auroral breeze as if I had just removed theatrical makeup, every step
sending a throb of pain echoing through my head, I would inspect my puny
little bliss from this side and that, and marvel, and pity myself, and
feel despondent and afraid. The summit of lovemaking was for me but a bleak
knoll with a relentless view.
The Eye, Vladimir Nabokov
The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for
some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual
egos, crazy for love.
"Me and Miss Mandible", Donald Barthelme
"Well, ladies and gentlemen," he says, "there is no astrology,
there's no black magic and no white, no ESP, no UFO's. Mars is uninhabited.
The dead are dead and buried. Meat won't kill you and Krebiozen won't cure
you and we'll all be out of the picture before the forests disappear or
the water dries up. Your handwriting doesn't indicate your character and
there is no God. All there is--" He looks over at Pepper Steep's sister
asleep in her chair and wants to cry. He wishes he had something with which
to cover her to keep her warm, something to put over her shoulders. Somehow
Jack Patterson's fart still hangs in the air-- "are the strange displacements
of the ordinary."
The Dick Gibson Show, Stanley Elkin
When the sky moves, fields move under it. I feel, on my perch, that
I've lost my years. It's as though I were living at last in my eyes, as
I have always dreamed of doing, and I think then I know why I've come here:
to see, and so to go out against new things - oh god how easily - like
air in a breeze. It's true these are moments - foolish moments, ecstasy
on a tree stump - when I'm all but gone, scattered I like to think like
seed, for I'm the sort now in the fool's position of having love left over
which I'd like to lose; what good is it now to me, candy ungiven after
Halloween?
"In the Heart of the Heart of the Country", William Gass