![[IMAGE: Mario Incandenza from Infinite Jest via SCIENCEvsROMANCE]
Top Ten Books I Read in 2009
10. The Collector by John Fowles (1963) : A scary suspense novel about a kidnapping. Fowles technique of using journal entries of both the protagonist and antagonist is a real stroke of genius.
9. The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort (1919) : This collection of Fort’s work tells of the strangest accounts ever attested to by humanity, such as frogs falling like rain. P.T. Anderson used Forte’s writings as inspiration for the film, Magnolia.
8. Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin (1967) : Like the movie, it tells the story about a woman whose life is redefined through experiences with a satanic cult. Definitive suspense.
7. The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain (1916) : The unfinished final novel by the American master of fiction, Mark Twain, was the most bizarre work I’ve seen by the revered author. It told the story of Satan’s nephew, and presented it’s audience with the sinfulness that exists when sin itself does not. Very unsettling, but also entrancing.
6. The Best of Roald Dahl [sic] (1978) : 2009 saw the release of Wes Andersons first forray into animation, The Fantastic Mr. Fox. It was based on the children’s book by Roald Dahl. What people still fail to realize is that Dahl’s best work was done for a more mature audience, and this is the proof. If you don’t own this, do yourself a favor, and find a way to read a story or two.
5. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters by J.D. Salinger (1963) : It wasn’t the first time I read this, my favorite of Salinger’s tales about the Glass family. In this story, Seymour Glass is to be married. When he doesn’t show up to his own wedding, his brother, Buddy, is forced to sweat it out with the bride’s family. A group of very upset people that are unaware of Buddy’s identity.
4. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace (1999) : It’s a broken up novella with short stories in between, and it was a great introduction to DFW. John Krasinski turned it into a movie this year, and I hate to say it, but I couldn’t stand the film. This one just doesn’t translate. It’s a good collection, and the novella which takes it’s name from the title of the collection is an insightful, but depressing, look at the male brain. It’s darkly comic, and who doesn’t love things that are darkly comic?
3. Carpenter’s Gothic by William Gaddis (1985) : An unsatisfied look at the American Dream is a good way of looking at this psuedo-fable by the great metafictionist, William Gaddis. The dialogue was amazing.
2. Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973) : I finally made it through what has been called the greatest novel written in the last century. Whoever said that wasn’t far off the mark. I have read it twice this year.
1. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (1996) : As hard as Joyce’s Ulysses and as satisfying as Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, this book ate up 8 months of my life this year. Some days I could read forty or fifty pages in a sitting, but there were weeks I spent all my time on only five or ten pages. I found this webpage very useful when attempting to figure out what it is that I read.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kvjbg3tA0g1qa4qa7o1_500.jpg)
[IMAGE: Mario Incandenza from Infinite Jest via SCIENCEvsROMANCE]
Top Ten Books I Read in 2009
10. The Collector by John Fowles (1963) : A scary suspense novel about a kidnapping. Fowles technique of using journal entries of both the protagonist and antagonist is a real stroke of genius.
9. The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort (1919) : This collection of Fort’s work tells of the strangest accounts ever attested to by humanity, such as frogs falling like rain. P.T. Anderson used Forte’s writings as inspiration for the film, Magnolia.
8. Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin (1967) : Like the movie, it tells the story about a woman whose life is redefined through experiences with a satanic cult. Definitive suspense.
7. The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain (1916) : The unfinished final novel by the American master of fiction, Mark Twain, was the most bizarre work I’ve seen by the revered author. It told the story of Satan’s nephew, and presented it’s audience with the sinfulness that exists when sin itself does not. Very unsettling, but also entrancing.
6. The Best of Roald Dahl [sic] (1978) : 2009 saw the release of Wes Andersons first forray into animation, The Fantastic Mr. Fox. It was based on the children’s book by Roald Dahl. What people still fail to realize is that Dahl’s best work was done for a more mature audience, and this is the proof. If you don’t own this, do yourself a favor, and find a way to read a story or two.
5. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters by J.D. Salinger (1963) : It wasn’t the first time I read this, my favorite of Salinger’s tales about the Glass family. In this story, Seymour Glass is to be married. When he doesn’t show up to his own wedding, his brother, Buddy, is forced to sweat it out with the bride’s family. A group of very upset people that are unaware of Buddy’s identity.
4. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace (1999) : It’s a broken up novella with short stories in between, and it was a great introduction to DFW. John Krasinski turned it into a movie this year, and I hate to say it, but I couldn’t stand the film. This one just doesn’t translate. It’s a good collection, and the novella which takes it’s name from the title of the collection is an insightful, but depressing, look at the male brain. It’s darkly comic, and who doesn’t love things that are darkly comic?
3. Carpenter’s Gothic by William Gaddis (1985) : An unsatisfied look at the American Dream is a good way of looking at this psuedo-fable by the great metafictionist, William Gaddis. The dialogue was amazing.
2. Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973) : I finally made it through what has been called the greatest novel written in the last century. Whoever said that wasn’t far off the mark. I have read it twice this year.
1. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (1996) : As hard as Joyce’s Ulysses and as satisfying as Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, this book ate up 8 months of my life this year. Some days I could read forty or fifty pages in a sitting, but there were weeks I spent all my time on only five or ten pages. I found this webpage very useful when attempting to figure out what it is that I read.
