Essential Reading
Poems by Philip
Larkin Any man who can start a poem with "Groping
back to bed after a piss" and then, within eighteen
lines, define human existence, gets to be first in this
list.
"My Secret
Life"the erotic classic by "Walter" the vast hugely
pornographic memoir of the Victorian age. Only extracts,
sadly. But rude they are, so read now and then... off to
Amazon with you.
Charles
G. Finney: unsung genius of Science Fiction. No
reading here, sadly, but hopefully enough information to
send you forth to the library, or Amazon.
The unbelievably funny Bad
Shakespeare list. Either you get this, or you
don't. If you do, you may well rupture yourself.
The incredibly funny
Cavalorn: The Comying of the Frydge
Joe
Haldeman's Homepage The best science fiction writer
writing today. Bar none. Again, no free reading but
hopefully, inspiration to buy some books.
Elagabalus
Antoninus, Emperor of Rome : "The Life Of Antoninus
Heliogabalus" by Aelius Lampridius. Such wonders.
Like having people read to you on your iPod of Mp3 player?
For free? Audio Books for
Free has heaps of copyright free books for
download. Admittedly lots of them are crap, but I highly
recommend the
Real Pirates stories true lives of real pirates
by
Captain Charles Johnson since reality is, as
always, far more inventive than any fiction.
Better still, try Botar for old radio shows
and plays and some really good books. I heartily recommend
The
Invisible Man by HG. Wells read by Alex Foster.
Which can be found there. You can also paste this link into
iTunes.
http://www.botar.us/invisibleman.xml
Probably the best site all up for audiobooks though is
Librivox
which has a vast collection of stuff and a rational
cataloguing system. The only flaw here is that the books
are read by multiple readers and while some may be good,
others aren't. (The James Joyce "Ulysses" is pretty bad.)
Project
Gutenberg: 19,000 free eBooks. Nothing more need be
said.
Gerard Manley
Hopkins one of the best poets, ever, in the history
of writing in English. I read him, and I wonder how much
more great he would have been if he hadn't been so fucked
up by religion. Probably his best poem "The
Windhover" mentions God only in the dedication...
and is the stronger for it.
Robert Browning
"The Bishop orders his tomb at Saint Praxed's
Church" I have learnt more about poetry, and the
English language, and stuff, by re-reading this one poem,
probably than I have from any other single source. Simply
magnificent. As an odd piece of trivia, Robert Browning was
also the first person in history to have his voice heard
after his death, when, in Venice in 1890, a recording made
by Thomas Edison was played of Browning reading "How They Brought
the Good News from Ghent to Aix" I imagine that
there were some in the audience who were surprised that the
recording played at all. After all, such is progress.
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