My list of very important books

elliot — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:52:49 -0600

I was saying to Nicola (my wife) the other night that I think there are probably 50 books which have had a profound effect on me. And that there probably aren't many more great books that I haven't already encountered. Depressing, but I think it may be true. Here's the list of the books I can bring to mind without effort, all of which have had a major effect on my thinking or which were just thoroughly enjoyable. Hopefully, there are still a few more out there:

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. The first science fiction book I remember reading. Filled me with an amazing sense of awe. Changed my life.
Crash by J.G. Ballard. Made me question what pornography is.
The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard. Hilarious, terrifying, ground-breaking.
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. I stayed up all night to read it. Some of the best characterisation of any book I've ever read.
Nova Express by William Burroughs. Actually virtually unreadable, but made me examine and question the whole idea of interpretation.
Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre. Perfectly captures how I felt when I first got to University.
The Age of Wire and String by Ben Marcus. Astonishing experimental fables.
Report on Probability A by Brian Aldiss. Mind numbing but fascinating.
The Knight of the Swords by Michael Moorcock. A perfect fantasy novel.
Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock. The life of Jesus re-told as a taboo-breaking time travel narrative. One of my earliest introductions to subversive thinking.
The Black Corridor by Michael Moorcock. I'm not even sure I've read this properly. But the central image, a man alone, lost in space, dwelling on his past failures, has stuck with me always.
Beyond Apollo by Barry Malzberg. Relentless, downbeat, fatalistic. The story of an astronaut returning from a space mission, unable to cope with ordinary life.
The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders. Absolutely hilarious; possibly the funniest book I've read. A brilliant satirical fable.
A Perfect Vacuum by Stanislaw Lem. Some of the funniest, most intelligent, most biting short fictions I've read.
Ubik by Philip K. Dick. I can't remember the plot much, but the central idea of a spray which affects reality is mind-blowing.
The Affirmation by Christopher Priest. A masterly example of how to write a narrative whose whole meaning switches back and forth, from sentence to sentence. Literally.
Tiger, Tiger! by Alfred Bester. Bursting at the seams with ideas of utter lunancy, riding on a startling tide of narrative bravado.
Hiroshima by John Hershey. Harrowing but level-headed documentary account of Hiroshima, from the perspective of survivors.
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks. Fascinating neurological case studies.
Selected Poems by Paul Celan (Penguin). Unfortunately, I can't read French very well, so I only get the English translations. Celan's poetry is calm, tragic, plain and beautiful.
Surrealist Poetry in English (Penguin anthology). This is a great, great anthology. Very varied, covering most of the 20th century, and containing some extraordinary, outlandish, thoroughly imaginative writing (as well as quite a bit of rubbish). Also has an introduction which outlines a critical approach to Surrealist poetry, and has this as its central tenet: "it is absolutely necessary to take the poem literally".
Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges. Short fictions with absolutely brilliant conceits, e.g. a man who can never forget; a man who tries to write Don Quixote without ever reading the original.

(It's nearly all science fiction, I noticed.)

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My list of very important books