I am a slow reader. Books I love I will read several times, at years intervals. I read books on both Kindle and paper. As for many other things my main influences are: George Orwell, Thomas Pynchon, Stephen King, Haruki Murakami, Julian Barnes, and the great French authors of the 19th and 20th centuries – Balzac, les Dumas, Gustave Flaubert, Emile Zola, Charles Baudelaire, Anatole France, Marcel Proust – le Maître – Albert Camus… and the German classics: Goethe, Mann, Hesse, Brecht, Remarque…
my currently-reading shelf:
Related articles
- Neal Stephenson on getting big stuff done (boingboing.net)
- Black Hat USA Welcomes Neal Stephenson to Keynote Stage (securityorb.com)
- Read An 8 Page Preview of Stephen King’s & Joe Hill’s Road Rage Comic (larryfire.wordpress.com)
- Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books That Broke Your Heart a Little (bridgetsbooks.wordpress.com)
- Another Quick Quotation (tannerwillbanks.wordpress.com)
Roger Penrose is my hero. That book is not bed time reading though. 🙂
LikeLike
My partner (who’s a fine mathematician) is reading his new book, “Cycles of Time” (Vintage) which tells the story of “what came before the Big bang”: so it’s in the stack too on her recommendation! In small doses? 🙂
LikeLike
Oh, that sounds like a marvelous book. Your partner is a mathematician. How cool! I studied mathematics and was about to start a masters, but I was too old to qualify for any of the scholarships, and mathematicians who had just qualified with first class PhD’s were unable to find jobs in academia. They have now been employed in corporate worlds (which is not a place for me), so here I am translating for a living.
I am aware of Penrose’s idea of time, and how we will run out of it until there isn’t any, until there is another Big Bang. Beautiful idea.
LikeLike
How are you liking The Woman in Black? I can’t wait to read it. Stephen King’s book, On Writing is my constant companion too. Might I suggest you add Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott to your “books on writing” stack; it’s similar in tone. I also really love Story by Robert McKee and most everything in The Writer’s Digest series of books on the craft of writing.
LikeLike
Thanks for commenting Misty. I liked The Woman in Black very much, a good story, beautifully written by a master at the top of her art. I will catch up with your suggestions too!
LikeLike
I believe “On Writing” by S. King is the best one. Keep reading and keep writing – the only way to learn – throw the MBA out the window, it’s a waste of money.
LikeLike
This is a most inspiring list, thank you so much! I nejoeyd “on Writing” by S. King very much. And equally much Sol Stein “Über das Schreiben”; “Stein on Writing”.
LikeLike
I like all those writers you’ve mentioned… 🙂
LikeLike
Pour les grands noms qui font de la France un superbe pays et aussi pour Orwell.
LikeLike
Great selection of books. Orwell, Murakami, Balzac, Flaubert, Camus, Goethe, Mann, Hesse…Have read and loved these writers’ works. I think the only one I’ve read but am not big on is King, and I’ve never read anything by Remarque.
LikeLike