"was given secondhand a list of eighty-one books, the recommendations of Donald Barthelme to his students. Barthelme’s only guidance, passed on by Padgett Powell, one of Barthelme’s former students at the University of Houston and my teacher at the time, was to attack the books in no particular order, just read them, which is exactly what I, in my confident illiteracy, resolved to do."


7 comments:
Great list. It's weird there's no Faulkner-not even "As I Lay Dying."
I love lists like this. They give me purpose when I'm at Half Price Books. I think Nabokov said, "When I'm at a bookstore and see a book I already own, I'm sad because I can't buy it again."
Ha! I feel the exact same way. As both sentiments, actually. I'm a big fan of The Sound and the Fury.
I love The Sound and the Fury. But, most don't go there with Faulkner. AILD is a little more accessible. Well, Faulkner in general.
Have you read Geeklove?
kenneth koch's Thank You is beautiful -this is a great list you have here.
I've been trying to make a nice big list for myself to go to the library with. I always loose the scraps that I write titles and authors on though and forget the names. This seems like quite the nice list (I'm a freak about lists sometimes...)
Someone mentioned Geek Love, if you haven't read it, you must!
knerd!
<3
Yes, Geek Love. Katherine Dunn.
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