Hey beautiful people,
I am on a fucking roll with book recommendations lately. I don’t want to brag too much, but I got at least two people to read TRUE GRIT this year, and one to read THE SILVER CROWN. One thing I truly miss from working in bookstores is hand-selling the right book to the right person.
So to celebrate the launch of THE BOOK OF THE MOST PRECIOUS SUBSTANCE in the UK next month, from my beloved team at Faber & Faber & Faber, I am going to pick a book for you, if you’d like me to1.
Here’s how it’s going to work. Send me an email (you can reply to this newsletter) OR leave a comment below (comments are on, just this once) with one or two or all of the following:
Your three favorite books.
The three books you’ve reread the most (in other words, your REAL favorite books).
Your three favorite movies.
A short statement that contains information you think I should have.
And let me know in your email if I can publish it or not—just please note if it’s private or not. Either way is totally cool. I would never include your name or email address, but I’ll put some or all of the requests (and my suggestions) from people OK with being public in the next newsletter, which will come out when the book comes out, which is November 3rd, and I think it will be a fun way to celebrate together.
I’m sure some of you will defeat me, so a response is not guaranteed. Timeliness is also not necessarily on offer here, so please be patient. Also I have my favorites so some of you will get the same recommendations (and it will be TRUE GRIT).
If you would not like me to, I may do it anyway; I could break into your house to study your bookshelves, study your social media, follow you on a typical afternoon to observe your subtle preferences and meaningful gestures, use my gifts of insight and intuition, ask the dead, perform a divination ritual, cozy up to your friends and family and slyly work in pertinent questions about your tastes, email you under the guise of offering a great recognition of some sort (an award, an honor) and use this as a ruse to ask personal questions, sort through your trash, find you on dating apps and subtly lead you to the sexiest topic of all (books)—as you see, your participation here is not required, although it will make my task easier. I do think this is a fantastic opportunity and it would be, maybe, morally incorrect of me not to do this. I mean obviously if you’re subscribing to this newsletter you either value my thoughts to some small or large degree—or, maybe, you’re a hate-reader, and all the better if you are, because the perfect book I select for you will aid you to overcome your hate, not for my benefit, but for your own, and you can continue life with a bit of a smaller burden—which is, after all, what I’m here for.
Top 3 favorite books of all time:
Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar about 1963
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn about 1989
Tintin and the Secret of Literature by Tom McCarthy about 2006
Top 3 favorite books I haven’t read yet/don’t exist:
Claire DeWitt - numero cuatro - by You
The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley about 1978
A Boatload of Louie by Chip Dunham about 2007
A favorite book I need to finish before I perish, or two:
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace about 1996
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon about 1973
3 favorite movies:
Roadside Prophets
Where’s Marlow?
Love and a .45
Relevancy:
I’m about 50.75 years old now, a fella, brown eyes that need glasses, bad. Let’s see, I bought a pack of “library card” bookmarks awhile ago and I like the way they remind me being a kid, running around the library finding new books and getting right into it, when not running around outside. There’s yellow, orange and blue ones. I’m leaning towards the blue ones as my favorite, currently. A yellow one is holding the pause button at about page 30, on “Death in a Darkening Mist” (Hot springs, mid-1940s, snow, unnatural demise, tea…). I like chili rellenos a lot, Levi corduroy pants and the aroma of used books -flip-flip-flip-flip-flip-flip.
Thanks a lot, no rush and thanks again! Jason Miller
I have two of your new book signed by you but they are soft covers so I bought a hardcover from Amazon.co.uk because I have a thing for hardcovers. I have every one of your books in signed hardcovers. Love your writing. By the way, I really dig Neil Gaiman and Joe Hill.