I’m a sucker for a book like Bound to Last. Thirty writers pick their most cherished book. Ray Bradbury admits in his Introduction that reading Poe’s Tales of Mystery & Imagination turned him into a writer. For Francine Prose, it was Anderson’s Fairy Tales. For Karen Joy Fowler, it was The Once and Future King. Sigrid Nunez picks Mythology as the book she most cherishes. Reading the essays these writers wrote about the books they love make me want to drop everything and read the books they recommend. I bet you’ll feel the same way, too. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Tales of Mystery & Imagination (Poe): Ray Bradbury
The Crying of Lot 49 (Pynchon) & In the Heart of the Heart of the Country (Gass): Jim Shepard
Anderson’s Fairy Tales: Francine Prose
The Stranger (Camus): Anthony Swofford
Speak, Memory (Nabokov): Danielle Tussoni
The Shadow of the Sun (Kapuscinski): Nick Flynn
The Bible: Joyce Maynard
Les Miserables (Hugo): Louis Ferrante
Naked Lunch (Burroughs): Elissa Schappell
The Story and Its Writer (Ann Charters): Anthony Doerr
Invisible Man (Ellison): David Hajdu
Roar and More (Karla Kuskin): Julia Glass
Das Kapital (Marx): Shahriar Mandanipour
The Viking Portable Dorothy Parker: J. Courtney Sullivan
The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy: Terrance Holt
For Whom the Bell Tolls (Hemingway): Philipp Meyer
The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel: Karen Green
Mason & Dixon (Pynchon): Jim Knipfel
Emily Dickinson (Belinda Knapp): Xu Xiaobin
Dungeon Masters Guide: Ed Park
Sula (Toni Morrison): Susan Straight
Ulysses (Joyce): Sean Manning
Believe It or Not!: Sarah Manguso
William Trevor: The Collected Stories: Victoria Patterson
The Once and Future King (White): Karen Joy Fowler
The Carpetbaggers (Robbins): Rabih Alameddine
The New Professional Chef: Michael Ruhlman
Mythology (Hamilton): Sigrid Nunez
Another Country (Baldwin): Chris Abani
Heart’s Needle (Snodgrass): Christine Shutt
Ship of Fools (Porter): Jonathan Miles
LOVE the battered cover!
Yes, that faux-battered cover is a nice touch, Dan.
I love the concept in theory but like Desert Island Discs they often seem to pick books no one will ever read. Something to make them look smart and well-read. I want to see the writer that chooses a book that is not a classic, not the book we were told we should read as a child. The British are especially prone to this. Every Christmas when UK writers pick their favorite holiday reading, they all choose books that are difficult, obscure.
I know what you mean, Patti. Joyce Maynard picks THE BIBLE! But Elissa Schappell chooses NAKED LUNCH and J. Courtney Sullivan chooses THE VIKING PORTABLE DOROTHY PARKER. Difficult books and semi-obscure.
I agree with Patti, though I’d enjoy seeing the list of authors and their picks, without the text between. I hope no one picked Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man, Atlas Shruggedor Waiting for Godot. Let alone Kant’s The Critique of Pure Reason.
I added the TABLE ON CONTENTS, Rick. I think you’ll find it interesting.
THANK YOU, GEORGE!
I do find it interesting, and some of the selections stretch my ability to credit them. When I mentioned the Joyce title, I was SURE no one would list Ulysses for goodness sake. I have to remember this is “most CHERISHED book, not inspiring, favorite or motivating. It would be hard to believe that Joyce inspired anyone to become a writer, but it takes all kinds.
I found the essays explaining the choices in BOUND TO LAST intriguing, Rick. Several of them had the effect of motivating me to find the books they chose and adding those books to my already Everest-like Read Real soon stack.
You seem have a problem with Irish writers Mr Robinson since you gave both Joyce and Beckett the thumbs down. I suggest picture or colouring books might be more to your liking. Slan leat. Le meas. Padraic O Beirn
Patraic, sadly Rick Robinson died this year. While Rick didn’t like some Irish writers, I sure do!