After the musical version, let’s do the literary version. I have just started Beyond The Wub, the Collected Short Stories vol 1 of Philip K Dick. I finished reading all 40-odd science fiction and non-SF novels about a year ago, which I read at about 3 a year. So give me another couple of years to do the short stories (5 chunky vols) and it’ll be back to The Cosmic Puppets. I’ve just read The Wind from Nowhere (completists qualifier – out of print and later disowned by JG) and am set sail on my first (sadly) complete read-through of JG Ballard’s novels, after finishing the Complete Short Stories. I have every novel by Douglas Coupland, WG Sebald, Bret Easton Ellis, Iain Banks (sf only), Michael Faber and Don Delillo. Which authors do you collect/read through systematically.
Which authors do you collect and reread?
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I think I’ve read everything by Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut Jr, P.G Wodehouse, and George Saunders.
Unfortunately, only one of the above will be contributing further to their respective oeuvre any time soon.
Don’t bank on it. Every time I go back to the dodgers there seems to be a new Vonnegut title. I suspect he’s doing a Billy Pilgrim on us…
His screenplay for Arrival was certainly stellar.
If I’m bothered enough to pre-order I do so in hardback and the few authors on that list include:
Christopher Priest – I was fortunate enough to buy his latest, The Gradual, when I met him at the local book festival a few weeks ago. ‘You buy hardbacks!’, he exclaimed at the signing table. ‘No, Chris; I buy your hardbacks’ I replied;
David Sedaris – sadly the dates on the UK signing tour for the next one this summer don’t work for us;
Geoff Nicholson – much less prolific these days, though he blogs regularly at The Hollywood Walker and Psychogourmet;
Alexander MacCall Smith’s Edinburgh series – the Isabel Dalhousie (latest one read this week) and Scotland Street books (another due out late summer, I think). I’m not bothered about the Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, though I will buy first edition hardbacks if I see them in charity shops.
My shelves are overflowing and I have tomorrow morning put aside to fill a few boxes to take to the charity depot, so there are a number of authors whose new titles I look out for, but get from the library – Coupland (though his last one was awful), Colin Bateman, Neil Gaiman, the late Iain Banks (though not Iain M Banks – I tried Consider Phlebas a few times but never got beyond page 40).
The first 2 pages of Consider Phlebas is remarkable for the consistency of its introduction to the Culture, but the book can be a drag until the end. The Player of Games might be a better introduction to IMB. I consider The Use of Weapons to be a companion piece to Complicity, but not to be attempted as a first Culture novel.
Back in the day, I used to look forward to my annual trip to Edinburgh when I could drink heavily, attend the fringe and pick up the new hardback by IB/IMB, Ian Rankin and Terry Pratchett. Sadly only Rankin now around – I haven’t read the latest Rebus, but all the rest.
I must have 30+ PKD novels, but I don’t re-read them.
I do re-read William Gibson. And they change over time. Virtual Light was a futuristic novel and now it is contemporary novel (Russian gangsters, drones, reality TV, VR, 3D printing…)
The Light is a huge Ian Rankin fan. We were in Edinburgh not long before Christmas last year and we went on the official Rebus walk, found the mysterious Arthur’s Seat dolls in the National Museum (she was reading The Falls on the trip), walked down Arden Street where Rebus ‘lives’ when we were in Marchmont*, went to the Starbucks on Holy Corner because we know that’s where Ian Rankin and Alexander MacColl Smith get their morning coffee … you get the idea.
On our last night went to a gig at a scruffy club called the Electric Circus, to see Kathryn Williams, although she was the support act that night. We were sitting near the bar when Kathryn walked in, and she had Ian Rankin with her. He was kind enough to sign The Light’s gig ticket and have a photo taken with her (‘I promise she’s not stalking you’ ‘But she did stalk me!’) which made her whole holiday. She has the signed ticket and picture framed next to her book cases.
We were in the area to pick up a book I had reserved when Alasdair Gray made a rare appearance at the Amnesty Bookshop. He is in his 80s now, and it was his first public appearance since he broke his back falling down the stairs outside his flat a couple of years ago, but sadly the event took place just as our flight was landing. A signed and dedicated book is the best I could hope for, and I treasure it.
Yes i always buy Rankin when a new one comes out.
Yes, Consider Phlebas is dull AF. Horza isn’t a likeable hero – he’s barely a character at all – and the sketchier characters are barely there. It’s just a succession of increasingly inconsequential raids on outposts you don’t care about, by people you don’t care about. The Minds are where IMB is at, and so I recommend Look To Windward and – especially – Excession as the ones to read.
Excession is my favourite, but I think you need to “get” the Culture first.
Maybe Against a Dark Background?
Player of Games has the problem that a lot of Banks, both with M and without, has: the hero is a boring twat.
Well, a twat certainly. I don’t find them boring (usually).
@paulwright William Gibson is another. I’m just re-starting so have done Neuromancer and Burning Chrome. Count Zero up next. Looking forward to the Bridge trilogy which I have forgot almost everything about. or is that an indicator of something. PKD you should give his best (ie not The Cosmic Puppets) a repeat try, he is more prescient than ever in the era of fake everything. Martian Timeslip, Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Penultimate Truth, Flow My Tears…., Androids Dream.. for example. He did write a lot and much is second rate. But his very best is very good.
The Bridge Trilogy is on my radar for a reread as well, as are Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive now they’ve been reissued in much less embarrassing jackets (the new covers are actually really good). Gibson is one of the greats of our age, as far as I am concerned, and I should have included him in my list of must buys (in my defence, he’s not exactly prolific).
PKD you can sometimes tell when he was writing late at night high on something because the next chapter says the same thing but properly. No editors those those churned out pulps. When he was a) sober, b) not mad, c) not living on cat food and d) had time he was wonderful. His daughter said those wonderful titles were not his, but I am surprised about that.
The Bridge trilogy is my favourite – Neuromancer is wonderful, the first two pages of Count Zero the best two pages of cyberpunk ever (“the eyes were green”). Mona Lisa Overdrive, meh. All 3 Bridge books are great. The Blue Ant books go over the same ground just a bit too much to be as good. The Peripheral is possibly his masterpiece.
I published the first three on your list, Messrs Priest, Sedaris and Nicholson.
I knew about Geoff, but not the others. I can see Gollancz links them all at some point.
Had the same experience with William Boyd who I read avidly up until the time I went to hear him talk and get my book signed. He was less than charming and when I brought the hardback to be signed, he harrumphed about why didn’t I buy the large format paperback version. I have not read him since
That’s not good to hear, but maybe you just got him on a bad day. I worked in book retail for a long time and stories would go around about which authors were hard work, but I don’t remember William Boyd ever being among them. In case of misunderstanding CP seemed delighted to meet a reader who bought his hardbacks!
I hope so. I was disappointed because I had always enjoyed his books. Maybe it’s time to forgive and forget.
For what it’s worth I went to a reading by him a few years back and he was charm itself. Don’t know when you bailed out but I enjoyed his most recent book Sweet Caress, and also Restless and Sweet Thunderstorms.
Only Patrick O’Brian – a completed collection, sadly.
Peter Robinson
Lee Child
copied from the other thread in the interests of neatness
Something else I reread is Gene Wolfe’s Book Of The New Sun, an incredible SF quartet. It is dense, allusive, and plays all kinds of games with voice and setting. I’ve read it twice now, and I reckon I’d be lucky to have got a quarter of it. It’s the complete opposite of an easy read, but it’s very highly recommended.
I read and re-read the Sarantine Mosiac pair of novels and adore them. (I’m interested in Byzantium) But never jumped into the broader Guy Gavriel Kay oeuvre. Can you suggest a good starting point?
Most of his novels are set in a version of our history, with just enough fiddles to allow him authorial freedom without the constraints of actual events, as per the Sarantium / Byzantium link, so I guess the best bet would be to look for a setting that resonates with you. My own favourite is The Lions Of Al-Rassan, which is set in an analogue of Moorish Spain, and has a gripping and emotionally involving story. His other novels are Tigana (renaissance Italy), A Song For Arbonne (the medieval France of troubadours and courtly love), The Last Light Of The Sun (Viking England), Under Heaven (8th century China), River Of Stars (12th century China) and Children Of Earth And Sky (Venice and Dalmatian pirates in the sixteenth century). They’re all good, although maybe Last Light… is a little bit less good than the others.
(I’d avoid his first books, collectively known as The Fionavar Tapestry. They’re not terrible, but they rarely get above the standard Tolkien influences, and aren’t half as good as the later work. There’s also a YA book called Ysabel, which is set in modern Provence. It’s a decent enough read, but I’d do the others first)
Al Rassan sounds the job. Islam complements the interest in Byzantium. Thanks
George McDonald Fraser – I wish I had the time to reread Flashman’s adventures over and over again. They’re so immersive. Black Ajax, Mr. American and Pyrates are worth reading too. There are other works I’ve yet to track down but I truly wish I’d never started his biography – came across as insufferable.
Don’t let his biography put you off Quartered Safe Out Here, his account of his time in Burma as a young officer. It’s very good, if you haven’t read it.
Try seeking out his McAuslan books, if you haven’t already….Scots, military & dry humour…made me laugh, anyway….
I rarely re-read a book but there are Authors whose books I buy on release:-
Elmore Leonard (sadly no more), Bill Bryson, Willy Vlautin, Paul Auster,
Years ago Graham Greene, Paul Theroux, V.S.Naipaul, Evelyn Waugh, Raymond Carver.
Of writers what are dead, I’ve read all of EM Forster’s, Evelyn Waugh’s and F.Scott Fitzgerald’s novels. Of writers what are not dead yet, I’ll buy and read any new book that comes out by Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan, although I don’t feel any great rush to do so. Have not read either of them’s most recent novels yet.
The book I’ve read most though is Colin MacInnes’ Absolute Beginners. I never tire of reading it, for some reason.
Main ones are Iain Banks (as above not his M version), Ian McEwan and John O’Farrell.
I will usually get anything new by Stephen Fry, Ben Elton and Bill Bryson, although not always.
John O’Farrell and Bill Bryson’s “Short History Of Nearly Everything” and probably the only ones that get re read (although I plan on going through the Iain Banks again at some point)
I used to buy all John Irving and David Lodge books, don’t think I re-read any of them though. Life’s too short
As long as it’s not David Irving and John Lodge…
Lots. I’ll just put in a good word for a couple that may not be so well known around here.
Graham Joyce. I met Graham and his wife Sue at a Library reading he did about seven years ago, liked him and Sue a lot and subsequently read all his books. You know when someone strikes a chord with you and you share a world view? That, plus many of the books are just great. There are some fantasy elements but they are mainly rooted in the real world. His best book is The Facts Of Life, tragically out of print but available in Kindle I think. I had to get an ex Vermont Library copy from Abe books. He is hugely under rated. Think David Mitchell and Neil Gaiman.
Brandon Sanderson. Qualty fantasy. He completed the Wheel of Time when Robert Jordan died, and improved on Jordan immensely. His current series the Stormlight Archive are as good as Martin’s Game Of Thrones series in my opinion. I passed them on to my wife and my son and they both loved them too.
I knew I had read The Facts of Life but couldn’t remember anything about it. Heading to Amazon to read the blurb I see there are hardbacks available for a penny plus postage. My gateway drug to Joyce, and the one I would recommend, is The Tooth Fairy. Was that your’s as well @mikethep ? I seem to remember he was published by Gollancz too.
No, he was after my time there.
I was a big Graham Joyce fan. A sad loss. Are you aware of his pseudonymous novel Memoirs Of A Master Forger, published as by “William Heaney”? It’s just as good as the others.
No, I didn’t know about that one. Out of print of course. I will seek out a copy. Thanks KD. I got most of Joyce’s books from AbeBooks.co.uk a source I wholeheartedly recommend.
Another truly, truly great out of print book I recommend is Skallagrigg by William Horwood. I was talking to a work colleague, Peggy, about best books we had ever read and she recommended that one. She was right. It is like no other book and actually has a great ending, often a failing of fiction (and TV drama) in my opinion.
Poor Peggy died suddenly shortly after. We had a week from hell that week: a customer was run over and killed by a bus outside the premises on Monday: on Tuesday one colleague’s husband had a heart attack and died; then Peggy called in feeling unwell on Friday and died that evening…
All my fave authors whose entire oeuvre I have bought (several times) are dead: Evelyn Waugh, Raymond Chandler, Dickens, Ronald Searle (both as author and illustrator), Paul Jennings, Graham Greene, Flann O’Brien, Simenon, Camus….
Living authors whose work I try not to miss include Lee Child (actually I get them free from a mate at the publisher), George Saunders (a new enthusiasm), Jane Gardam, Jane Smiley, Clive James, Philip Kerr, David Downing. Reading and hugely enjoying a Daniel Silva book at the moment – have a feeling I might be adding him to the list.
James Lee Burke, James Ellroy (though after Perfidia I’m not sure I’m going to bother with him anymore), John Le Carre (again, given the quality of recent output, he may be dropped), the late George V. Higgins and Don Winslow.
There’s one book by one author that I routinely buy every two to three years. Having read it again, I inevitably give it away to someone I think will enjoy it. Then a year or so later I get the itch to wallow in its brilliance again, though it usually only takes me a couple of days to finish it once more. On several occasions I have read it from cover to cover in one sitting within a few hours of making the purchase. It never fails to thrill me.
I bought my latest copy yesterday, in Good Buy Books, in Bath. It cost me two pounds and fifty pence. I will finish reading it this evening, with a fine malt at my side.
It’s called Treasure Island, and it’s by Robert Louis Stevenson.
I presume you know you can still drink in the Bristol pubs mentioned in the book, VV? Also, if you wanted any more vintage pirate adventure, I can recommend Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini, which I remember as being great fun.
Ooh, which pubs? I’m spending time in Bristol these months (Clifton) and would like to explore, thAt could be a theme.
The Llandoger Trow on King Street is the Admiral Benbow (and it’s also where Daniel Defoe met Alexander Selkirk and was inspired to write Robinson Crusoe), while the Hole In The Wall round the corner is the model for the Spyglass Inn. Holler if you fancy a pint!
The last time I had a snifter in the Llandoger I swear Silver’s ghost was in the corner, nursing a rum, snorting noisily, clearing his throat with a sickening gurgle and leering at the other drinkers, his wooden leg tapping nervously lest Trelawney or some other lubber appear at the door.
You can see how the interior layout of the place might have inspired the Benbow, but Jim’s parents’ Inn wasn’t actually in Bristol of course, ’twas on the coast, frequented by those on the road to Bristol. I’ve always imagined it located somewhere like Westward Ho! or Boscastle, out on the Atlantic coast, taking the full brunt in winter, when buccaneers, footpads and villains, blind or sighted, might wander the lanes after dark.
And, people, it’s this kind of fascinating and useful knowledge that makes the Afterword what it is. Next time I’m in Bristol….
Nothing too highbrow. I have a largish book collection, many of which have been reread. And some multiple times.
Bernard Cornwell. All of them. They’re of a genre, but he does what he does very well, and his breakdown of Waterloo was excellent.
Lee Child
Christopher Brookmyre, especially if there’s a need for new music. He got me into the Afghan Whigs, Everclear. He knows his stuff.
Laurie King’s reimagined Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell books aren’t challenging, but an enjoyable read. See also the Phryne Fisher series.
I’m completing my R F Delderfield collection.
I have a soft spot for Niven and Pournelle, and especially the Motie series.
Nelson de Mille.
Charley’s War collection. I’m a sucker for a comic reprint. Luke Kirby’s out later this year!
C S Forrester’s Hornblower.
Carl Hiaasen
Geoff Johns Flash run and JSA. James Robinson’s Starman.
Dorothy L Sayer’s Lord Peter Wimsey series. Always something new to find in them.
On the more serious side:
I think Nathaniel Philbrick is worth the money I spend on him. His book on Custer’s Last Stand is up there with the best.
Dee Brown recasts the American West incredibly well.
Christopher Hill on the tumult in England in the 1640s. “A World Turned Upside Down” is world class. He also helped some of my political heroes come to light for me.
Stephen Ambrose’s books are easy to read, but incredibly well informed.
Michael Burleigh.
Barbara Tuchman, who I adore because of the range of what she covers, and how well she does it. “A Distant Mirror” was probably the book that got me in to reading serious history for enjoyment and not just for study, aged 14.
How I spend my life: Rugby. Work. Reading. Dog. Sharon. And I’m not sure that’s the wrong order either.
The only book I have read more than once is Frank Herbert`s `Dune`, probably about 6-8 times. There`s plenty of reflections/predictions that are true of life today in that book. The `Dune` series of books and yes the `Dune`* books by his son, Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson are the only fiction (Sci-Fi) that I collect.
*Yes the `Dune` books by BH & KJA have caused civil war amongst `Dune` zealots, but happily they don`t know where I live. Harkonnen isn`t my real name but I still could be a Baron.
@baron-harkonnen Dune is an unbelievably good book that bears rereading – but even the FH sequels, even the second and third, are so much lesser. Its so complete a galaxy, so satisfying a story with such a conclusive end, that it really makes all the subsequent works so much sharecropping IMHO. I may shell out on the folio edition or ask for it as an Xmas present.
I don’t think I’ve read all of anyone’s books! Kurt Vonnegut is probably closest, but there are 2 or 3 of his I’ve still to get round to, or Dave Sedaris. George Saunders I’ve read everything but Civilwarland and the new one. There are people like Douglas Copeland or Bret Easton Ellis where I read everything up to a point, but have lost my patience. And I don’t often re-read, I have so little time to read these days, and there’s always something new I feel I should be getting on with.
Milligan’s war (and peace memoirs)… over and over again.
Night Soil!
Plunger Bailey
Escaping from Gracie Fields
AAAAARRRGGHHH! Cold collation!
Powdered egg
…etc.
I must have read The day of the Triffids and The Chrysalids dozens of times but not for a few years now.
I love The Chrysalids. I’ve read it a few times and would happily read it again.
Hi Gary. I’ve toyed with the idea of writing a screenplay for both then narrating it as a blog series with incidental music. I got as far as writing one piece of music for the chrysalids which was called ‘Reconnaissance’ but have never really made the time to continue. Maybe when I retire. 😂
Do it! That sounds intriguing! How would that work, copyright-wise, out of interest?
Day of the Triffids is one of the few books we were forced to read at school that I’ve revisited as an adult – along with To Kill a Mockingbird and Moonfleet. I don’t think Triffids has aged well at all, it feels very dated now.
most of the current crop of historians…
max hastings
ian Kershaw
Richard j evens
Michael burleigh
Laurence rees etc.
a novel read many times in the past 20 years…fatherland by Richard harris.
I have waited for ages for a sequel but all we ever get is crap about romans.
the wife says my second world war obsession is bordering on “mental”
There are only two thrillers I can read every 10 years, when I’ve forgotten enough about the plots. Fatherland is one, and Gorky Park is the other. The sequel to the latter, Polar Star, is almost as good, though there are a lot of Renkos and I can’t help but feel the law of diminishing returns must sink in.
@fishface there’s a whole short story collection called Hitler Victorious that’s excellent, less so is The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad, that imagines what kind of lurid pulp sf Hitler would write if he had been an SF scribe following emigration to America in 1919.
Colleen McCullough’s ‘Masters of Rome’ series – brilliant historical fiction that covers all walks of life in the Roman Empire and brings the main characters to life (from Gaius Marius to Augustus).
C.J. Sansom’s Shardlake series, as well as Patrick O’Brian’s ‘Aubrey and Maturin series. The Sherlock Holmes stories and Noel Coward’s Diaries get an annual reading.
The synchronicity of these last two posts is amazing.
I have everything by Norman Lewis (even three editions of Naples ’44), William Trevor, James Cameron and Brian Moore (not the prop forward). Sadly, particularly in the case of William Trevor, they have come to an end. Of living authors, I have everything by Ian Sansom and I do seem to have a lot of Len Deighton’s work although not everything. I will re-read the dead writers.
Brian Moore was a hooker.
I’m a pedant
One’s Brian and one’s Breean. I’m a bigger pedant.
I will now step outside and do the decent thing.
No need to step outside. The whisky and pistol are in the library.
Books I buy in hardback – anything by Iain (M) Banks or Alasdair Gray. I haven’t given up hope of Gray’s translation of Dante’s Inferno. The last Banks book remains unread – too close to home.
You’re not missing anything – The Quarry was a little bit IB by the numbers. Nothing he hadnt done before. Not bad just nothing special.
To complete the IMB set I may have to get the audiobook of Feersum Enjin, because that phoenetic writing thing does my head in.
Give me a link to the audiobook… Feersum Enjin I did give up on. And I have come to the hard conclusion that though his SF is frequently first-rate his mainstream fiction is mostly second-rate. I loved his work as a student, but it’s not aged well with me. I think the one about the secret business that runs the world called the business was the point at which I thought I couldn’t really take it all that seriously any more….much loved on this site I know.
As I say above I couldn’t get along with the SF, but some of his mainstream books were first rate (though none of them after, oh, Complicity if I’m being generous, The Crow Road if not).
I don’t read nearly as much as I would like to have time of, but am slowly working thru’ Banks, (never M Banks), and love ’em all, even the Whisky non fiction, maybe especially that one. Likewise Anne Tyler, whose tales of midwestern sad sack nobodies never fail to uplift. But the only author I will snap up is Irvine Welsh, but only the Leith based books as the rest are shite.
Tolkien is my great love in books. I steer clear of almost all other fantasy or science fiction – it’s just nonsense compared to JRR’s achievement, which lives because of its humanity, in clothes of otherworldliness. I suppose I collect books by and about him/his works, but I do so very carefully – there’s a vast amount of rubbish out there.
I have a good collection of books by the 1920s-50s Irish (well, ‘British golden age’ is a more accurate description) crime writer Freeman Wills Crofts – almost all of them Penguin paperbacks 2nd hand, a couple of recent reprints (in the fantastic British Library’s Classic Crime series) and only missing the most expensive/rarest few titles.
I have most of the large ouevre by John Dickson Carr too (again, more or less a ‘British golden age’ writer, albeit born American; and again, mostly second hand Penguin paperbacks and the like – including some garishly covered 70s US reprints).
In terms of current writers, I used to collect the Laurie R King Sherlock-related stories, but the recent two or three have been hard going. Christopher Fowler’s Bryant & May books are much more fun, and I have all of those thus far.
There are several others I have pretty comprehensive sets of works by, but aside from some items on the Tolkien shelves they are all ‘reading copies’ – I don’t bother with first editions etc and I prefer p’backs to bulky hardbacks.
Agree on the Laurie King. If you haven’t, take on Wimsey. Richly rewarding.
I love re-reading books, when I’m reading a really good book for the first time I can actually think “Oh, I can’t wait to read this one again – I’ll really enjoy it next time!” 🙂
As my life goal is to turn my home into my own private library, I do tend to collect all kinds of books for different reasons. But I’m not an obsessive completist – if I do find a book I don’t have by an author I like, I will buy it, but I don’t actively chase them. Except for one author: my Swedish favourite P C Jersild. It started with me trying to find one of his old novels that I must have borrowed at least fifteen times at my local library in my childhood. I looked in the charity shops and antiquarian book shops but couldn’t find it anywhere, but I found other novels by him and bought them, read them, and with each book I got more and more obsessed with collecting all of them. I’m almost there, just a couple of them left to find – including that one I first started chasing, of course… I’m sure it will be the last one I find. He’s been very prolific and his books are so diverse both in styles and subject matters, so almost every book have surprised me, and impressed me.
I’ve never written a fan letter in my life, but I often think about sending one to him, while he’s still around.
Another obsession I’ve developed in the last ten years is to buy every collection of short stories that I can find, old and new, famous authors and forgotten ones, all different genres.
Also collections of essays, journalism and letters and diaries. And old childrens books. And collections of fairy tales. To name but a few…it’s an addiction, but a healthy one.
In the pre-Interweb age I used to be pretty precious about my books. I hated lending them out and insisted on the use of bookmarks to keep them in good nick. (My records, CDs, DVDs all were kept as meticulously). Now that I can so easily replace anything should I want it again I quite like passing my stuff on to other people.
Talking of short stories, my favourite collections are Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and Julian Barnes’ A History Of The World In 10 ½ Chapters. I like the fact that although they are short stories and can be read individually, they have a cohesive, unifying theme. Ever read them? Got any similar examples?
Some of David Mitchell’s books would tick that box, especially Ghostwritten (which is brilliant) and Cloud Atlas (which is also brilliant).
No, I haven’t read those (I’m not quite at my library goal yet!)
The similar exemples that comes to mind at the moment are both Swedish and not translated into English – if you mean collections where people from one short story turns up in another later in the collection, etc. More generally themed collections are a little more common, and especially in genre writing like horror or sci fi, I find.
It’s a novel and not a collection of short stories, but I still want to mention (because he is my one obsession) the interesting book that P C Jersild wrote late in his career, where he went back to a bunch of his old protagonists from his older novels – completely unrelated to each other – and wrote about what had happened to them since their novels ended, one chapter dedicated to each person. It was also very meta, as they seeked him out; their author, and ultimately sentenced him to a destiny that tied nicely into another novel of his, cleverly reprinted at the end of the two novel paperback edition, after its “prequel”.
I do like passing on books to friends, but I usually do so by buying extra copies at the charity shop of my favourites and giving them away. I don’t know how many copies of The Shipping News I’ve bought and passed on through the years.
It was Terry Pratchett, now its the Bernie Gunther novels. I got the first 4 or 5 in paperback then moved on to hardback. I just started in on Prussian Blue.
Ian Fleming, David Lodge, Julian Barnes, Ian Rankin, Lee Child, JG Ballard…
William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Charles Stross and Gary Trudeau.
In the old days (70s and 80s) Tom Sharpe, Spike Milligan and Alan Coren.
As an early teenager of very limited taste, Richard Hooker (MASH books).
I’m pig-headed and perverse about the fact I don’t actually read that much. I dunno – listening to (or playing) music always seems to be a better use of my time. As far as fiction goes, I prefer movies.
But there’s a couple of non-fiction authors I find I can re-read an almost infinite number of times:
Victor Lewis-Smith’s TV critic stuff. He’s brought out a couple of books. I’ve no idea why I find them so addictive. Something to do with his archness and dry humour, and unashamed snobbiness. Also short, so great for dipping into.
Ian MacDonald’s Beatles stuff. For obvious reasons. I think I must have a thing for snobbery.
I suppose Douglas Adams (for fiction) as well. He’s very accessible, isn’t he? And every paragraph is a joy.
I have a terrible book hoarding habit – but in amongst them I do collect first editions by a number of people: James Lee Burke (almost a complete run)/Raymond Carver/Richard Ford/Cormac McCarthy/Philip Roth and almost complete runs of Iris Murdoch/Anne Tyler/Alice Munro and Beryl Bainbridge that I’ve accumulated for my wife.
One of the minor joys of living in the Cambs is that you find decent books in chazzas and car boots on a fairly regular basis – a first edition of James Baldwin’s “Another Country” last weekend.
I used to collect Sheffield Clarion Ramblers handbooks – tiny, densely written tomes filled with historic information and polemics on rights of access to the Peak District written by the great GHB Ward. They are things of beauty, published between c.1910 and 1950, with cigarette paper pull out maps, and wonderful detail about that wonderful Dark Peak stretch of land around Kinder Scout, Bleaklow and Longdendale between Sheffield and Manchester.
I can include several of the above authors in my collection.
But the book I buy copies of if I see it in a charity shop so that I can hand them out to anyone I meet who hasn’t read it is The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger ( potentially too girlie a choice for this thread!)
I’m obsessed by it and think everyone should read it.
I started using libraries rather than buying books a few years ago.
I reckon by now I’ve saved myself somewhere in the region of thousands of pounds, plus a whole heap of space.
I’m down to more or less (ok,more) of one wall of books.
I’m not generally a completist when it comes to books, though Deighton, leCarre and Ian Rankin cling to my shelves when others face the charity shop cull.
I’m also fond of Andrew Martin’s ‘Jim Stringer’ novels which are fun if undemanding.
During reading jags I have consumed everything by writers such as John Irving, James Ellroy, James Lee Burke. Over the past 5 or so years I have been working my way through the Quiller books by Adam Hall. It’s a great series of spy thrillers but sadly I have only one or two left to read (Mr Hall passed away in the late 80 s I believe).
I have read most of George Pelecanos’ stuff. He’s a fantastic writer and I have reread the Nick Stefanos trilogy numerous times.
The one writer I have kept coming back to since I was a lad is Stephen King. Not sure if I could class myself as a Constant Reader (I am not a completist and there’s no interest for me in the Dark Tower series) and I am aware that he often struggles with an ending…but my word he is a wonderful storyteller.
PG Wodehouse, Bill Bryson and Kinky Friedman. I think I have everything by Plum; I have everything written by Bryson. I don’t care what the subject matter is, he makes everything an enjoyable read. I have every KF novel except ‘Curse of the Puppethead.’ I don’t remember even hearing about it when it was originally published, now it seems to be rare and expensive, if you can find a copy.
It doesn’t really matter though. Every KF mystery is essentially the same. But they’re so damn fun!
Dickens for me. I’ve read all 14 of his novels at least twice, and over the last few years worked my way through them in chronological order, reading maybe two or three a year. I’ve started again now.
Of living novelists I’ve bought every Salman Rushdie in hardback since being completely blown away by Midnights Children. These days it is more out of completists duty rather than expectation (kinda like Dylan) – his last novel was a shocker and I’m not sure he’s done anything really good since Satanic Verses.
Tom Sharpe or Nick Hornby are the closest I have come to having a favourite author – I just don’t “do” fiction reading.
The odd book my grab my attention (Espedair Street by Iain Banks is a particular favourite).
Most of my reading is non-fiction.
Favourite authors in that area are:
Dominic Sandbrook (do love a bit of contemporary history, and Sandbrook has loads of books on the shelf)
Stuart Maconie (never read a bad book from him)
Mark Mason (gets excited by trivia and public transport – and so do I)
I have read most of the Rebus books and a lot of Michael Connolly’s Harry Bosch series but the only books I follow totally are John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series. I went to hear Connolly speak recently and chatting to him while he signed a book for me he told me he’d been a Word subscriber so he could get the podcasts.