Craig Clevenger's Top Ten
This is Craig Clevenger's Top Ten books as of 2006.
This list is published in the back of my paperback copy of The Contortionist's Handbook which was published by Harper Perennial UK in 2006. and he also adds a little comment about each book, which is nice.
i did transcribe it in one of the "It's [whatever month] and i'm reading..." threads, but i'm gonna go ahead and make a thread just for it, seeing as though a bunch of people are reading or about to read books like The Postman Always Rings Twice.
so this thread is to discuss the list, and the books in it.
go on, go ahead.
CRAIG CLEVENGER'S TOP TEN BOOKS
In no particular order.
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
"If I were ever to teach writing, this would be my textbook." (and funnily enough, he actually did teach writing using this book. breaking it down scene by scene, and character by character, in one of The Cult's Intensives)If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
"This book completely hanged my understanding of reading and writing, for the better."The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe
"I picked this up twenty years ago, and still have that same paperback. Like Calvino, this was one of my first forays out of my narrow field of reading as a kid."White Jazz by James Ellroy
"Ellroy's finest work, as hard-boiled as they come, yet with beautiful fluid prose.Homeboy by Seth Morgan
"Seth Morgan was a master storyteller, and a writer clearly in love with each of his characters. His language is never less than acrobatic."Leaving Las Vegas by John O'Brien
"Dark and beautiful. This is a powerful, powerful love story.Tours of the Black Clock by Steve Erickson
"Steve Erickson is the Invisible Giant of American letters."House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
"This was the last book I read before I quit my job to write my first novel."Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson
"The High Priest of Noir, Jim Thompson is an underappreciated treasure."The Zoo Where You're Fed to God by Michael Ventura
"A beautiful, graceful dance of a book."
and there it is.
word.
I thought "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" was surprisingly funny. The passage where that bloke's wandering down a street and decides to answer a ringing phone is hilarious.
I can see the origin of books like HoL and the Raw Shark Texts (the latter of which I thought was brilliant, though I see it get a bit of a slating here and there) in Calvino's work.
I think if I'd read IOAWNAT as a student in the late 70s, it would have blown my tiny mind.
HoL - I enjoyed parts of it. To be honest, though I admire the ambition of the book, I wish Danielewski had just trimmed out that boring twat Johnny Truant and focused on the weird and great "house of the mind" story.
The Postman Always Rings Twice. I read this because of a Clevenger recommendation and it's wonderful. The bullet-tight prose is something to aspire to. The opening line is a rottweiler.
Ashamed to say I haven't read any of the others, though I've been meaning to pick up and Ellroy for years.
I didn't finish 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveler' by Italo Calvino, maybe it was a bad translation or the timing, but I found it boring as hell.
maybe it was the second-person POV? i've heard you mentioned before that you don't dig it, haven't i?
I didn't finish 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveler' by Italo Calvino, maybe it was a bad translation or the timing, but I found it boring as hell.
maybe it was the second-person POV? i've heard you mentioned before that you don't dig it, haven't i?
Maybe, but mostly I remember the flowery language. But yes, I usually hate second except for 'A Prayer for the Dying' by Stewart O'Nan which you MUST read!
it's in my e-basket ready for next time i make an online purchase. i normally wait and buy a couple of hundred's worth in one go, rather than buying in dribs and drabs. but yes, it's in there and ready for me to buy and then anhilate with my eyes.
Just don't start with White Jazz, it's the fourth part of the LA Quartet, which starts with The Black Dahlia. It's much more enjoyable to read the series in order.
"The High Priest of Noir, Jim Thompson is an underappreciated treasure."
Word2Dmax.
I can't blame anyone for not liking House of Leaves, if it was two pages longer I wouldn't have thought it worth it.
I always considered House of Leaves to be kinda short. half the pages only have like two or three words on them.
I've read House of Leaves (Really liked it), and Pop. 1280 (Thanks to Ludwig! It's a neat book!). 
yeah, you're right. i wonder what the actual word count is. when you factor in the amount of pages that have under ten words on it.
Everything I've heard about House of Leaves reminds me of one of these books...
god i love Choose Your Own Adventures.
I read The Postman... but in french and most probably in a bad translation like they used to do 60 years ago. Probably worth another shot.
We bought House of Leaves in Dublin with Derek (thanks mate !).
I read David Brin's The Postman and really really enjoyed it. Not the same book though.
You know in all the years I've been here I've never been sigged?
Bukowski's Post Office was brilliant.
It kinda sorta is, except instead of turning to different pages, all the different strings are just in footnotes and the margins.
i really have to hurry up and read that book.
HoL, not The Cave of Time, although, i'd give that a go too.
I've only read House of Leaves on the list so far. I thought it was only okay. Potentially, it could have been much better.
I have The Postman Always Rings Twice (which I plan to read very soon) and some stuff by James Ellroy, Jim Thompson and Steve Erickson but not the works mentioned in the list.
"oh, yeah, thanks, Matt for transcribing that damn list again for me."
oh, wait...
And thanks, Matt for transcribing that damn list again for me.
hahaha. it's alright!
it'll be good to have it up in its very own thread anyway.
Postman Always Rings Twice had some tight ass prose. There isn't one wasted word in the whole thing. And that's probably why the book is so short. But the story is much larger than I would have thought it would be considering the book is just over 100-some pages.
Oh yeah, for sure, Pete. The prose is air-tight. And I definitely agree with you, that is why the book is only around 100 pages long. But why add another 100 pages of useless backstory that doesn't tell us anymore about the characters than we need. I still felt emotionally connected to the characters.
Here's a copy/paste of what I just posted in the monthly reading thread:
I loved it, Pete. I thought it was just a perfectly told story. I'm not sure that I liked the way it turned into the whole written confession/memoir in the last chapter. But besides that, it was such a well told story. Simple. Subtle imagery. Great foreshadowing.
One thing I noticed, and I'll be interested to see if anyone else thought this, is that Cora reminded me of Baer's Jude a lot in the first couple of chapters. It may have been the way she was nasty, but sexy, but also very vague. Not sure. I wonder if Baer had her in mind at all. I'm sure Cain was an influence of his.
And I will copy and paste what I wrote in response lol:
I really liked the ending. I thought it wrapped everything up nicely and gave meaning to the book.
I can see Cain influencing Baer - that makes sense. I didn't think Cora was like Jude though.
I really liked the tight style. I'm going to be reading more Cain for sure.
I've just started reading The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain. Hopefully, it's as good as you two are talking it up to be.
I cannot find this book anywhere and I hate you all.
You know in all the years I've been here I've never been sigged?
Yeah they didn't have it at any of the book stores by my house. I ended up ordering it from amazon.
that's odd. you looked in the crime section obviously, Mckay? i didn't have any trouble finding it, and it's normally ultra-difficult for me to find anything that isn't popular fiction. i have borders to look in and that's it. well, there's angus and robertson, and some other shitty chains, but borders is the best out of them all. hence why i do so much secondhand and online book shopping.
Yeah, honestly I didn't try Borders or Barnes and Nobles. But I tried a good 5 independent book stores (which I'd rather support if possible) and no one had it.
Local jerks.
You know in all the years I've been here I've never been sigged?
oh, of course. independents all the way. there's really only one good independent bookstore, that isn't a secondhand store, in my town. it sells a lot of great local and national titles, and stocks some aussie lit mags, but it's a small shop, so the range isn't huge. in fact, my bookshelf is probably half of their general fiction section.
I'd like to read 'Leaving Las Vegas' one of these days.
I didn't finish 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveler' by Italo Calvino, maybe it was a bad translation or the timing, but I found it boring as hell. I'm also unimpressed by HOL.