Books You Should Read But Probably Haven't
by Samantha ~ May 20th, 2009. Filed under: stacked.1. Cows and High Life by Matthew Stokoe
Edited to Add : Cows has been out of print for some time now, and is a rare find. If you do come across a reasonably priced copy, snatch it up fast.
Cows and High Life really aren’t for you if you have a weak stomach, offended by anything, have any sort of heart condition, or plan on ever sleeping well ever again.
I read Cows on a cross country flight, and it was by far the most vile and disturbing media I have ever come across. It actually made me dry heave at certain parts, and I am more than comfortable with gross. The woman sitting next to me on the flight was less than pleased.
High Life is not as grotesque, but it’s up there. If Bret Easton Ellis & Chuck Palahniuk could actually write something of substance and not just the same anti-hero story over and over again, they’d want to write this book.
2. Veronica and A Trip to the Stars by Nicholas Christopher
These two are by far my favorite novels of all time. They are not full of gross, like those previously mentioned. They are full of magic, but not in a fantasy & dragons wizard hat sort of way.
Veronica is a good primer for Nicholas Christopher’s writing. It starts off at the “improbable point where Waverly Place intersects Waverly Place”, and goes into a cross dimensional search for Veronica’s missing magician father (ok, so maybe there is a pointy hat, but it’s a fucking cool pointy hat).
A Trip to the Stars is on my re-read list. I can’t even summarize the plot right now, since it’s been about five years since my copy wandered off to have its own adventures.
3. The Language of Fear First Men in the Moon on dvd by Del James
My friend Del James wrote the Language of Fear back in the late 80s and early 90s. It’s a collection of short horror stories, where more often than not, the monster under your bed is you. Horrifically eloquent and beautifully obscene, and to quote my review of the book on Amazon :
“Del James is an honest man in a world of derelicts and destitution, and he pens his tales of this true to his nature.”
One of the stories in it, Without You, is actually what the GNR video November Rain is based on, if that’s an incentive, but it’s hard to pick a favorite from it.
And if you’re interested, I interviewed Del for SG about a year ago (you don’t need a membership to read it).
4. Death’s Acre and Beyond the Body Farm by William Bass
These are both about the Body Farm research facility in Tennessee, where they study human decomposition. Both are broken down into chapters describing different cases, mostly assisting in forensic analysis on crime scenes. Despite they’re subject matter, they are incredibly human and surprisingly light reads. Obviously, Beyond the Body Farm is the follow up, so read Death’s Acre first.
5. Let the Right One In by John Ajvide LIndqvist
You all know my love for this movie, and for the novel it was based on. The novel fills in and expands on all the things in the movie you wish you knew more about. I was so disappointed when I finished it, solely because it was over. It could have went on for thousands of pages and I still would have loved it.
Other Required Reading :
Stiff by Mary Roach
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
The Plague by Albert Camu
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
This is entirely inspired by my upcoming trip to Portland and its scheduled visit to Powells, which I may just set up a cot in and never ever leave.
Any suggestions on what I should pick up while I’m there?
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May 20th, 2009 at 12:34 PM
Hmm…haven’t heard of some of these! Thanks!
Also, The Plague is my favorite novel of all time. Hell, yeah!
May 20th, 2009 at 12:45 PM
Also, Pretty Young Thing is excellent! It does, however, lead to a (possibly) stupid question: How do you photograph a smoker/cigarette and not capture the smoke? Is it a technique, a particular lens, Photoshop or simply a “prop” cigarette (ie partially smoked and then put out so as to be not lit during a shot)?
May 20th, 2009 at 12:52 PM
Oh, thanks!
It was a real cigarette that she was smoking, but I think that the ambient light in the room may have just overpowered the smoke and blown it out of the photos. There are a few pics in the set where you can see it, but I may have over exposed the image a bit and lost the detail from it.
Or, on second thought, she smokes those American Spirit cigarettes, and they seem to go out all the time. Maybe it was that?
Sorry I can’t be more specific!
May 20th, 2009 at 1:00 PM
Ah, gotcha. I went back and took a closer look (Her: That’s a great picture but why are you staring at that girl’s boobs so closely? Me: I’m looking for smoke….) and yep, there it is. :)
May 21st, 2009 at 7:13 PM
The SG sets you have been shooting have been great, have you been using your XSi or something else?
Also – Haute Macbre has been looking great lately – good job.
May 21st, 2009 at 7:34 PM
Oh, I’ve switched from the Rebel to a Canon 5D Mark I, with a 24-70mm lens.
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:26 PM
Love this list! I’m a huge fan of Mary Roach’s BONK, and have been meaning to pick up STIFF and SPOOK as well.
Anything by Borges is great as well, but if you haven’t read any Jeanette Winterson, I’d recommend checking her out. Art & Lies is great.
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:32 PM
Stiff is FANTASTIC. Spook is the weakest of the three, but still, not a bad read. And thank you for the recommendation! I’m always looking for new books to pick up.
May 24th, 2009 at 2:42 PM
I’ve read Stiff and Geek Love, amazing books. Need to re-read Kundera. and you just gave the highest recommendation for those Stokoe books, i will seek them out.
I promised myself i would buy the Let the Right One In dvd, but it’s expensive! best movie i saw this year.
June 19th, 2009 at 7:55 AM
[...] this after hearing good things from Samantha over at fivetwentythree, who wrote up a great list of Books You Should Read But Probably Haven’t. They tend towards horror/vampire fiction, which isn’t usually my genre of choice, but I [...]
June 29th, 2009 at 3:03 PM
Recently finished ‘Let the right one in’ (waiting for the weather to clear for a flight from Greenland to Iceland) having seen the film previously. It’s a great book, but I much prefered the backstory I came up with whilst watching the film – the old guy, having been Eli’s consort for the past 40 odd years, is getting past it and she’s looking for a suitable replacement. The story in the book was perhaps a bit too byzantine for my tastes.
July 26th, 2009 at 6:27 AM
Lindqvist’s second book “Handling the Undead” is well worth getting hold of, and unlikely to be filmed (at least not in the same form, and certainly not by a Hollywood studio). The multiple narratives approach works much better this time round, and there’s little attempt at explaining what’s going on – just a whole series grotesque images that’ll stick in your mind for a long time after.