 | The Edna Webster Collection of Undiscovered Writings by Richard Brautigan
Buy new: $11.01 / Used from: $3.87 Early Brautigan. You'll love this if you love Brautigan.
Note: After this, I read several out of print Brautigan books: Please Plant This Book, The Octopus Frontier, Lay the Marble Tea
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 | Cascando and Other Short Dramatic Pieces by Samuel Beckett
Buy used from: $0.57 Cascando, Words and Music, Eh Joe, Play, Come and Go. More great Beckett. Each play is fun in its inventiveness. I like "Play".
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 | Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Really Short Stories
Buy used from: $15.20 Super short and experimental. Writers playing with form, sometimes to great effect. My favorite: Painted Devils
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 | The Black Sheep and Other Fables by Augusto Monterroso
Buy used from: $36.74 Monterroso is an underappreciated writer.
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 | Complete Works: And Other Stories (Texas Pan American) by Augusto Monterroso
Buy used from: $48.00 Like a funnier, more readable Borges. This has one of my favorite book titles of all time, which hints at the sly humor found within.
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 | The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $1.19 Great book for literature geeks or just people looking for what to read next.
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 | The Man with the Black Coat: Russia's Literature of the Absurd (European Classics) by Daniil Kharms
Buy new: $18.81 / Used from: $10.94 The plays and manifestos are tiresome, but the short fiction is hilarious and weird.
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 | Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid by Lemony Snicket
Buy used from: $4.91 Funny, poignant, brief. A writer to be reckoned with.
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 | This Shape We're In by Jonathan Lethem
Buy used from: $2.27 Interesting characters, sort of disappointing conclusion. Maybe I didn't get it.
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 | Dreamtigers (Texas Pan American Series) by Jorge Luis Borges
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $3.68 Better than other Borges--here he loses the dry academic tone of his other work for pure lyricism and repetition of images.
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 | Candide (Dover Thrift Editions) by Voltaire
Buy new: $1.50 / Used from: $0.01 Funny and fast.
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 | Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
Buy new: $10.08 / Used from: $2.20 Exuberant writing--very hard to come by. Calvino's language leaps and gestures wildly on the page. I love it.
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 | Mr. Palomar by Italo Calvino
Buy new: $11.90 / Used from: $0.89 I wonder how similar Calvino was to Palomar. Perhaps this similarity is why he died so suddenly, too soon. This book is a quietly exuberant stroll through a contemplative mind.
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 | Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Buy new: $9.10 / Used from: $3.53 Good, but doesn't measure up to some of his short fiction.
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 | The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily by Dino Buzzati
Buy used from: $0.01 Weird (in a weird way) children's story. Ambiguous feelings about this one.
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 | Ficciones (English Translation) by Jorge Luis Borges
Buy new: $9.23 / Used from: $2.76 Not sure why this is considered his greatest work. Lots of dry, dry stuff here, but also some gems. Overall, Book of Sand is a better collection.
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 | With a finger in my I by David Gerrold
Buy used from: $1.50 Wow! Stunning obscure science fiction masterpiece. The final story, The Deadlands, is particularly memorable for its odd textual arrangement and terrifying buildup of lurking horror.
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 | Cronopios and Famas by Julio Cortazar
Buy new: $11.16 / Used from: $6.24 I want to be a cronopio! The way to enjoy this book is just to go along for the ride. Each disparate section is enjoyable in its own right.
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 | The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare (Modern Library Classics) by G.K. Chesterton
Buy new: $8.95 / Used from: $2.35 I'm still trying to understand the ending. Other than that, a rollicking good time.
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 | Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts. by Donald. Barthelme
Buy used from: $40.69 Hahaha, Barthelme. Haha! Weird and wacky.
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 | Break It Down (High Risk Books) by Lydia Davis
Buy used from: $4.20 She's a genius. I love the murder story told as a French lesson.
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 | Kafka by David Zane Mairowitz
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $6.72 A brief, entertaining, illustrated Kafka bio.
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 | Songs Of Innocence And Of Experience by William Blake
Buy new: $4.99 / Used from: $1.56 Oh, William Blake. Just what are you up to, you sly boots?
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 | Dave Barry's History of the Millennium (So Far) by Dave Barry
Buy new: $12.36 / Used from: $0.01 Compilation of his end-of-year summary columns. Barry is always funny.
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 | The Portable James Joyce (Portable Library) by James Joyce
Buy new: $12.24 / Used from: $0.80 Don't get excited, I only read the poems. He didn't write many, and it's easy to see why.
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 | Madness of the Day by Maurice Blanchot
Buy new: $8.95 / Used from: $4.46 A novel in 12 or so pages. Attacked, temporarily blinded, and released into the world, a man finds his perceptions altered. Interesting as a literary experiment.
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 | Exit The King (A play) by Eugene Ionesco
Buy used from: $49.68 A ritual death rite of a powerful man. Sad and moving.
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 | One Hundred and Forty Five Stories in a Small Box: Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape, How the Water Feels to the Fishes, and Minor Robberies by Dave Eggers
Buy new: $16.50 / Used from: $14.41 I read How the Water Feels to the Fishes and Minor Robberies. Fishes is playful and full of beauty.
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 | Catholics (The Loyola Classics Series) by Brian Moore
Buy new: $7.75 / Used from: $4.78 Interesting examination of faith and the importance of ritual.
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 | Ant Farm: And Other Desperate Situations by Simon Rich
Buy new: $9.32 / Used from: $3.48 Brief and hilarious! Looking forward to more from this author.
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 | Bizarre Books: A Compendium of Classic Oddities by Russell Ash
Buy new: $11.66 / Used from: $0.67 Read and then search for the books, like I did.
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 | Flash Fiction Forward: 80 Very Short Stories
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $6.32 All kinds of fun here. Favorites: The Handbag, The Orange, Crazy Glue
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 | Lament for a Son by Nicholas Wolterstorff
Buy new: $8.64 / Used from: $1.73 Well-written exploration of grief.
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 | The Twilight Zone Companion by Marc Scott Zicree
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $6.57 Previously read.
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