A continuing appeal for book ideas for a bed-bound avid reader.
heyoka was stuck in hospital last summer and i was running out of books to fetch for her. so, I made a request here for book ideas. I got a lot of them.
a few rules were made, along with the list of various vague likes and dislikes of heyoka's reading habits. If you would like to suggest a book or author, please read below thoroughly first.
the simple rules:
suggest a book or author heyoka might enjoy reading.
node it up. at least the author, please.
/msg me and i'll see if it fits her criteria.
if not, i will give a reason, but still thank you kindly, etc.
if so, you win my respect and gratitude.
BONUS prize for an author with several books heyoka reads with delight: you will recieve their very own handcrafted notebook, which will be a pleasure to carry around and write in!
obstacles:
heyoka has read everything.
she reads FAST. she EATS TEXT and cries out 'What am I going to read?'.
yes, she's reread it, too.
no, it has to have a good story, or tell a bad story in a good way
no, no. no airport novels. cookson, francis, king... anything with gold-embossed titles just won't hack it. she is more lit-fic than mass market.
"chick-lit" is despised. if it's labelled as the new 'bridget jones' please carry on.
conundrum: will it take longer to fetch from bookstore or library than to read?
that's a good idea, but she's not a fan of thriller, horror or crime novels. she likes whodunit's, but has read most Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Lawrence Block. Erle Stanley Garner's Perry Mason series has been a good recent start.
ok, she's English. she's read all those, but a torrid victorian novelist who's written a dozen books would be a good find. um, she wrote a dissertation on Gothic fiction, so Monk Lewis is ruled out. Same with the nineteenth century sensationalist authors, Thomas Hardy, Mary Elizabeth Bradden, Wilkie Collins. she loves George Eliot, hates Charles Dickens
yes, she's read most of the good sci-fi. Don't go there. She has read all Bruce Sterling, Pat Cadigan, William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, and hates space opera. She wrote a dissertation based on reading all Phillip K. Dick and Stanislaw Lem. Fantasy? well, if a character has a cloak or mysterious penetrating eyes, again, don't even bother suggesting.
ooo, travel writing is good. but she's read that.
ah, yes, children's books. she's read and enjoyed all Lemony Snicket, Dodie Smith, diana wynn jones, the Artemis Fowl books, all Phillip Pullman, the Harry Potter series and much more.
she's also read the unabridged diaries of Casanova
and Proust in two different translations.
Look, she studied English literature, for crying out loud. at oxford.
Books on tape are an excellent idea, don't you think? well, the problem is that heyoka will listen to the tapes while reading another book, so that kind of defeats the whole purpose.
these are also some of her most favourite authors and she has read every one of their works. and reread them. deep breath! Andrew Crumey, David Mitchell, P. G. Wodehouse, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Georges Perec, Italo Calvino, Haruki Murakami, Ian McEwan, Salmon Rushdie (although she thinks he's full of himself now), Primo Levi, Umberto Eco, John Lanchester, Sarah Waters, Don Delillo, Paul Auster, Jeanette Winterson (although she thinks she's full of herself now), Angela Carter, Bruce Chatwin, Michael Chabon, Jim Crace, Banana Yoshimoto, Aldous Huxley, Jonathon Coe, George Orwell, John Berger, Barbara Kingsolver, William Dalrymple, Toby Litt, Iain Pears, Evelyn Waugh, Robert Gerardi, Amistead Maupin, Jack Kerouac, Tom Robbins, Iain Banks (but not iain m. banks, which she does not enjoy), Eric Newby, Annie Dillard, Jeff Noon, Borges, Kinky Freidman, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Thomas Pynchon, Tove Jannson's moomin books, Primo Levi, Alan Garner, Jonathan Swift, Susan Cooper (esp. the fabulous dark is rising series), Milan Kundera, T.E. Lawrence (the Seven Pillars of Wisdom was brought along with last visit to Syria. and read twice)
hits
these would be books i actually fetch for heyoka from YOUR suggestions
The Bagthorpe Saga (first of series, ordinary jack, bought, the rest may be checked out from a library)
a natural history of the senses by diane ackerman (Hurrah! a copy was mailed overseas and is presntly being consumed, carressed, snorted, respoken, adored)
The Worm Forgives the Plough by John Stewart Collis (another intrigue, and being mailed)
Sewer, Gas, & Electric Trilogy by Matt Ruff (searching for copy, once we realised it wasn't Food, Gas, and Lodging. Ruff's Fool on the Hill bought.)
Acquainted With Grief, by Carlo Emilio Gadda (searching for copy)
Archer Mayor (one of series bought, read, enjoyed. a visit to murder, inc in london may be able to scrape up the rest of the series)
Kenneth Patchen's the Journal of Albion Moonlight (mailed, still to read)
Jonathan Carroll (bought two of his books. one liked, the other so-so).
john barth (The sot-weed factor and Giles goat-boy bought. nice thick books. never heard of him, looks promising.)
Daniel Pinkwater (good comfort reading. still haven't found anything in bookstores. library next stop)
Bradley Denton's Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede (sounds gloriously silly)
The Sound of One Hand Clapping by Richard Flanagan (bought. also reading Gould's Book of Fish, which is 'brilliant')
zsuzsi gartner "all the anxious girls on earth" (being mailed overseas)
misses
a * means these are favourite heyoka reads.
all john irving(read)
all john fowles (read)
Mark Helprin's Winter's tale(read)
all geoff nicholson (read)
clive barker (only books of blood enjoyed. the rest are pants).
poppy z. brite (too cheesy goth)
little, big* (read, but the rest of John Crowley's not enjoyed)
all douglas coupland (read)
penny vincenzi (dismissed as airport novel trash)
all margaret atwood (read, some favoured, some not)
all c. p. snow (but may re-read them)
fritz leiber (seems to fall under the cloak and m/p eyes noted above. night sneak one in though.)
all toni morrison (read)
all ursula k. le guin (read, sea road is one of le guin's underrated books)
stephen r. Donaldson, heinlein zelazny and asimov (see sci-fi obstacle above)
all gabriel garcia marquez (a hit and miss author for her)
all kurt vonnegut(read)
all p. d. james (read)
snow falling on cedars by David Guttenson(thought it stunk)
all herman hess (read)
'Around Irelad with a Fridge' by Tony Hawks (read and enjoyed)
all thomas mann (read)
all john milton (read)
kim stanley robinson (no, i tried. doesn't work)
the Gormenghast Trilogy* (read)
all irvine welch (mostly miss for the heyoka)
the remains of the day by kazuo ishiguro (read, enjoyed)
McCarthy's Bar by Peter McCarthy (read, enjoyed)
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader (read, enjoyed)
all Dune (some read, rest piled on bonfire JUST KIDDING)
all peter carey (read)
Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club (not interested)
David Sedaris (has read extracts of work, doesn't strike funny bone)
Robert O'Brien*, The Silver crown, Mrs. Frisbee and the Rats of NIMH (both read and much loved by small heyoka)
stand on zanzibar(read, ho-hum)
all richard dawkins (read, and enjoyed, despite the fact that he was horribly rude to her once)
all Dorothy parker (read)*
all H E Bates (read)
lorna doone (never really liked)
Bram Stoker's Dracula (read)
all rudyard kipling (read)
all Anthony Burgess (read)
Carol Shields (read some, ho-hum, good but not quite heart-grabbing)
James Clavell's Shogun (read)
The Master and Margarita by mikhail Bulgarov (read)
The God of Small Things* (read)
And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave (read)
Perfume (Patrick Suskind) (read)
Possession (A.S. Byatt) (read)
all Donald Barthelme (read)
all Martin Amis (read)
all Kinglsey Amis (read)
maxine hong kingston's tripmaster monkey (read)
Norton Juster's the Phantom Tollbooth* (being reread whenever i find it in some box somewhere)
Walter J. Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz*
all John Wyndham (read)
all Kathy Acker (read)
all Rick Moody (read)
all Nicholson Baker (read)
Balzac (lots read)
all J.D. Salinger (read)
fugitive pieces* by anne michaels
Rebecca (read)
checking out
Jane Gardam
Bryce Courtenay
Nick Earls (this may work)
flann o'brien(been read, but will be re-read)
julie meyerson (hmm)
helen garner
E. L. Konigsburg
Greg Egan(this may work)
alexander von humboldt the seven volume "Personal Narrative of the Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America During the Years 1799-1804"
james michener the source
E.W. Hornung(hmm)
Daniil Kharms (ah!)
cynthia ozick
doomsday book by connie willis
peter goldsworthy
tim winton (h enjoyed 'dirt music', but a perusal of an earlier book didn't look too promising)
patricia wrightson
momo by micheal ende(the neverending story is a favourite)
potocki`s manuscript found in saragossa
Robert R McCammon's "Boy's Life"
Dec 2002: suggestions still be explored and taken. it's a neverending search! If you can provide an author will several published books that heyoka enjoys, a prize just may eventually reach you.
heyoka is quite out-of-character weepily touched by the efforts so far put forth, and says thank you very much. Please keep the book suggestions coming. (noded would be good, too). THIS IS NOT ENOUGH. heyoka will tear through these and belch, pulp-breathed, demanding MORE MORE. together we can narrow down her likes and dislikes, read and not-reads and discover a smorgasborg of reading material that will keep her from going stir crazy.
this writeup is sporadically updated while i am online. this writeup will self-destruct at some point. many thanks to demeter, wertperch, dutchess, the librarian, kidas, impartial, baffo, anbolb, princess loulou, anthropod, lockheart, enth, ryano, rancid pickle, aneurin, JudyT, chihuahua grub, Gorgonzola, ideath, conform, blandoon, alphafox, lizard, Metacognizant, The Custodian, Eco, tallroo, sneff, oolong, enkidu (kudos for providing links to unpublished murikami stories), liontamer, tem42, Zifendorf, catchpole, Pseudo_Intellectual, legbagede, knile87, station23, cerulean, malloc, inciteful, Focus, linca, 0mnidirecti0nal Hal0 and more to be named and blamed.