Storm Garner - my overlong and over explained list of the books that have stayed with me. 1. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, author of Gillead. About The dangerous and deep undertow of transience according to Good Reads. Only a little bit about the dangerous expectations placed on women, according to me. 2. The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys by Baháulláh. The peak of my obsession with Rumi and other mystical poets falls on this text, though it has often been voted too esoteric to recommend to those unfamiliar with The Bahai Faith, I keep it by my bedside. 3. The Waves- Virginia Woolf - but I mean really pick just one by Woolf? Why not her diaries, why not Dalloway, why not Orlando? Oh Orlando I could reread any day, The Waves on the other hand is a psychological state I only return to only in memory. 4. The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell- When I lived in Costa Rica instead of mastering Spanish I made short films and sat for long hours in the bibliotecha reading the half-shelf of English texts, mostly Durrell, Forster, Sarton, and Hesse. Yes, the books were that old and it was impossible to remove one from the library, so I would sit upstairs at a little study desk reading three out of four books from The Alexandria Quartet (someone must have stolen or destroyed Justine) until I couldnt feel my legs or silence my stomach. 5. On the Road by Jack Kerouac was given to me by Chelsea Rossetto, Alicia Cable-Larche and Raliegh Merrill at a New Years party as a bon voyage gift before I went out to New York in 2007. Had I read it before? I think so, I must have. Was I in tune to the great loneliness of the text? No, not till that long isolated semester. Every so often I would reread the inscriptions in the front and remember I had friends and I was on a grand adventure. (It was California from there, and briefly back to Colorado with long drives to Denver, then California again, Costa Rica, then back to New York to stay for a while) I still have the copy they gave me and I loved The Beat generation for a while, and then got really sad about Kerouacs later years and misogyny and thought Id outgrown all the romanticized hobo wanderlust. Then Emily Dawn Fournier lent me Off the Map by by Hib Chickena and Kika Kat and I adored the girls and fell right back in love with the idea of the heroic vagrant. 6. Just Kids by Patti Smith (That one perfect Summer) 7. Everything so far in translation from Amelie Nothomb. At the time of reading Hygiene and the Assassin there was no greater happiness on a sleep-deprived-post-5am-shift-Monday than carrying home half-a-paycheck worth of groceries from Trader Joes including avocados, and that book balanced at the top of the bag. I got to the kitchen at the top of the brownstone, I unpacked half the freezer foods, set a timer so I wouldnt miss the next thing and collapsed on the floor against the cabinets to read. 8. Gnomes by Wil Hygen, on my childhood shelf next to Dinotopia, and the Faeries of Brain Froud. 9. The Lamps of his Eyes, the Doors of his Mouth by Roger Zelazny (My first literary crush) 10. Paradise by Toni Morrison which I read before I was able to comprehend it, then reread again years later with deep joy and someday will read again, still without full appreciation or total comprehension. To continue the game- Kirsten, Mariah MacCarthy, Illona, Deborah Yarchun, and Elizabeth M Tupou- what are your top 10? 11. Close to this list along with half a dozen lovelies Ill think of sometime later-Everything by Borges, Raymond Chandler, The Flanders Panel (awful title, what were you thinking?)The Master and Margarita (but only as translated by Katherine Tiernan OConnor) A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, Elements of Style, Einsteins Dreams, Bluets, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The Thief of Time, The Thief of Always (no relation) Neverwhere, How we Are Hungry, Secrets of the Fire King and How to Read a Poem and Start at Poetry Circle by Molly Peacock.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 13:40:04 +0000
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