Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, By Robert Pirsig. This post is largely inspired by this book. He read lots of obscure books, by not well known writers, which liberated me from the shallow waters of bestseller lists. I realized it’s not only okay to read widely, but a kind of necessity as a writer to be well read, as demonstrated by his example. I discovered Celine’s Death on the Installment plan from Miller, a book with profound effects – a) the realization some people are both brilliant and miserable b) sentences don’t have to end… Regarding Miller, I’d never seen a writer list more than a handful of favorite books, but Miller’s book was dense and deep, thick with references. He crossed subjects, forms, languages, decades… he was, in essence, a kind of free-reader. The quantity of books he recalled fluently, and their wide range of genres. I was a fan of his non-fiction writing in the late 1990s ( Air Conditioned Nightmare, Black Spring) and when I found this book it blew my mind. Henry Miller wrote a book called The Books in My life. These are the first ~45 books that came to mind ( here’s the list on goodreads). In a series of posts, called ask berkun, I write on whatever topics people submit and vote for. This week reader’s choice: What are your favorite books and why?
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