Helen Oyeyemi's Reading List

The author of "Mr. Fox" and "Boy, Snow, Bird" considers Dumas's d'Artagnan a literary hero: "If there's going to be a fray, I can't help but approve of someone who enters it headlong."

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By the Book: Helen Oyeyemi (2014)

NYT By the Book column (2014-03-13).

Source: www.nytimes.com

Goblin Market

Christina Rossetti · Buy on Amazon

"A little antique pocket edition of Rossetti's "Goblin Market" that I've kept close to me ever since it arrived in my life."

Kytice

Karel Erben · Buy on Amazon

"I don't really know how to describe these stories, except that most of them are profoundly strange, with outcomes that you shrink from rather than anticipate, and so you simply pause from time to time to make peace with your goose bumps."

Make Believe: A True Story

Diana Athill · Buy on Amazon

"Both the story and Athill's inimitable way of telling it; stark and tender by turns. There's a lot to the book — character study, memoir, attempt to comprehend tragedy — and it leaves you with a grief that bypasses tears and keeps you up at night."

The Horse and His Boy

C. S. Lewis · Buy on Amazon

"I recently reread "The Horse and His Boy," and it's just as good as it was back then."

Little Women

Unknown · Buy on Amazon

Alice in Wonderland

Unknown · Buy on Amazon

In a Glass Darkly

Sheridan Le Fanu · Buy on Amazon

"Sheridan Le Fanu's "In a Glass Darkly" (which contains "Green Tea" and "The Familiar," two stories full of some of the most troubling stuff concerning categories of sensory perception I've ever read)."

The Golem

Gustav Meyrink · Buy on Amazon

"I was very struck — still am — by the angle "The Golem" takes on monstrosity."

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