Wednesday, April 23, 2008

From A to Z

Who can resist a book list? Not I. I got it from Random Jottings... who got it from Stuck in a Book.

An A-Z of favorites:

A is for Paul Auster - The New York Trilogy
B is for Pat Barker - The Regeneration Trilogy (Emily & Charlotte Bronte are close seconds)
C is for Ethan Canin - For Kings and Planets and it has to be for Chekhov too
D is for Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment
E is for George Eliot - Middlemarch
F is for F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby and it also has to be for E. M. Forster too - Howards End
G is for Doris Grumbach - pretty much everything, a precious observer
H is for Herman Hesse - Narcissus and Goldmund, The Glass Bead Game
I is for Henrik Ibsen - A Doll's House
J is for James Joyce - The Dubliners
K is for Tony Kushner - Angels in America Parts I & II
L is for Sinclair Lewis - Arrowsmith
M is for Iris Murdoch - anything! The Black Prince is a good start. But you won't go wrong with Toni Morrison - Sula or Ian McEwen - Atonement or Nicholas Mosely Hopeful Monsters either.
N is for Pablo Neruda - anything! The Love Sonnets are breathtaking
O is for Clifford Odets - Awake and Sing! The Country Girl or his diaries (awesome) or Frank O'Hara's poems
P is for Richard Powers - The Goldbug Variations (need you ask?)
Q is for Hm... I'm stumped, actually
R is for Ray Robinson - Electricity
S is for J. D. Salinger, May Sarton, Wallace Stegner, and ok William Shakespeare
T is for Tolstoy (I like the fact that the Russian writers only require last names) - Anna Karenina
U is for Barry Unsworth - Morality Play
V is for Tarjei Vesaas - The Ice Palace
W is for Virginia Woolf - The Waves
X marks the spot but I can't think of an author
Y is for A. B. Yehoshuah - Mr. Mani
Z is for Stefan Zweig whom I haven't read yet but intend to!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stefan Zweig's Chess Story (The Royal Game) is a wonderful novella, very intricate and psychological and dark. It looks at the possible connections between chess and insanity.

Ted said...

Hi Verbivore - I picked up a copy on your recommendation today!

LK said...

I don't think I could commit to an A-Z list in ink (even virtual ink). But I do admire your list.

Ted said...

lk - taking a stand is good for the soul. You can always change your mind!

StuckInABook said...

Glad to see another Woolf fan! I chose Mrs Dalloway as my favourite, but it is a fight between Mrs D, To The Lighthouse and The Waves... usually whichever one I've read most recently wins.