"The Wanderer" by Alain-Fournier
Because everyone who reads this novel seems to be forever in its thrall...
"Cascando and Other Short Dramatic Pieces" by Samuel Beckett
Because Beckett is "essential", yet a little of him goes a long way...
"Selected Poems" by Elizabeth Daryush
Because of Marianne Moore...
"The Complete Plays" by Joe Orton
Because there's been nothing funnier in drama since Sheridan and Goldsmith...
"Swithering" by Robin Robertson
Because I took an instant dislike to his poetry, and precedent indicates that he might evolve into a favorite...
"The Algonquin Literary Quiz Book" by Louis D.Rubin, Jr.
Because books are meant to play games with...
"Rhinoceros" by Eugene Ionesco
Because rhinoceri are absurdly under-represented in world literature...
"A Choice of Comic and Curious Verse" edited by J.M.Cohen
Because the editor's name alliteratively conforms with his chosen title, in a comic and curious manner...
"Thomas Gray, Philosopher Cat" by Philip J.Davis
Because of the title, and because novel-writing mathematicians intrigue me...
"David Blaize" by E.F.Benson
Because it's a boarding-school story by the author of the Mapp and Lucia stories...
"Sigismund" by Lars Gustafsson
Because of his splendid obscurity...
"Langrishe Go Down" by Aidan Higgins
Because I've never read an Irish novel I didn't admire...
"All quiet on the Orient Express" by Magnus Mills
For too many reasons to mention...
"Kai Lung's Golden Hours" by Ernest Bramah
Because I have an infinite appetite for orientalist kitsch...
"The Blind Owl" by Sadegh Hedayat
Because I'm teaching myself to be politically correct, and I needed a token Middle Eastern writer...
"3 More Novels" by Ronald Firbank
Because, with Firbank, more is always better...
And to think I thought I'd gotten over my book-sale addiction...
