Christmas all over again!
Yesterday was exciting, and also quite weird. As a couple of you already know there was a post recently by yours truly on aconsiderablespeck forums asking for suggestions for reading material. I was dying for something to read…partly because I have so much time and I feel like I am stagnating, not learning anything anymore. I think I need to travel more, which is why I am going to Graz this weekend, but that’s another story.
Anyway earlier in the year I went to the school’s library to check out what there was available to read, in English German and French. Now the German selection was fairly extensive for obvious reasons but the English and French were quite lacking. The only english books were old old crime novels, one of the few types of book that I cannot even force myself to read. Don’t get me wrong reading German is ok, but to be honest when you compare good English lit. to good German lit. English is generally better. Just ask anyone that can read both languages, all the english teachers here read more English than german:P Plus reading German means that I actually spend more time with the dictionary than the book, since the German books that interest me are all about music history and philosophy and the language is hard even in English! Anyway, to my point.
Yesterday for some weird reason I ended back up in the library. Remember, this is the day after I wrote that post and after I read the posted responses by Richard and Rushan…thanks by the way for those guys. Lo and behold, there were a ton more English books, enough to keep me in reading ( and out of Agatha Christie *barf) for the rest of the year. Also, the weirdest of all was the fact that there on the shelf sat “Catch-22″ and it’s sequel “Closing Time”. In case you haven’t read the reading lists recommended by Rushan and Richard, Catch-22 was on Richard’s. And so without further ado here is my reading list for the coming months:
- Last four books in the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxytrilogy.
- Martin Amis, Visiting Mrs. Nabokov and other excursions
- Amis, Money
- Amis, Einstein’s Monsters
- Conan Doyle, His last bow (among other Holmes novels)
- Nick Hornby, High Fidelity
- Oxford Book of English Short Stories
- Oxford Library of Classic English Short Stories
- Edgar Allen Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher, and other stories
- Book of American Short Stories
- Book of Modern British Short Stories
- Neil Postman, Amusing ouselves to death
- Alan Stilltoe, Lonliness of a Long Distance Runner
- John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (plus four other classics if I get around to it)
- Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions
- Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and The Sea
- Roald Dahl, Kiss, Kiss
- Joeseph Heller, Catch-22
- Heller, Closing Time
- Roddy Doyle, The Commitments
- Patricia Highsmith, Ripley’s Game
As well as other selections that I am suggested or come upon.
Just like music where the more the listen the better you play; the more you read the better you write. The list is in no particular order, although there is an order that I will read them in, plus I will never read the same author back to back. God Forbid I get bored:D Since there are so many I will probably not get to them all, plus the German and French reading I want to do. The order which I have will hopefully allow me to get to the “important” ones first.
Current reading: Catch-22, Joeseph Heller
Un Paradis sur mesure, Christine Arnothy
Philosophie durch die Agen; Ein Schnellkurs, Ludwig Witgeller
Prost zu sprachen, notre seul manière d’expression (ok and maybe music too, and body language. But you get my point).
EDIT: Add these to the list (close to the top)
Bill Bryson - A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson - Neither Here Nor There
Anne Rice - Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt
Keri Hulme - The Bone People
Hey Nick, I like your reading list! So much Martin Amis … I find his stuff a little dense, after Rachel Papers, which is on its way to you. His Da wrote one of my favs, Lucky Jim. But don’t forget poetry; it is the wordsmith’s training ground. See what’s on the shelves at the school, and see if there is any Rilke, who wrote one of the best poems ever, On a Torso of Ancient Apollo … I’d love to be able to read it in the orig. German.
Your Da
That’s a good idea..there have been some pretty decent German poets over the years haven’t there:P And the books are bound to be there, German speakers are a proud lot.
Great list….I love Martin Amis’ writing, although as your dad says he can be a little dense/heavy.
Now that’s a great list. I wish I could say I’ve read even a quarter of your selection. Hope you enjoy Catch-22…
Yes! Nick Hornby! That I can read. “About a Boy” is good too.
I need to get to a library. I want to read some classics.
Hey Nick I still have Pride and Prejudice if you want to borrow that still. Gareth send that he didnt need it back after he gave it to me in Salzburg.
Pride and Prejudice?! Yuck. I read like 50 pages and put it back on my mother’s night table.