1. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K Dick: I think this is his best novel. Fast moving and paranoid. Tight, technical yet effortless sci-fi writing. And carting around a PK Dick novel bumps your cred with the Asperger's crowd in the programming department.
2. Steps by Jerzy Kosinski: I believe Kosinski actually wrote this one himself. A short, depraved collection of 1-3 page vignettes detailing the absolute worst in human nature. Bonus – includes beastial sex!
3. Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo: Crap. Eager, sentimental pap. Sucky characters. I liked some of his earlier books a lot – Straight Man especially. He toed the small town preciousness line with Empire Falls, and this time he just wallows around in it for like 500 pages.
4. Wind Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami: I think everyone I know read this 10 years ago. I finally got around to it over Christmas. If you’re reading this, you probably already read it too and know it’s an excellent book, so that’s that.
5. Rabbit Redux by John Updike – I like Updike a lot. ‘Memories of the Ford Administration’ is probably my favorite, but this, the second in the Rabbit series, is right up there. Updike wangles you into liking a genuinely unlikable character. Difficult to reconcile the repeated use of the word ‘cunt’ with a guy who looks like this:
6. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell: So awesome. A vivid, comic, first person account of a year-in-the-life of a 13 year old boy in a shitty town in the English midlands in the early 80’s. For anyone who remembers junior high school fondly, this will help you recall the experience more accurately.
7. Falconer by John Cheever: Had read a lot of Cheever’s short stories, which are amazing. Listened to ‘Reunion’ on the New Yorker fiction podcast a while back (it's just 12 minutes, check it out), figured I’d try one of his novels. Falconer is set in a prison. Ass rape. And lots of it.
8. The Road by Cormac McCarthy: This is one of the best books I have read. Couldn’t put it down.
9. World War Z by Max Brooks: Mel Brooks’ kid. An historic retelling of the worldwide Zombie apocalypse. Despite the sophisticated subject matter, you may be shocked to find this isn’t particularly well written. Still, I have a weakness for this crap. Zombie fans, watch Italian gore-master Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2 (note: there was no Zombi 1). It has a scene where a guy dressed in a zombie costume fights and actual shark.
10. Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart: Liked it, didn’t love it. Very funny, just never really got into the book. I think the writing got a bit too cute for me. Includes some of the most carefully described portrayals of binge eating and morbid obesity you’re likely to find anywhere.
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