Recommendations you can check.
British novelist, author of Atonement, Saturday, On Chesil Beach and Solar.
5 things
Collected PoemsBook Philip Larkin
I have a careless theory that the poetry of Larkin has had a profound effect on the prose writing of my generation. There are many writers of my age who are steeped in Larkin and, like me, incorporate the cadences of his lines, often without being aware of it. His poems are part of my mental furniture.
Five Books interview on the books that have shaped his novels
2017-09-03·fivebooks.com ↗
Rabbit at RestBook John Updike
Updike has been a very important writer for me, the one I've admired most, read most, and returned to most often.
Five Books interview on the books that have shaped his novels
2017-09-03·fivebooks.com ↗
What Science Offers the HumanitiesBook Edward Slingerland
It's a rather extraordinary and unusual book. It addresses some fundamental matters of interest to those of us whose education has been in the humanities. It's a book that has received very little attention as far as I know, and deserves a lot more.
Five Books interview on the books that have shaped his novels
2017-09-03·fivebooks.com ↗
The Pursuit of the MillenniumBook Norman Cohn
This celebrated book has been in print for over half a century. It's a historical account of the fanatical millenarian sects that swept across Europe from the 11th to 15th centuries: sects that were driven by certainty of the world coming to an end. Clearly, it has relevance for our times.
Five Books interview on the books that have shaped his novels
2017-09-03·fivebooks.com ↗
Einstein: His Life and UniverseBook Walter Isaacson
It had a direct influence on Solar, yes, but this is a biography that happens to be a treatise on creativity. I was about to say scientific creativity, but I think I mean creativity itself. It shows us the creative exuberance of a man with an extraordinary visual imagination, able to recast certain problems in surprising ways.
Five Books interview on the books that have shaped his novels
2017-09-03·fivebooks.com ↗
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.