Random
Sweet list
I’m usually pretty suspicious of anything bearing the label ‘insider’. They lure you in with the promise of forbidden knowledge and the hope that, one day, you yourself can be one of the select few keepers of the evertindered Promethean Zippo. The other day I came across such a guide put out by some merry band called Fang Duff Kahn. Edited by Mark Strand, this fanny pack-sized volume has suggestions from various book sellers, publishers, poets and authors for off-the-radar books that they think are worth sharing with us. There are some pretty obscure choices in here, and not a few small-press selections. Apparently, proceeds from Books: The Essential Insider’s Guide also go to First Book, a group who buys words for children in low-income families, which is rad. It’s a good, if random, source of new stuff to read (especially if you’re tired of looking on your own backlogged list of books that you’ve been meaning to buy but haven’t got around to buying for a few years).
If you could name-drop just one favorite “forgotten, underappreciated, or little-known work of literature,” what would it be and why?
Tags: City Secrets, First Book
not sure if it is “too” commercial or if it is even and unknown book
but i found a book called “the year of endless sorrows” by Adam Rapp (I guess he’s a playwright and a young adult writer — and he wrote the screen play for a will ferril / zoey deschannel movie called A Winter Passing (I think))
it’s one of the greatest books ive ever read.
not sure if it is “too” commercial or if it is even and unknown book
but i found a book called “the year of endless sorrows” by Adam Rapp (I guess he’s a playwright and a young adult writer — and he wrote the screen play for a will ferril / zoey deschannel movie called A Winter Passing (I think))
it’s one of the greatest books ive ever read.
Rotwang by Timothy Hildebrand
Rotwang by Timothy Hildebrand
Alice, the Sausage. Sophie Jabes.
Alice, the Sausage. Sophie Jabes.
I will write these down. Thanks.
“The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz” by Russell Hoban. His first book (I think). Hoban’s famous for “Riddley Walker,” which is an incredible work for so many reasons, but this one’s a real gem to me.
“The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz” by Russell Hoban. His first book (I think). Hoban’s famous for “Riddley Walker,” which is an incredible work for so many reasons, but this one’s a real gem to me.
For me, it’s Mary Robison’s novel “Oh!” It’s one of my favorite works of fiction of all time, and meant a lot to me when I was going through my “Kmart realism” phase, which lasted from 2002 to…actually I’m still in that phase. God help me, I love it. But “Oh!” — it’s brilliant, understated, hilarious, kind of sad, and just perfectly executed. It was adapted into a movie called “Twister” (not the Helen Hunt tornado one) a while back, with Crispin Glover and Harry Dean Stanton. I haven’t seen it yet, but I maintain that it cannot be bad because it has HARRY DEAN FUCKING STANTON.
But yeah, I love that book. It’s been out of print for years, which I think qualifies it for underappreciated/forgotten status. (You can find it used cheap, though.) Tao Lin was the guy who turned me on to this one, actually, for which I owe him a drink. I don’t know what he drinks. A kombucha and vodka? I’m just guessing.
For me, it’s Mary Robison’s novel “Oh!” It’s one of my favorite works of fiction of all time, and meant a lot to me when I was going through my “Kmart realism” phase, which lasted from 2002 to…actually I’m still in that phase. God help me, I love it. But “Oh!” — it’s brilliant, understated, hilarious, kind of sad, and just perfectly executed. It was adapted into a movie called “Twister” (not the Helen Hunt tornado one) a while back, with Crispin Glover and Harry Dean Stanton. I haven’t seen it yet, but I maintain that it cannot be bad because it has HARRY DEAN FUCKING STANTON.
But yeah, I love that book. It’s been out of print for years, which I think qualifies it for underappreciated/forgotten status. (You can find it used cheap, though.) Tao Lin was the guy who turned me on to this one, actually, for which I owe him a drink. I don’t know what he drinks. A kombucha and vodka? I’m just guessing.