Random
elimae’s Reading List in Archives
Randomly stumbled on an old list of Recommended Reading from the elimae archives, including lists of recommendation by Deron Bauman, Brian Evenson, Michael Kimball, Norman Lock, Dawn Raffel, B. Renner, M Sarki, and several excellent others. The lists form a pretty wonderful net of texts many of which I have loved, and many others I’ve never heard of or have meant to read. I added I think 5 things to my Amazon wishlist off of it. Worth exploring.
A preponderance of Cormac McCarthy reemphasizes the fact that if you haven’t read BLOOD MERIDIAN and SUTTREE by now, well, fuck, get to work.
Deron Baumann, oddly, refers to BLOOD MERIDIAN though specifically only wants pages 5-165, which is about as far as I got the first time I tried to read it. It’s a dense mother. But now that I’ve read it twice and change, and still not quite having absorbed a lot, I have to say, the images near the end with the child in the desert hiding from the Judge as he passes back and forth into the sand are one of the images that has haunted me most in all my reading ever.
Other names that appear on the lists rather frequently: Gordon Lish, Samuel Beckett, Amos Tutuola, Italo Calvino, Diane Williams. Though there is also a lot of hidden nuggetry and apocrypha.
This is a good puzzle, in a way, I love these kinds of lists. I want more.
So, not sure what to read next? You probably can’t go wrong with most of what’s on here.
Old elimae is like scrolls: if you’ve never dug from the early years, jeez. Go.
Tags: ELIMAE, gordon lish, reading list
that’s itneresting that people don’t get through blood meridian on the first read. I didn’t either. Got to page fiftyish and shelved it. It’s still shelved. I should probably give it another go.
I wonder why though. I was digging the language, so why did I put it down? I do the same with other dense books I guess too. Maybe it’s like you need a taste so you know what you’re getting into, you need to process the taste a little, then when you come back, you’re ready to eat the rest.
that’s itneresting that people don’t get through blood meridian on the first read. I didn’t either. Got to page fiftyish and shelved it. It’s still shelved. I should probably give it another go.
I wonder why though. I was digging the language, so why did I put it down? I do the same with other dense books I guess too. Maybe it’s like you need a taste so you know what you’re getting into, you need to process the taste a little, then when you come back, you’re ready to eat the rest.
Par Lagervist and Kobo Abe are brilliant. Like run around hte house screaming after reading their stuff cause they are so good. This list was great and inspiring, thanks for posting. I liked Dawn Raffel’s list very much, except for Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? Granted, I read it ages ago, but man, I thought it was really bad. She’s a story writer and was forced to come out with a novel and -not good.
Par Lagervist and Kobo Abe are brilliant. Like run around hte house screaming after reading their stuff cause they are so good. This list was great and inspiring, thanks for posting. I liked Dawn Raffel’s list very much, except for Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? Granted, I read it ages ago, but man, I thought it was really bad. She’s a story writer and was forced to come out with a novel and -not good.
blood meridian, yeah, i don’t know. every sentence is a hit in the face. sometimes its hard to take that over time. it’s just so so much, i think. you have to be ready for the ingestion, and most are not the first time. i had the same experience with gravity’s rainbow.
i can’t say enough how much you should go finish blood meridian. it is something else.
pr, yeah, frog hospital i couldn’t get into when i tried either, though it was also several years. may try again sometime.
blood meridian, yeah, i don’t know. every sentence is a hit in the face. sometimes its hard to take that over time. it’s just so so much, i think. you have to be ready for the ingestion, and most are not the first time. i had the same experience with gravity’s rainbow.
i can’t say enough how much you should go finish blood meridian. it is something else.
pr, yeah, frog hospital i couldn’t get into when i tried either, though it was also several years. may try again sometime.
I think it was bad. Like, signicantly bad. But great stuff on that list in general!
Of course, my favoirte thing about MCCarthy is how misunderstood he is. But he’s a great writer, too.
I think it was bad. Like, signicantly bad. But great stuff on that list in general!
Of course, my favoirte thing about MCCarthy is how misunderstood he is. But he’s a great writer, too.