Reading & looking

A list is an incomplete way to describe what a person likes, but it is somewhere to begin. Here are books, essays, musicians, and films I wanted to keep on the same page.

There is no ranking. The titles and names are here so you can follow anything that catches your attention.

Books

These are some of the books I keep in this small collection. I have left them together rather than trying to arrange them into an argument about my taste.

  1. The VegetarianHan Kang
  2. The Bell JarSylvia Plath
  3. The Secret HistoryDonna Tartt
  4. PiranesiSusanna Clarke
  5. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the GalaxyDouglas Adams
  6. FrankensteinMary Shelley
  7. Flowers for AlgernonDaniel Keyes
  8. The God of Small ThingsArundhati Roy
  9. The Picture of Dorian GrayOscar Wilde
  10. Project Hail MaryAndy Weir
  11. Gödel, Escher, BachDouglas Hofstadter

Essays

An essay can keep a question open in a way I find useful. These are some of the ones I wanted to remember here.

  1. Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?Linda Nochlin
  2. What Is It Like to Be a Bat?Thomas Nagel
  3. On Keeping a NotebookJoan Didion
  4. The Death of the AuthorRoland Barthes
  5. The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural SciencesEugene Wigner
  6. Consider the LobsterDavid Foster Wallace
  7. Politics and the English LanguageGeorge Orwell
  8. A Room of One’s OwnVirginia Woolf
  9. As We May ThinkVannevar Bush

Artists

Music belongs in this record too. A few names from that part of my life:

  1. Peter Cat Recording Co.
  2. Begum
  3. Darzi
  4. ear
  5. Shauharty
  6. Fiona Apple
  7. Adrianne Lenker
  8. David Bowie
  9. The Beatles
  10. Natalie Merchant
  11. Suzanne Vega

Films

And some films. They have a place here alongside the research and the reading, without needing to explain their usefulness.

  1. The Science of Sleep
  2. Amélie
  3. La La Land
  4. Daisies
  5. The Double Life of Véronique
  6. The Fall
  7. The Color of Pomegranates
  8. The Taste of Tea
  9. Paprika
  10. Meshes of the Afternoon

If something here reminds you of something else, send it my way.