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The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann (for a more music-oriented work of similar geniusl try Dr. Faustus). Also, try to skip the Harriet Lowe-Porter translation (good, but not as great as the more recent one by Woods). Light In August - William Faulkner. Chapter 6, first sentence: Memory believes before knowing remembers. Take it from there. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon. The German Lesson - Seigfried Lenz Ubik - Philip K. Dick Those are very different books, all novels, and all have changed my perceptions of life in a profound way that survives the test of time (so far). I have read each at least 2 times, seperated by decades, and found increased value with time I would also add Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, and The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope as alternatives. Anything by Robert Anton Wilson - fiction or fact, who can tell? For non-fiction, I would suggest: Anatomy of Criticism by Northrop Frye - as important a refernce as Anatomy of Style by Strunk & White (which all readers & writers should memorize and keep close at hand) Improvised News: A Sociological Study of Rumor - Tomatsu Shibutani The Sacred and The Profane by Mircea Eliade The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire - Gibbons The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich - William Shirer
Last, and by far not the least, perhaps the 2 books that most impacted my psyche (for good or bad) one "fiction", the other "non-fiction" but both blur in the same historical facts: The Theory and Practice of Hell by Eugene Kogan The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski -----Original Message----- |