Great Reads Not Necessarily on the Net

The Cat & the Coffee Drinkers,

Henry Maxwell Steele.

A brief story about growing up, drinking coffee black, and the death of a cat.

Mr. Lunch Borrows a Canoe,

J. Otto Seibold and Vivian Walsh.

Mr. Lunch, the professional bird chaser, clears St. Mark's Plaza in Venice of pigeons.

Mr. Lunch Takes a Plane Ride,

J. Otto Seibold and Vivian Walsh.

Mr. Lunch, the professional bird chaser, does what he does best and on TV.

Free Lunch,

J. Otto Seibold and Vivian Walsh.

Mr. Lunch, the professional bird chaser, imprisoned, sees, by day, the shapes of everyday things in the clouds, but, at night, is so alone.

Walden,

Henry David Thoreau.

An experiment in living so that, when it came time for him to die, he would not find that he had not lived.

"Two on a Party," in Tennessee Williams Collected Stories.

About a warm friendship in the midst of "moral anarchy." Perhaps his best short story.

The Brotherhood of the Grape,

John Fante.

As extraordinarily pagan a book as The Wind in the Willows; unashamedly a man's book.

"Inhaling the Spore,"

Lawrence Weschler.

(Harper's Magazine, Sept. 1994)

A mind-expanding article about the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles.
Now a book, Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder.

On the Road,

Jack Kerouac.

A book in which nothing happens, but which seems to grow more lyrical and more timeless upon each re-reading.

Before Beyond the Fringe and before Monty Python, there was:

1066 and All That:

A Memorable History of England:

Comprising All the Parts You Can Remember,

Including One Hundred and Three Good Things,

Five Bad Kings,

and Two Genuine Dates,

W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman.

"Which do you consider were the more alike, Caesar or Pompey, or vice versa? (Be brief.)"

"Discuss, in latin or gothic (but not both), whether the Northumbrian Bishops were more schismatical than the Cumbrian Abbots. (Be bright.)"

A Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance,

J. R. Hale.

Witty, intelligent, very nicely organized. With entries on subjects such as Humour, Crime, Poison, Leo X, Magic, Cuisine and Leonardo da Vinci.

Tender Buttons,

Gertrude Stein.

Ms. Stein takes poetry into the Twentieth Century (and beyond) with some of her most hermetic writing.
For example, Dining Dining is west.

My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist,

Mark Leyner.

These fragments have I shored against my ruins:
"in the blazing headlights of an oncoming subway car, my mother's skin is as translucent as the tissue-thin page of a norton anthology"

I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology: Abraham Joshua Heschel,

edited by Samuel H. Dresner.

"His preoccupation with the will of God is not limited to a section of his activities, but his great desire is to place his whole life at the disposal of God. In this he finds the real meaning of life."

Invisible Man,

Ralph Ellison.

Who knows but that, perhaps, on a lower frequency, Ellison speaks for you?

The Great Gatsby,

F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Mystery, love story, work of art, one of the most deft uses of language in Twentieth Century American letters.
"I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men."

I and Thou,

Martin Buber.

The mystery and sacredness of life and relationship, perceived in the eyes of a cat. All life is meeting.
History, a mysterious approach.

B.Chad's Homepage.