Book Nook Cafe discussion

WHICH BOOKS DO FAMOUS AUTHORS READ AND RECOMMEND MOST?
OR, HOW TO READ LIKE YOUR FAVORITE WRITERS

https://lithub.com/which-books-do-fam...

Lists are always fun. Interesting about F. Scott Fitzgerald's because i've been working for decades off a list he created for Sheilah Graham. In her book College of One she detailed the list, which he made when she expressed a desire to be better read. There are a number of books not on the list linked to in the article, so it's neat to see what was omitted.

Thanks, deb. I am going to check out College for One.

How many have you read ?

Here is the book list for those interested.


Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw
The Red and the Black by Stendhal
Bleak House (1st half) by Charles Dickens
Seven Men by Max Beerbohm
Bleak House (2nd half) by Charles Dickens
Androcles and the Lion by George Bernard Shaw
Henry Esmond by William Makepeace Thackery
A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
The Red Lily by Anatole France
Youth’s Encounter by Compton MacKenzie
Sinister Street by Compton MacKenzie
“The Kreutzer Sonata” by Leo Tolstoy
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Tono-Bungay by H. G. Wells
Roderick Hudson by Henry James
The Pretty Lady by Arnold Bennett
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
How to Write Short Stories by Ring Lardner
Chéri by Colette
My Ántonia by Willa Cather
The Sailor’s Return by David Garnett
The Financier by Theodore Dreiser
The Titan by Theodore Dreiser
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
The Revolt of the Angels by Anatole France
Ariel, or The Life of Shelley by André Maurois [in French because she spoke and read French fluently]
The Song of Songs by Hermann Suderman
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Flaubert and Malraux [no additional information provided]
Byron: The Last Journey by Harold Nicolson
South Wind by Norman Douglas
Man’s Fate by André Malraux
The Woman Who Rode Away by D. H. Lawrence
The Cabala by Thornton Wilder
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (He jokingly listed the author as “Shakespeare.”)

https://booknotesplus.wordpress.com/2...

From the list I've read

Bleak House

A Doll's House

My Ántonia

The Sun Also Rises

Tender Is the Night

I own but have not yet read:
Madame Bovary
The Brothers Karamazov
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
The Financier

I wonder if they are all still in print.

Alias Reader wrote: "Thanks, deb. I am going to check out College for One.

How many have you read ? ..."

Zero!

In addition to the books you listed (did we read Bleak House together?), Alias, i've read the following:

Androcles and the Lion

Sister Carrie

Death in Venice

Madame Bovary

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Chéri

My Ántonia

A Lost Lady

As i mentioned in another thread, i'm surprised at how few i've read from the list, as it was my go-to list for a number of years. However, by reading some of the above, i ended up reading many more by the same author. Willa Cather being a prime example--i've read most of her major novels and many short stories. I guess that's the way it goes with lists, they lead you to explore more on your own.

madrano wrote: "In addition to the books you listed (did we read Bleak House together?), Alias, i've read the following:

No, I read that on my own.

Cather is a favorite of mine also.

Good to know i'm not alone, Julie. I keep returning to reread Cather's descriptions of the plain states and strong women. I read one bio of her, Willa Cather: The Woman And Her Works, which was good but not great. Author Marion Marsh Brown shared much but not as much as i wanted to know, probably because she also discussed the novels. Regardless, i remember incidents and could relate what i learned to what i was reading in Cather's novels.

Alias, i think that you reading it may have inspired me to read it, then. I definitely connect reading it to you in some way. Silly brain o' mine!

madrano wrote: "Alias, i think that you reading it may have inspired me to read it, then. I definitely connect reading it to you in some way. Silly brain o' mine!
"
:)

I do know that I somehow ended up with about 4 copies of O Pioneers! before I read it. It seems every time I walked into a bookstore it called to me. Then I would promptly forget that I purchased it and buy it again ! Silly brain, try no brain!

LOL! It must be a sign of a well talked about book, eh? Funny.

Alias Reader wrote: "I do know that I somehow ended up with about 4 copies of O Pioneers! before I read it. It seems every time I walked into a bookstore it called to me. Then I would promptly forget that I purchased it and buy it again ! Silly brain, try no brain! ..."

That's ok. I actually read it and have no memory of it. Same with One of Ours.

Both Pioneers and My Ántonia are Cather books i've read at least twice. I seem to recall Pioneers better, for some reason.

Julie wrote: I'm back to waking up before 6 to do my daily walks. The saving grace lately has been that there is a breeze but the humidity is awful.."

:) When I look over my book journal I am often astonished to see some of the titles. I have absolutely no memory of reading some of the books never, mind the plot.

Too true here, too, Alias. I used to think that this was a sign that the book wasn't very good. However, when i read my synopsis of some, i realize that was a home-grown fallacy. :-)