Listmania!
[a spring's treefeller's prose]
The AbyssThe Abyss by Marguerite Yourcenar
Buy used from: £6.00
Marguerite Yourcenar: a masterly author of great humanity - Zenon's story is a good place to start exploring her...
FictionsFictions by Jorge Borges
Buy new: £5.47 / Used from: £3.99
again, just a starting point for the labyrinthine Argentinian's mind and work...
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen WritingsZen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings by Nyogen Senzaki
Buy new: £5.97 / Used from: £2.98
probably the best compendium of Zen texts around
The Pillow Book of Sei ShonagonThe Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon by Sei Shonagon
Buy used from: £0.67
Sei Shonagon lived in an age (and world) of great (sexual) freedom and refinement - her book is acutely "modern"
SlownessSlowness by Milan Kundera
Buy new: £4.97 / Used from: £1.90
one of the most beautifully crafted of Kundera's tales...
Point De Lendemain (No Tomorrow)Point De Lendemain (No Tomorrow) by Vivant Denon
Buy new: £24.95 / Used from: £20.95
... and its 'point of departure'
Love and GarbageLove and Garbage by Ivan Klima
Buy new: £8.09 / Used from: £3.26
the 'other' modern Czech writer: less appreciated and well known than Kundera, but equally (though differently) stimuulating
Forty StoriesForty Stories by John Updike
Buy used from: £0.01
an amazing collection: a mind and craft in the same 'family' as the two above...
The Aspern Papers: AND The Turn of the Screw (English Library)The Aspern Papers: AND The Turn of the Screw (English Library) by Henry James
Buy used from: £0.01
...can't leave Henry James out of this list!
Collected Stories (Everyman's Library classics)Collected Stories (Everyman's Library classics) by Raymond Chandler
Buy new: £13.97 / Used from: £9.81
... nor Raymond Chandler: the Yourcenar of the "noir"
South Wind Through the Kitchen: The Best of Elizabeth DavidSouth Wind Through the Kitchen: The Best of Elizabeth David by Elizabeth David
Buy used from: £9.67
some elegant prose on the joy-of-life!
Skin LaneSkin Lane by Neil Bartlett
Buy new: £5.96 / Used from: £0.01
Neil Bartlett's first novel, "Ready to catch him should he fall", is quite as amazing - but this stays on my mind