Thursday, May 12, 2005

My Favourite Novels (Short list, I don't read a lot of fiction. A lot of them are young adult novels that I've loved for years.):

  • Photographing Fairies by Steve Szilagyi
  • Henry Miller's Rosy Crucifixion trilogy (Sexus, Plexus, Nexus)
  • Lolita and Pale Fire, Nabokov
  • Jude the Obscure and The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
  • "Morpho Eugenia" (novella) from A.S. Byatt's Angels and Insects
  • She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
  • The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
  • The Snarkout Boys and the Avacado of Death by Daniel Pinkwater
  • Lizard Music by Daniel Pinkwater
  • The Quantity Theory of Insanity (short stories) by Will Self
  • Running Wild by J.G. Ballard
  • A Simple Passion by Annie Ernoux
  • anything by Roald Dahl
  • anything by Zilpha Keatley Snyder or E.L. Konigsburg, esp. Father's Arcane Daughter (I suspect they're the same person, but haven't been able to prove it yet)
  • Shampoo Planet and Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland
  • A Perfect Vacuum (imaginary book reviews) by Stanislav Lem
  • Mermaids by Patty Dann
  • The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
  • Notes from Underground, Dostoyevsky
  • You'll only get me this to admit this once: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

Favourite Canadian Novel: Tie between Girlfriend in a Coma and The Robber Bride

Favourite Jack Kerouac novel: The Town and the City

Favourite J.D. Salinger story: Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenters!

4 comments:

Hugh said...

As a kid I liked "Starring Sally J. Friedman as Herself" and "The Great Escape or The Sewer Story". The first one was almost like the Diary of Anne Frank. The second was a children's book about alligators who escape New York dressed as people, hijack a plane, and parachute over the Florida Everglades. :)

S.M. Elliott said...

I think I read Sally J. Friedman. I totally have to read that alligator story - it sounds 70% better than most of the adult fiction I've read lately.

S.M. Elliott said...

Hmm. Doesn't sound familiar, but I'll bet I could find it with a little work.

S.M. Elliott said...

Barb: It looks like Hugh found your book - there's an alligator named Silas in "The Great Escape or The Sewer Story" by Peter J. Lippman. I'll post a pic of the cover.