Friday, July 27, 2007

From Cover to Cover


Jeannine Hall Gailey Asks:

Which ten books are the books that have inspired the most writing from you? The books you read that you couldn't wait to put down so you could write afterwards? These aren't neccessarily your "favorite" books, but the books that have helped you generate the most new work. If you are a poet, they do not have to all be poetry, they can be fiction, non-fiction, etc.

-------------------------------------------------------------from Jeannine Hall Gailey's Blog


Cows, Pigs, Wars & Witches - Marvin Harris

1984 -George Orwell

Faust - Goethe

Selected Poems - T.S. Eliot

The Social Construction of Reality - Berger & Luckmann

The Island of Dr. Moreau - H.G. Wells

Almost Anything by Aldous Huxley (especially The Devils of Loudon & Brave New World)

The Time of Indifference - Alberto Moravia

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion - Yukio Mishima

The Moon & Sixpence - W. Somerset Maugham




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I had to leave so many books off the list for lack of space -

6 comments:

Mr. Reynolds said...

Selected Poems- Robert Creeley

Breakfast of Champions- Kurt Vonnegut

Contemporary American Poetry- Poulin and Waters, Editors (this one is cheating, isn't it?)

The Crying of Lot 49- Thomas Pynchon

The Shipping News- Annie Proulx

Welcome to the Monkey House- Kurt Vonnegut

The Prelude- William Wordsworth (not a book, but counts nonetheless)

Anything by Stanley Kunitz

Any good volume of Art History

While not a book, attending a poetry readnig always makes me want to write.

There's my list (I know there are some cheats in there). :)

Nick said...

Nice list! Vonnegut & Kunitz are choices that I could easily have added to my list.

Anonymous said...

Nice list, Nick. Gailey's a Pacific alumna, btw.

Nick said...

Thanks, I steered clear of listing poetry books & the classics. I'm sure that it pales next to your list.

Jeannine said...

Nice list, Nick! A little dark...in a good way.

Nick said...

Thanks, Jeanine. BTW, I like your list - especially the Gluck & Atwood choices.... Color me a little dark...in a good way.