This. This I’ve waited a long time to answer.

Goes without saying why my book list is as long as War-and-Peace’s word count…which is one of the big classics I’ve actually read and HATED! It’s good to have a diverse media diet, even if you’re not writing an absurd crossover novel – you never know what you need to inspire yourself.

Here is a somewhat condensed list of the books among this deluge that I’m actually looking foreward to:

1. Bored of the rings – Apparently the funniest parody ever made of the lord of the rings series…if full of outdated 60’s/70’s references and shocking allusions. Besides, it’s absolutely crazy worldbuilding sounds like it’d make a good research piece for my own Noumenal project.
2. Ursula Le guin’s Earthsea series – Can’t write peak fantasy without knowing peak fantasy. Unlike most fantasy novels then and now, Ursula stayed well clear from tolkienian convention to focus on creating a purely imaginative setting of her own, full of twists and fantastical feats. I am not very fond of elves.
3. Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of time – As you might’ve picked up from my earlier writing projects, I’ve got a thing for speculative evolution and aliens. It also helps that I don’t have Arachnophobia, because this story’s sophont of the week is certainly not humanoid. With a unique culture and a thrilling story about humanity’s decline, it looks like it’s got a lot to offer.
4. Hiromu Arawaka’s Full metal Alchemist series – I know what you’re thinking: what’s a quaint little novellist doing reading shonen? Well, sometimes you need a break from winding, pictureless prose in favour of some STACATTO DIALOGUE(!!) and spunky visuals. I’ve actually started the series already – finished volume three a fortnight ago. I can say that I love the alchemy system and the ingenious solutions to situations it opens up.
5. Gabriel García Márquez’s A hundred years of solitude – Speaking of magic, thought I might as well check out the magic realism genre. Why not go straight to the magnum opus – the weird fortunes and fates of an isolated community in columbia? With it’s whopping cast and surreal plotting, it’s a book after my soul.
6. The rest of Zampano Johnny Truant’s David Navidson Mark Daniewski’s ^House of leaves⁷⁶ – Another surprising revelation: a wuss like me has read a whack of the most creative horror cum academic satire/romance/avant garde protest⁷⁷/Documentary/real estate NOVEL⁷⁹ of all time! I actually spent a lot of time in the university library losing myself in labyrinthine pages and repungent⁸⁰ anecdotes of this tome. I never actually finished it, but I had about 7 more chapters and god-knows how many appendices to go.
7. Sallena Godden’s Mrs Death misses Death – A debut novel full of morbid puns that I picked up from the university bookstore. Another story after my soul. Pun intended.
8. Umberto Eco’s Name of the rose – My family has been pestering me to read Dan Browne’s rather silly “Cultural thrillers”, but I’d rather go straight to the original religious conspiracy guy. My brother has forewarned me, however, that it’s quite a long read, not least because of Eco’s obsession with lengthy prosaic lists and naughty monks. Beats Browne’s dull dialogue.
9. Lots and lots of shoddy scandal/Tv guides – You might wonder why the hell I’d put myself through this misery. The reason is because one of the main protagonists of Noumenal, Peter Stout, is supposed to be a cookie-cutter soap star. Thus, I need to do a bit of research for his backstory and wider quirks. This means looking into a lot of british soaps and a lot of sensationalist rubbish.
10. All my university peer’s stories! – My next semester at university is explicitly about novel writing, and I can’t wait to hear the ideas other people have for their own stories! It’s great to be able to discuss the writer’s ideas directly rather than having to rely on your own fradulent assumptions (e.g. like every literary essayist ever). I do love to chat about ideas!
11. Honorable mentions – A king’s ransom… (Simon Burrows), Around the world in 80 books (David Damrosch – basically a big list of suggestions.), The Bible (Particularly the absurd apocrypha), The script of King Lear (Shakespeare’s most comically miserable work. Howl! Howl!), My Immortal (“Tara Gilesbie”, one of the most notorious fanfictions of all time).

What do y’lot at home think about my suggestions? Any more you’d add to spite me? Let me know in the comments!

Oh, right, Noumenal chapter 3!

That will be releasing tomorrow afternoon, alongside the first three chapters again. Sorry my blog is so awful to navigate at present, so I might as well send you it all in one convenient package. I’ve just got to review it with my fraternal editor and make a few ammendments to my atrocious plotting before I release it. Also, I’ll be filling you in pretty soon in where I intend to go with the project – how much I’ll tease, release schedule and whatnot!

Hope you’re looking forward to that. Again, apologies for the delays and general incompetence. Have a good weekend, Y’lot!

76 – Ash tree lane, Virginia

77 – Charlene Mitchell has identified the main motive of the Navidson Record documentary as being “To attract recognition towards the american Housing crisis” by crudely personifying the hazards of real estate as a “tangible threat to life”. ⁷⁸

78 – “Gone Home – the human price of the american housing crisis”, Charlene B. Mitchell

79 – Rights to a novel adaptation of the Navidson record were provided shortly after it’s full release to an undisclosed publishing house in 1990.

80 – See page 53 of house of the Navidson record for written instructions on how to cope. Wuss. – Johnny Truant