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I have only read On the Road - used as a sort of factional "guide book", during a trip from Buffalo, New York, to Los Angeles in 1990. I too took the Greyhound bus, and though I did not depart from New York City, we picked up the same route that Kerouac took somewhere along the line. I was in...

Very simple: they were on my "pending" pile of books. In addition, I have not been reading as much as I used to, in recent years. So, I have made a conscious decision to pick up the "bug" again - hence me joining a forum like this. :) On a different note (and off-topic), I notice you are...

Just spotted this post (I am new in these parts...) -- I think the key to Faulkner is perseverence and gritted teeth. Start gently, with something like The Wild Palms (if you can find it.) This book is actually two separate narratives, with chapters alternating. The most visceral story is called...

Reading an author's work in order is an old habit of mine... I have all McGrath's books, with the exception of the most recent. I also have the Blood and Water collection, and an anthology of "New Gothic" tales, edited by McGrath and another chap (whose name escapes me - will check, and modify...

Has anyone read any work by Patrick McGrath? My ex-flatmate moved out over a year ago, taking his section of our library with him, but he left a pile of Patrick McGrath books. I am working my way through them. McGrath's first novel, and the one I have read this afternoon, is The Grotesque...

A favourite Capote story: Capote and Harper Lee were childhood friends. So the rumour goes, Harper Lee actually wrote In Cold Blood, because she was much more small-town friendly than the flamboyant, cosmopolitan Capote, whilst he penned To Kill a Mockingbird, with the Jem-Dill friendship, being...

Try reading The Castle... Finished or not, I don't think it matters too much. The thing about Kafka is the gradually-increasing horror of the "facelessness of the bureaucratic machine" - an atmosphere, more than a pure narrative. I will never forget the time in the late 80s, when I was reading a...

Hi all - I have just surfed in to these forums. It's worth getting back to basics with McEwan. I have just finished revisiting The Cement Garden - his first novel, published in 1978. It's a fascinating, intense work. It focuses on one deeply alienated family, which becomes even more...