Reading

Summary: I can’t remember what finally got me into Raymond Carver, but he’s by far my favorite short-story writer. I remember 1995 as being a very confusing time, and I went through a huge variety of writers that year. Reading List 1995 Short Cuts - Raymond Carver Feast of Snakes - Harry Crews No Minor Chords - Andre Previn Frank Zappa: Negative Dialects of Poodle Play - Ben Watson The Knockout Artist - Harry Crews Tracer - Frederic Barthelme Kentucky Ham - William S. Burroughs Jr. Cathedral - Raymond Carver At Night, the Salmon Move - Raymond Carver Where I’m Calling From - Raymond Carver Furious Seasons - Raymond Carver Ranson - Jay McInerny A New Path to the Waterfall - Raymond Carver Sex, Lies, and Videotape - Steven Soderberg The Hawk is Dying - Harry Crews The Loop - Joe Coomer Ultra-Marine - Raymond Carver Where the Water Comes Together With Other Water - Raymond Carver Pounding Nails in the Floor with my Forehead - Eric Bogosian The Road to Los Angeles - John Fante Carver Country - Raymond Carver The Marquis de Sade - Donald Thomas Scar Lover - Harry Crews No Beast so Fierce - Edward Bunker Virtual Light - William Gibson Will you Please be Quiet, Please? - Raymond Carver The Importance of Being Eric Dolphy - Raymond Harricks Gurdjieff: A Very Great Enigma - J.G. Bennett Fires - Raymond Carver The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson - Paul Perry Tropic of Capricorn - Henry Miller Brian Eno - Eric Tamm Life After God - Douglas Coupland Mother: the Frank Zappa Story - Michael Gray Suburbia - Eric Bogosian Planet Joe - Joe Cole A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole Perfect Pitch - Nicholas Slominsky The Sadness of Sex - Barry Yourgrau Et Tu, Babe - Mark Leyner The Animal Factor - Edward Bunker Illuminati Papers - Robert Anton Wilson Dead Babies - Martin Amis Rommel Drives on Deep into Egypt - Richard Brautigan

Summary: 1994 was more of the same, but I started diving into a large number of musician’s biographies. It was the first summer that I spent away from home in my first apartment. My roommate and I both worked in restaurants and took classes during the day. I would often hide out in the school library for the free air-conditioning. Reading List 1994 The Most Beautiful Woman in Town - Charles Bukowski The Job - William S. Burroughs Quiet Days in Clichy - Henry Miller Nights of Love and Laughter - Henry Miller Charlie Parker - Brian Priestly Sonny Rollins - Charles Blanca Ornette Coleman - John Litwieder Beneath the Underdog - Charles Mingus Coltrane - C. O. Simpkins Chasin the Train - J.C. Thomas Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker - Free Play - Stephan Nachmanovitch With William Burroughs - Victor Bockris Mingus/Mingus - Coleman and Young The Fermata - Nicholson Baker Black Spring - Henry Miller Drumming at the Edge of Magic - Micky Hart Music and Imagination - Aaron Copeland The Informers - Bret Easton Ellis John Coltrane - Bill Cole Ascension: John Coltrane and his Quest - Eric Nisenson Bird Lives - Ross Rusell Americana - Don DeLillo Joys and Sorrows - Pablo Casalas A Life on the Road - Julien Bream World’s End - T. Coraghessan Boyle Better than Sex - Hunter S. Thompson The Adding Machine - William S. Burroughs Letters to a Young Poet - Rainer Maria Rilke Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerey Story of My Life - Jay McIneray Blood and Grits - Henry Crews Body - Henry Crews

Summary: 1993 was an incredible year for finally having the chance to read so many authors that I’ve only heard about. I remember spending my typical Friday evenings at college at the Library until it closed at 7:00 pm, and then heading home with a pile of books by Hunter Thompson, Hubert Selby, or Charles Bukowski. I would hole up in my dorm room with a fresh pot of coffee and read for four to five hours before heading out for more typical college fun. During the summer of ‘93 I worked at a golf course, where I would spend my lunch break reading ‘Tropic of Cancer’ and ‘McTeague’ while listening to AM radio in a gigantic, 1976 Black Cutlass Supreme. ...