THESE ARE MY TOP 10 BOOKS |
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1. The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon by Tom Spanbauer Do you know that feeling when you pick up a book and you don't want it to end? Or better, do you know that feeling when you read a book and you don't understand how it is possible to feel sadness, joy, hatred and compassion at the same time? How many times I said to myself through tears (yep, I was sobbing): "I can't believe that I am reading about this and it feels perfectly okay to cry, laugh and feel all kinds of emotions at the same time." This book re-defined what I knew about US history. This is the book I like the most and this is the book you should read. |
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2. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov Ah Bulgakov, and how were you able to write a book like this? I have no idea. I don't even know how to describe it. If I start telling you about magicians who are devils or cats whose names are "hippopotamuses" (and they can speak too), or naked witches flying from place to place, you would think that I am describing you one of those vampire novels everyone "loves" to read. This book is not about vampires nor magicians, but it is magical. The novel is way too rich to describe it in a few words. Pick it up and read it and then re-read it again. It is that good. |
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3. The Thief's Journal by Jean Genet Being a homeless thief was never this sexy as it is in this novel. After reading this book you might actually wish you lived the way Genet lived, surrounded by thieves, hustlers and people who have nothing but their naked bodies covered in flea bites. The novel is heavily autobiographical and it really feels like it was written as an escape from the harsh reality that Genet was part of. If you want to learn how a journal should be written, this is it, don't look further. |
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4. Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski There are two books on this list that have the word "rye" in their title. They both have something uncanny in common. Sometimes I felt like Bukowski was mocking J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, but I am leaving that for you to decide. It's Bukowski at his finest. It's raw, harsh and painfully great. The simplicity of Bukowski's writing blew me away. After this book I fell in love with everything he has written. Be aware that after reading Bukowski's works you might turn into a heavy drinker, smoker or both :)! |
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5. Story of the Eye by George Bataille If you can stomach a line like this, then this book is for you: "...first, Simone bit into one of the raw balls, to my dismay; then Granero advanced towards the bull, waving his scarlet cloth; finally, almost at once, Simone, with a blood-red face and a suffocating lewdness, uncovered her long white thighs up to her moist vulva, into which she slowly and surely fitted the second pale globule - Granero was thrown back by the bull and wedged against the balustrade; the horns struck the balustrade three times at full speed; at the third blow, one horn plunged into the right eye and through the head." |
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6. On the Road by Jack Kerouac I think everyone in their lifetime should have a cross country trip. This book definitely inspired my trip across Europe and then my move to the USA. Read the book and feel the freedom. |
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7. In the City of Shy Hunters by Tom Spanbauer Yes, it is another book by Spanbauer. It almost feels like a continuation to The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon (and I have no problem with it), but this time instead of a provincial western town we find the main protagonist moving to New York City. The grittiness of late 80s and the AIDS are constant reminders that we are in a jungle where bodies are buried in the "Dog Shit Park" and the love of your life might come back to you in the way you never imagined. This one is a tearjerker as well. Spanbauer himself told that writing this book almost cost him his life. |
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8. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston It might be hard at first to get into the way Hurston writes the novel, but the story is so good that you will forget about the discomfort you felt reading it in dialect. Hurston and Spanbauer are my two biggest discoveries in American literature. They both opened for me the unknown facts about American history. |
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9. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger There is a lot written about this novel. I read it when I was a teenager and I re-read it when I hit my 30s. Even though the main protagonist is a teenager, the themes explored in the book are ageless. It's one of those books that you might find yourself returning to time and time again. |
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10. Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller These 2 books you could read as one. It centers around Miller's life as a struggling writer in Paris and New York City. Tropic of Cancer is set in France primarily in Paris during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Yes, you guessed correctly Parisian Bohemia, sex, sex and more sex, even when there is nothing to eat. How one could say no to these wonderful women longingly sitting in Parisian cafés? They don't know that your pockets have holes in it and that you have nothing at home (if you have a home that is). They are attracted to you because of who you are and not what you have. Isn't it every artist's dream? In Tropic of Capricorn we find the same struggling writer but now living in New York City and working at the personnel division of the 'Cosmodemonic' telegraph company. Again he finds himself struggling and at times there is nothing to eat, but that doesn't prevent him from having sex, sex and more sex with women around him. Even his marriage and a child can't stop him from doing it with other women. These two novels are heavily autobiographical or at least it feels like it. If you want to feel what it meant to live in Paris and New York City in 1920s and 1930s pick up these two books. It is full of that time (and yes, sex :)!). |
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THESE ARE MY +9 BOOKS, JUST BECAUSE TOP 10 IS NOT ENOUGH! |
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11. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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12. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov This book I was given by an accident in high school. The librarian got a new book and she wanted me to test it and tell her what it was about. Next day she asked me if I could bring the book back, but it was too late. Needless to say I read the book in one night. I haven't read any book this fast as this one. Maybe my teenage hormones had something to do with it but apart from the entire sexual context of the book it is a really great read about a young sexuality that is just about to bloom and about another (elder) one that is awakened by it from fading away. |
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13. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wild |
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14. In the Eyes of Mr Fury by Philip Ridley
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15. Narcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse |
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16. Three Comrades by Erich Maria Remarque
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17. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
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18. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair After reading this book, I promise, you will stop eating meat. |
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19. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
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