michael ondaatje, ed. lost classics: writers on books loved and lost, overlooked, under-read, unavailable, stolen, extinct, or otherwise out of commission
well, the title is pretty self-explanatory--here is a collection of short essays by about a zillion authors on books they've read and loved that are hard to find or were lost to them or whatever. some of these essays are really great--i especially liked the ones with more of an autobiographical slant, but some of the more book-focused essays were good too--and some are a little boring (i'm just not that into poetry) but it's at least a way to get more additions to the ol' reading list. :)
4 comments:
I like these kinds of books, probably b/c authors write better reviews (IMHO) than reviewers and critics. Peder Zane's Remarkable Reads: 35 Writers and Their Adventures in Reading (ISBN 0393325407) was good, and has a lot of local authors in it. Hansen & Shepard's You've Got to Read This (ISBN 0060982020) is a short story anthology that has a huge # of famous authors' intros to their favorite stories.
heh, remarkable reads has been on my wishlist for over a year, i think. i'll have to check out the others--i liked the concept of this book a lot, but there were just soo many essays to slog through . . .
The Hansen+Shepard is a good anthology--and it is nice because it is an anthology--you get the stories and brief intros--rather than all essay. All thoses essays do is make me want to read books I can't ever get. And that is a kind of Hell.
yeah, that was the downside to reading the one i read--although some of their lost classics are still in print, just not widely read. anyway, i'll check out the hansen and shepard since you both recommend it. :)
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