Listmania!
Books that lead you to other books.....
Black Swan Green :Black Swan Green : by David Mitchell
Buy used from: £0.01
A brilliant evocation of childhood that references Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes - reading this enhances Black Swan Green
Jeff in Venice, Death in VaranasiJeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer
Buy new: £8.56 / Used from: £5.00
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varinasi is strongly influenced by Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
The HoursThe Hours by Michael Cunningham
Buy new: £4.94 / Used from: £0.01
The Hours is a great multi-layered novel but the experience will be geatly enhanced by reading Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway.
On BeautyOn Beauty by Zadie Smith
Buy new: £4.43 / Used from: £0.01
Zadie Smith says that On Beauty is an homage to Howard's End by E M Forster. Read them both!
Monsignor Quixote (Vintage Classics)Monsignor Quixote (Vintage Classics) by Graham Greene
Buy new: £5.38 / Used from: £0.36
No prizes for guessing that Monsignor Quixote should lead you to Cervante's wonderful classic Don Quixote
The ReaderThe Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Buy new: £3.97 / Used from: £0.01
The Reader refers to many books but especially Homer's Odyssey
The Uncommon ReaderThe Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Buy new: £3.46 / Used from: £0.01
The Uncommon Reader mentions umpteen other books - read it yourself to find out!
Reading "Lolita" in Tehran: A Memoir in BooksReading "Lolita" in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
Buy new: £6.47 / Used from: £3.60
After so many years of resisting it this book convinced me that I should read Lolita by Nabokov. So glad that I did. But it still didn't manage to persuade me to read Henry James!
A Prayer for Owen MeanyA Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Buy new: £6.71 / Used from: £0.05
As the narrator is an English professor there are lots of references to books - but the most obvious one is A Christmas Carol. Owen Meany stars in its production with touching and hilarious results.