cabrasopa said:
Has anyone else found thiemselves reading something they normally wouldn't ??
Where would I begin?
I'm new here, but other forums I've participated in have led me to writers I'd probably have not known of.
The Cult, where I initially went just for the writers workshop angle, hasled me to:
'The Contortionist's Handbook' by Craig Clevenger
'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People' by Toby Young
'Syrup' and 'Jennifer Government' by Max Barry
'The Pugilist at Rest' by Thom Jones
'The Coma' by Alex Garland
'A Confederacy of Dunces' by John Kennedy Toole
'The Monkey Wrench Gang' by Edward Abbey
'The Ice at the Bottom of the World' by Mark Richard
'Underworld,' 'Cosmopolis,' and 'The Body Artist' by Don DeLillo
The Velvet, where I ended up after fellow Cult members recommended Will Christopher Baer to me has led me to:
'Kiss Me, Judas,' 'Penny Dreadful,' and 'Hell's Half Acre' by WCB.
Plus:
'All The Beautiful Sinners' by Stephen Graham Jones
'Identity Theory' by Peter Temple
'The Anomalies' and 'Torture the Artist' by Joey Goebel
A fellow I met on the Cult forums sent me:
'The Stories of John Cheever' (which led me to 'The Wapshot Chronicle')
'Where I'm Calling From,' selected stories of Raymond Carver. I had already read the title track somewhere, but hadn't remembered the name of the author.
The same fellow turned me onto Joyce Carol Oates ('Middle Age,' 'We Were the Mulvaneys,' 'American Appetetites,' 'I'll Take You There').
Subscriptions to literary magazines like
The Paris Review have led me to:
'Reasons to Live,' 'At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom,' 'Tumble Home,' and 'The Dog of Marriage' by Amy Hempel
'Motherless Brooklyn,' and 'The Fortress of Solitude' by Jonathan Lethem
'Being Dead' by Jim Crace
'The Voyage of the Narwhal' by Andrea Barrett
Paris Review is also where I read 'The Final Solution,' by Michael Chabon around the time that:
A friend of mine loaned me:
'Middlesex' by Jeffrey Eugenides
'The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay' by Michael Chabon, which led to me reading 'Mysteries of Pittsburgh' and 'Summerland.'
Finally, I used to take the Oprah endorsement as an 'avoid this book' sticker. Then I caught an interview with Toni Morrison, and read 'The Bluest Eye' despite the Opra Book Club sticker. That led me to 'Sula,' 'Paradise,' 'Beloved,' and 'Jazz,' by the same author.
So much for ruling out a book because Oprah's club picked it.
Random recommendations have led me to:
'Herzog' by Saul Bellow
'The Pleasure of My Company' and 'Shopgirl' by Steve Martin
'American Pastoral,' 'The Ghost Writer,' 'Portnoy's Complaint,' 'The Anatomy Lesson,' 'Zuckerman Unbound,' 'I Married a Communist,' 'The Human Stain,' and 'The Prague Orgy' by Philip Roth
'The Good Soldier Švejk' by Jaroslav Hašek
And perhaps most out of character for me... 'The Lovely Bones' by Alice Seybold, which I'm about half way through...
I can't say 100% of the above are books I'd recommend. The Hašek is one to take in doses, as he badly needed editing (he died before it's completion), plus it's a translation. I struggled to maintain interest in the Barrett book, and while I wasn't that thrilled with 'The Anomalies,' Joey Goebel's second book, 'Torture the Artist' was a ton of fun. There are, likewise, peaks and valleys in Will Christopher Baer's stuff, and I think I like 'Penny Dreadful' best of the three by a wide margin.
Oh, come to think of it, speaking of WCB, reading the Phineas Poe books made me track down some Raymond Chandler, so 'The Big Sleep' and 'The Long Goodbye,' and 'Farewell, My Lovely.'
Did I answer the question?
