My nominee for this category is The Mezannine by Nicolson Baker. Baker dwells for 150 pages or so on his preoccupations as he rides up an escalator to where he works. Topics covered in the book include factors contributing to shoelace wear, the transition from paper to extruded plastic straws, how there’s no good word to refer to a woman’s abdomen (tummy, belly, stomach, abdomen, they all suck), and peoples’ behaviors in public restrooms (the funniest chapter). Whether or not this is a great work of fiction, it so clearly resonates with my own interests, that I find it great. Odd, idiosyncratic (much of the text is parenthetical footnotes), but charming.
When I was a much younger child, I had this endearing attachment to a book called ‘Mr. Blue’. About a cat with blue fur and how a classroom full of children end up adopting him.
Mr. Blue wasn’t really anthropomorphized in the sense that you would think of ‘Blue’ from Blues Clues. Or any other cartoon character from say–Warner Brothers or Disney. Mr. Blue was just sort of an ordinary cat. And he did ordinary cat things which the book detailed. I think I still have that book somewhere in my shelf.
Recently–I had read a book called ‘Einstein’s Dreams’ which was very interesting. A very short book that detailed different theories on the passage of time, told in a science fiction-esque manner with the progress of a fictional Einstein intermittently written.
Margaret Atwood’s Good Bones and Simple Murders. A wonderful little tome of short stories, very often the flip side of a familiar story. I particularly like “Gertrude Talks Back,” a transcribed conversation of aforesaid queen with her wayward college son, Hamlet - with a great ending. It’s a tad on the feminist side, but very thought-provoking and funny.
Not really a book but I love The Veldt, Dark They Were and Golden Eyed, and Golden Apples of The Sun, all by Ray Bradbury (who is my all time favorite author).
There are many others, but their names escape me at the moment.
The Big U by Neal Stephenson, (author of Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon). His first book, and one that is now out of print, unfortunately. The story revolves around a year at a college, which devolves into open warfare.
I’d been thinking about this book recently, and I couldn’t think ot who wrote it. Thanks, Eutychus55 !
It’s about a duck and a dog and an old man who drink a lot of moonshine. In length somewhere between a short story and a short novel. An absolutely brilliant, funny book.
This is definitely a minority taste, but I love old (nineteenth- and early twentieth-century) books of miscellaneous essays. From a Cornish Window by “Q” (Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch) is a favorite that springs to mind.
[sup][sub]I even love Quiller-Couch’s pen-name. “Q”. So simple, and it’s always been, for reasons I won’t go into, my favorite letter of the alphabet.[/sub][/sup]
The author tries to explain the history of typhus in novelistic form. He spends several chapters explaining why (“I can work but ten, and sleep but eight”). When he finally gets to the ‘novel’ it is a crushing read, with vikings slicing people and populations dying. It lasts a few pages. A survey prof years ago once told me that all educated people should read this book. I have since not met a single soul who has even heard of it.
A Rebours by Joris-Karl Huysmans. A shortish novel written in 1883, called the “breviary of the Decadence,” and immortalized as the infamous “yellow book” of Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray. I actually wrote my senior thesis on this novel and its influence on fin-de-siecle European literature.
On a completely different note, French Cooking in Ten Minutes: Or Adapting to the Rhythm of Modern Life, written by Edouard De Pomiane in 1930. Just what the title says it is. How to eat well even if you’re in a hurry, without sacrificing good taste.
My favourite odd little book is “Book of Night With Moon” by Diane Duane. The book tells the story of cats who are working with their goddess to look after the health of the earth, etc., as told from the cat’s perspective. It was a fascinating book; well-written, telling a very interesting story, with wonderful characters. What more could you ask for?
How odd - I’m reading “The Mezzanine” right now. I especially love the rant about the wonders of plastic straws and how they no longer bob up in a can of soda…
Then again, I enjoyed Vox and Fermata. I thought they were hilarious. I guess I just love the obsessional side of Baker’s writing - they ability to look at and love little details.
As for my nomination, it would be Anne Fadiman’s “Ex Libris,” about her life as a book lover. A bunch of separate essays, of particular note are her essay on travel books (especially her obsession with polar explorers), and one of the most strangeley romantic essays I’ve ever read, as in the fifth year of their marriage she and her husband finally combine their book collections. How to decide between multiple copies of each book? Who has the greater emotional attachment to a particular edition? Do her margin notes on love the summer she lost her virginity trump his cherishing a copy he trudged across Europe with? Perfect essay about love and compromise.
It’s out of print and difficult to find. In fact, anyone who has access to a copy should email me with asking price.
It is a delightful tale told in words and pictures of a man, temporarily abandoned by his cat, who comes to have a greater understanding of how and why the world works.
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers. It’s supposed to be a mystery novel but it goes for pages and pages of over-intellectualized romance. It should be boring, but I read it every time I have to take plane somewhere.
I really like Oscar Wilde’s work and read that over and over again as well.
