Sometimes when you read someone, you feel as though you have a personal relationship with them, like you’re spending time with them rather than reading something they wrote. You seek out more of their work, not so much to read it as to hang out with the author. Not all of these relationships feel like being in love, but here are my top 5 that do:
1. Bertrand Russell
2. David Lodge
3. Jonathan Franzen
4. John Watson (I know what you’re going to say, but this is my list.)
5. Mario Benedetti
Have you experienced this phenomenon? Who are your top 5?
Keiko,
Can you post links to your favorite works by these authors? I don’t think I’ve read any of them.
Hi Betsy,
Here you go. 🙂
1. Bertrand Russell – The Problems of Philosophy http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5827
2. David Lodge – Consciousness and the Novel https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/267248.Consciousness_and_the_Novel
3. Jonathan Franzen – How to Be Alone (essays), The Corrections (novel), Farther Away (essays)
4. John Watson – Okay, okay: In consensus reality, it’s really Arthur Conan Doyle. The Sherlock Holmes stories.
5. Mario Benedetti – I read him in Spanish – fiction and poetry. Wikipedia says he isn’t well known in the English speaking world. That’s amazing to me, because based on my study of Latin American literature, he is a giant. I found La Tregua (novel) as The Truce: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3138034-the-truce. Also there is a newer translation as The Diary of MartÃn Santomé: a Novel. I’m not sure if it is available as a book, but it is serialized on this website, with this link being to the first installment. I couldn’t find an index of all the installments, but you can jump to each subsequent issue of the magazine using a drop-down menu on the top left of the page, and then look for each installment the old fashioned way: http://www.brooklynrail.org/2011/12/fiction/the-diary-of-martn-santom-a-novel
Thanks for being interested! I hope you read some of these. Especially I think all writers should read the first essay in Consciousness and the Novel (also called “Consciousness and the Novel”). We talked about the concept of qualia at a WTTE meeting once; I first learned about it in this book. (Thanks, Anthony, for introducing me to David Lodge!)