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William T Vollmann's Reading List

The author, most recently, of “The Dying Grass” says the deader the author, the more worthwhile the book. “Who would keep bringing out editions of ‘Gilgamesh’ if there weren’t some magic in the story?”

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By the Book: William T Vollmann (2015)

NYT By the Book column (2015-07-23).

Source: www.nytimes.com

Cover of Carmilla
J. Sheridan Le Fanu · Buy on Amazon
"Having just finished a beautifully understated forerunner of Dracula — J. Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla."
Thomas Browne · Buy on Amazon
"Sir Thomas Browne's Urne-Burial, which I reread from time to time for its zany sentences."
Cover of The Tale of Genji
Murasaki Shikibu · Buy on Amazon
"Lady Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji is inexhaustible. Tranquilly selfish, the 11th-century ruling class to which Genji's protagonist belongs will never get my plaudits, but its aesthetic appreciations of nature, love and transience might have been unsurpassed."
John Dos Passos · Buy on Amazon
"In John Dos Passos's U.S.A. one can also watch characters live out their entire life cycle — it is certainly a masterpiece."
Sigrid Undset · Buy on Amazon
"Sigrid Undset's strong-willed, sensual, self-destructive and ultimately rock-solid Kristin Lavransdatter bears many rereadings."
Danilo Kis · Buy on Amazon
"A Tomb for Boris Davidovich, by Danilo Kis, whose lyrical concision I admire from far below."
Cover of Life and Fate
Vasily Grossman · Buy on Amazon
"Life and Fate, by Vasily Grossman"
Ernest Hemingway · Buy on Amazon
"Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls"
Cover of War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy · Buy on Amazon
"Tolstoy's War and Peace is another obvious choice, although war is actually not the core of it."
Cover of Seven Pillars of Wisdom
T.E. Lawrence · Buy on Amazon
"T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom is written with feeling and elegance, and sometimes achieves an epic quality."
Unknown · Buy on Amazon
"I love that fountainhead of Norse myth and saga, the Elder Edda. It is, after all, part of my ethnocultural heritage."

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