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Books I recommend to people
Affinity (Virago V)Affinity (Virago V) by Sarah Waters
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £0.01
The first Sarah Waters I ever read; and I still have a tremendous soft spot for it
Tipping the Velvet (Virago V)Tipping the Velvet (Virago V) by Sarah Waters
Buy new: £5.96 / Used from: £0.14
...and the second. Don't bother with the BBC adaption; there's so much more in the book
FingersmithFingersmith by Sarah Waters
Buy new: £4.49 / Used from: £0.01
Not just because she's a woman, and not just because she's Welsh. Tokenism be damned; this is a bloody good read, with a twist you will not see coming
Junky (Essential Penguin)Junky (Essential Penguin) by William S Burroughs
Buy used from: £1.86
My first Burroughs (at 11; oh, I had no business reading it at that age) and still powerful and deceptively accessible; always unglamorous and brutally honest
The Annotated LolitaThe Annotated Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Buy new: £9.25 / Used from: £6.63
One of those books you think you've read even if you haven't. The annotated edition is a must; so dense with allusion and reference that you're bound to miss something without.
19851985 by Anthony Burgess
Is it Burgess' best book? Perhaps. Is it better than 1984? Could be...Is it criminally overlooked and crying out for a better edition? Definitely.
Killer on the RoadKiller on the Road by James Ellroy
Buy used from: £1.44
Ignore the awful title, and be aware that this is only minor-league Ellroy...but Ellroy doing Jim Thompson is still a mark above most writers' best
The Cold Six ThousandThe Cold Six Thousand by James Ellroy
Buy new: £6.72 / Used from: £2.49
Finally Ellroy finds a wider canvas than LA. From Texas, to Vegas, to Cuba, to Vietnam, bad bad men doing bad bad things; brutal and harsh, tender and redemptive at once