…and can change yours, if you let them.
These are not necessarily the books that would first come to mind: I am not including books that are overtly self-help or are intended to be inspirational. I am more interested in books where the lessons are more sub textual: ones that make a demand of you, rather than you making a demand of it.
Fiction:
Atomized, Michel Houellebecq
Black Boy, Richard Wright
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Franny and Zooey, JD Salinger
Journey Across Moonlight, Antal Szerb
Other Voices, Other Rooms, Truman Capote
Post Office, Charles Bukowski
Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
The Assistant, Bernard Malamud
The Demons or The Possessed, Fydor Dostoevsky
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Street of Crocodiles, Bruno Schulz
The Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
The Waves, Virginia Wolff
Wind Up Bird Chronicles, Haruki Murakami
Non-Fiction:
Born to Run, The Greatest Race Never Seen, Christopher McDougal
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer
No Logo, Naomi Klein
On Becoming a Novelist, John Gardner
The Gift of Fear: Gavin de Becker
The Living City, Frank Lloyd Wright
The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan
The People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn
This Band Could Be Your Life, Michael Azzerrad
Memoir:
Hand to Mouth, Paul Auster
Liars’ Club, Mary Karr
Poetry:
The Bridge, Hart Crane
The Complete Haiku, Matsuo Basho
Wow!
What a lot of excellent work. Your rate for productivity of thoughtfully written pieces is astonishing. Personally, I just manage to go to bed or take very long baths when depressed so, if you are depressed, you are certainly using it productively. And, I appreciate the reading list. I’ve hit the wall on reading right now.
I hope we get to see you sometime soon.
Love, M
(assume this goes to you direct….)
Thanks, Mom!
The books that have shaped our lives seem to match up quite wonderfully. If you have not already done so, your should take the time to read Italo Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler and David Mitchell’s Cloud Altas back to back. Both stunning works and one get a greater appreciation for the Mitchell having read the Calvino.
-Rinn
On my list as of now. For my part, I would recommend Perec’s Life A User’s Manuel and the short stories of Breece DJ Pancake as late-breaking entries. Thanks for the comment. Thoughtful reading and writing is my game.