Reading Lists

[qcrisp]

I don't know why, but I was just thinking about reading lists I've used in my life. I don't mean reading lists of my own making, but particular things that have served as major reading lists for periods of my life, not necessarily to be strictly followed, but which constituted a kind of centre of signposts to which I often returned, getting lost on the paths those signposts pointed out.

I'll give examples here and would be interested in similar examples from other people.

When I was very young, one of these was a large, illustrated paperback book called something like Fantasy Worlds - I can't find it with a brief internet search. From this I discovered Lovecraft, Peake, Gene Wolfe and others. In fact, I think there were actually two similar books that served this purpose.

Slightly later, the reading list was provided by Lovecraft's essay 'Supernatural Horror in Literature'.

A new vista was opened up with A Japanese Mirror, by Ian Buruma, which served as my reading list for a while:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3716957-a-japanese-mirror?from_search=true

Later again, Momus (Nick Currie) became a kind of musical reading list:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDeQJTGUpjY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_ocsDS9p6M

I reproduce here the lyrics from the first of those two songs:

I love you, you're so well read
Blue stockings well spread
Your carnal knowledge knocks me dead

I love you, you're so well read
Bluestocking give head
I love you, you've read:

Ovid, Anaïs Nin
The Song of Solomon
The Perfumed Garden and Georges Bataille's
The Story of the Eye
The Petronius Satyricon
The Arabian Nights, the Decameron
The Marquis de Sade's 120 Days
And Serge Gainsbourg singing songs to Sweet Jane B

I love you, you're so well read
Blue stockings well spread
Your carnal knowledge knocks me dead

I love you, you're so well read
Bluestocking give head
I love you, you've read:

Sacher Masoch and DHL
Portnoy's Complaint and mine as well
Frank Harris, The Life and Loves
Lusts of a Moron, Wings of a Dove
The Latins of the Silver Age
The triolets of Paul Verlaine
Lautreamont and G. Cabrera Infante
Mishima Yukio and Sweet Jane B

I love you, you're so well read
Bluestocking give head
Whisper what they said:

"Le silence de la chambre est profond
Aucun bruit n'arrive plus
Ni des routes, ni de la ville, ni de la mere
La nuit est a son terme, partout limpide et noir
La lune a disparu
Ils ont peur
Il ecoute, les yeux au sol
Son silence effrayante
Il parle de sa beaute
Les yeux fermees
Il peut revoir encore l'image dans sa perfection"

[teguififthzeal]

The 2,000 Page Suicide Note by Mitchell Heisman (http://www.highexistence.com/topic/the-2000-page-suicide-note-by-mitchell-heisman/)


I've been reading Michael Heismann's 2000 page "suicide note" (appropriately titled) "Suicide Note" for the past few days, and I have to say, this guy is on par with any nihilistic author I've ever encountered.

He shot himself, dressed in white, in front of a group of Harvard students after completing the book and submitting it for publication.

[gveranon]

The 2,000 Page Suicide Note by Mitchell Heisman (http://www.highexistence.com/topic/the-2000-page-suicide-note-by-mitchell-heisman/)


I've been reading Michael Heismann's 2000 page "suicide note" (appropriately titled) "Suicide Note" for the past few days, and I have to say, this guy is on par with any nihilistic author I've ever encountered.

He shot himself, dressed in white, in front of a group of Harvard students after completing the book and submitting it for publication.

I tried to download that a few years ago, but the file was so huge it crashed my Adobe Reader.

[Mark Cooper]

I only started reasding weird fiction a couple of years ago when I discovered Ligotti's stories. My first reading list was his Conspiracy Against the Human Race. I hunted down and read all the stories and authors he mentioned. And one of the main reasons I joined the forum here was to see what other weird-minded people are reading and find some new authors to check out.

[teguififthzeal]

Check out Flannery O Connor. she's weird

[Mark Cooper]

Check out Flannery O Connor. she's weird

I've always been a bit reluctant to read her since all I've ever heard about her stories is that they're very expressive of a Roman Catholic worldview. Are there any stories that you'd single out as being the cream of her crop, teguififthzeal?

[Waffiesnaq]

The most significant reading lists for me have always been compiled in the interviews of Thomas Ligotti. Through him I discovered Thomas Bernhard (and I've since read everything of his available in English translations (http://www.thomasbernhard.org/works.shtml), which he probably would have hated), Bruno Schulz, Philip Larkin, Hagiwara Sakutarō, Emil Cioran, and others. I had already read Poe and Burroughs and Borges but Ligotti's admiration made me revisit their work and contemplate it in new ways I found very rewarding.

In college I bought the occasional 100,000,000 Books You Hafta Read Before You Die! manual, but I stopped thumbing through these because 1) the selections never strayed far from the Western canon and soggy social realism, and 2) I eventually found it much funner to track down interviews with authors about their influences, à la the tried and true Ligotti way. Last year ago when I discovered Eric Basso I read an interview in which he named his three favorite American novelists: Nathanael West, Djuna Barnes, and John Hawkes. I'd heard of none of these guys, and after randomly scanning some works and their descriptions I could only picture an hourglass in a sea of books. "Well, there goes my summer." Jackpot.

[qcrisp]

The most significant reading lists for me have always been compiled in the interviews of Thomas Ligotti. Through him I discovered Thomas Bernhard (and I've since read everything of his available in English translations (http://www.thomasbernhard.org/works.shtml), which he probably would have hated), Bruno Schulz, Philip Larkin, Hagiwara Sakutarō, Emil Cioran, and others. I had already read Poe and Burroughs and Borges but Ligotti's admiration made me revisit their work and contemplate it in new ways I found very rewarding.

In college I bought the occasional 100,000,000 Books You Hafta Read Before You Die! manual, but I stopped thumbing through these because 1) the selections never strayed far from the Western canon and soggy social realism, and 2) I eventually found it much funner to track down interviews with authors about their influences, à la the tried and true Ligotti way. Last year ago when I discovered Eric Basso I read an interview in which he named his three favorite American novelists: Nathanael West, Djuna Barnes, and John Hawkes. I'd heard of none of these guys, and after randomly scanning some works and their descriptions I could only picture an hourglass in a sea of books. "Well, there goes my summer." Jackpot.

When I hear a name in more than one unusual/trustworthy context, and the contexts are independent of each other, I am often prompted to read them. Djuna Barnes is a case in point. Justin Isis, of these boards and elsewhere, is also an admirer of her work. I shall definitely be putting her on the list.

On a slightly trivial note, I lived in Hagiwara Sakutaro's hometown for a while.

[teguififthzeal]

I first discovered Dino Buzzati through Mr. Ligotti's interviews. A great writer of short stories and his novel "The Tartar Steppe" was also great.

To answer the question below from Mark Cooper, I think a lot of people who are atheists and agnostics appreciate O Connor's work. It is dark--at times almost irredeemably so--with a tinge of pathos. You might even say that C.S Lewis and O Connor were from different universes.

I would recommend "A Good Man is Hard To Find".

[ChildofOldLeech]

- Ah, it is likely the asperger's in me, but I have always loved not just making, but reading lists of books; a list full of unread, perhaps formerly unheard of titles -especially those of an offbeat, peculiar, or obscure nature, is like the purest music to my ears - the catalogue from Atlas Press was one of my first favorite such discoveries. Amazon is a greedy, grasping corporate behemoth to be sure, but I have always loved it, not so much for what it is, but what it offered, namely the Listmania lists that patrons can create. I cannot overestimate the importance that these lists in general, and particular, those written by one 'Rob O'Tussin' - who compiled dozens and dozens of lists devoted to all manner of surrealist/visionary/avant-garde/experimental/cult/generally deranged literature which proved an invaluable resource throughout high school and helped me locate a number of obscure, marginal geniuses I might previously have gone unaware of. These wonderful lists can be found here: Amazon.com : Profile for Rob O'Tussin
-Andrew Calcutt's Cult Fiction: A Reader's Guide was another source of inspiration in high school, and although it's rather slightly written for the general reader, it's a fine collection of information on a number of authors, some all but unknown.
-Regarding weird/supernatural fiction, I have repeatedly perused and enjoyed Stephen Jones' Horror: 100 Greatest Books and Another 100 Greatest Books immensely, in no small part due to the hundreds of entries in the 'Also Recommended' section featured at the end of the book, which have led me to discovering a plethora of forgotten gems.
Other favorites included Karl Edward Wagner's list of 39 favorite horror novels (http://www.violetbooks.com/wagnerlist.html), John Pelan's 'horror core' list (http://home.epix.net/~wallison/corelist.html) and the 'century of horror' list featured at DarkEcho: http://darkecho.com/darkecho/horroronline/century.html . I have read dozens of titles off of each of them, and would recommend these lists to any admirer of the weird.

[Waffiesnaq]

I'm posting an old reading list I used to consult quite often because I adore this guy's blog writing. He is incredibly widely read and it shows.

Ratings and reviews (http://www.gwern.net/Book%20reviews)

[qcrisp]

I'm posting an old reading list I used to consult quite often because I adore this guy's blog writing. He is incredibly widely read and it shows.

Ratings and reviews (http://www.gwern.net/Book%20reviews)

Quite an unusual list, and well organised. I was intrigued by his review of The Book of Lord Shang.

[teguififthzeal]

I was obsessed with discovering exactly WHO "Rob O Tussin" was for about a year. I still don't believe that was one person. He will never ever respond to an e-mail enquiry about anything. What a list maker......

[ChildofOldLeech]

-Although I never worked up the gumption to try and contact him (her?), I was rather fixated upon M. O'Tussin for a few years back in high school, to the extent of becoming a sort of erstwhile disciple and helping spread the gospel of eccentric & esoteric literature all over amazon, and so the truth can now be told: I was Peelsticker Toothacher. . .

Amazon.com : Profile for Peelsticker Toothacher

[Frater_Tsalal]

In terms of southern writers, I've found that I much prefer Carson McCullers work to that of O'Connor. Having said that, I did enjoy her novel Wise Blood more than I did her short stories.

Dennis Cooper's top 50 novels list (seen here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/574402-dennis-cooper-s-50-favorite-novels-in-no-order) was a huge inspiration for me when I first came across it years ago, to the extent that it inspired me to become a more prolific reader (so that I could compile my own top 50 novel list). I think I've read around 50% of the books on that list, though a few of them I had read already even before I first saw it.

Another list that inspired me: Philip Best's (former member of Whitehouse), as seen on his Blogger profile: https://www.blogger.com/profile/03104890215102280939

[teguififthzeal]

I did wonder who that was, ChildofLeech. lol

[fogus]

not necessarily to be strictly followed, but which constituted a kind of centre of signposts to which I often returned, getting lost on the paths those signposts pointed out.

In addition to HPL's Supernatural Horror in Literature and its predecessor The Tales of Terror by Birkhead, I have used many a reading list in my time.

One of particular significance to me was formed by the once thriving online community built around discussing The House of Leaves. While I never completed the community list, digging into it uncovered many tunnels into other important books in my life. The list in question is found at hol.org · GitHub (https://gist.github.com/fogus/e6aedcb1ef39192d022a0524a843933d)