Recommended
.
Recommended
Reading
.
First off, don't buy books when you can borrow. If your local library is like mine and has a lousy selection, then see if they do inter-library loan. That's how I got my hands on most of the books on this list. I think most libraries do inter-library loans and a lot of people don't know about it. So you don't have to buy a book unless you just have to have something just written and you can't wait a few months. A lot of idiots like to collect and put books on a shelf to show off how literate they are. What a waste. After you read a book will you ever read it again? There are so many books and so little time. Borders and Barnes & Nobles are great because you can sit down and read whatever book or magazine you want with no intention of buying. It's much more worthwhile to spend your money on CDs, which you can't find much of in libraries and which you use more than once. I'll step off the soap box now. I recommend the following which are in alphabetical order by author....
.
.
Anne Beattie
Distortions
The Burning House (first 1/2 - 3/4 plus title story)
.
Robert Bly
Collected Poems
.
Charles Bukowski
Factotum
The Most Beautiful Woman in Town
Notes of a Dirty Old Man
Post Office
South of No North
Tales of Ordinary Madness
Women
.
Raymond Carver
Aquamarine
Where Water Comes Together With Other Water
Where I'm Calling From
(all of his work is guaranteed to be good)
.
Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Journey to the End of the Night
.
Robert Coover
Pricksongs & Descants
.
Andre Dubus
The Times Are Never So Bad (best story: The New Boy)
.
William Faulkner
Collected Stories (first 1/2 -3/4)
The Portable Faulkner (novella Bear and novel excerpts)
.
Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
(creators of Red Dwarf,the British sitcom)
Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers
Better Than Life
Last Human
.
Ernest Hemingway
Collected Stories
To Have and Have Not
.
Yusef Komunyaka
Neon Vernacular
.
William Kotzwinkle
Elephant Bangs Train
Jewel of the Moon
.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Collected Stories
.
Joyce Carol Oates
The Assignation
Where Did You Come From? Where Have You Been?
.
Jonathan Penner
Going Blind
Natural Order
Private Parties
.
Robert Stone
Bear and His Daughter
.
John Updike
Problems
Trust Me (first 1/2)
.