Our Favorite Books

Celebrate the UK version of THE BOOK OF THE MOST PRECIOUS SUBSTANCE with me today. Let's have a glass of champagne and talk about books, mine and yours and everyone else's, but only the good ones.

Hey, THE BOOK OF THE MOST PRECIOUS SUBSTANCE is out in the UK today! Get it while it’s hot! If you were thinking of buying the book, buying it today would be a big help. First-day sales=high bookstore/amazon rankings=more attention=more sales. And if you feel called to mention it on social media, please do so—that really helps.

To celebrate, I offered to recommend books to you, my beloved readers. I heard from over 100 of you, which was way more than anticipated, but of course very happily so. And down the line, every single one of you had the magic trifecta—kind, smart, interesting. You guys fucking rock.

I’m struck nearly every day lately by how almost everything good in my life has come to me through the books I’ve written. Most of my friends are other writers. All of my income comes from writing, and even though a small-ish portion of that comes from books, I wouldn’t be a screenwriter unless people liked my books and asked me to write for film. And I think having this strange, semi-conscious imaginative field in which to work out my emotions and thoughts is why I’m generally OK after having a fairly rough life (if also an extraordinarily privileged one). I feel like one of the luckiest people on earth because I’m pretty difficult and weird and sometimes quite shy, and somehow this weird fucking thing I do of making up stories in my head has brought me this incredibly rich life. Go figure!

Some of you have gotten your recommendations already, some of you might still be waiting. You were warned it would take a while, complaints not accepted. Some of you are so vastly more well-read than me that this just isn’t going to work—I will accept defeat, but just know that when you were home reading, I was probably OUT BEING VERY COOL AND GLAMOROUS—that’s the only way I can salvage my self-esteem here, so don’t argue with me.

The plan was to post some of the requests and answers here (and I’ll still do that in the comments on the original post, and here). But I got so many letters there’s no way I can pick which ones to reprint here—that would be a whole other job. Instead, I’m going to share the most-loved books by you, and the most-recommended books by me.

Your most-read books:

On to the top books (yours): obviously this is a newsletter for people who have an interest in me, Sara Gran, so a top choice was me, Sara Gran. It was wonderful to see that, by a wide margin, your favorite non-Gran book is THE WESTING GAME. I love this book! It’s been a favorite since childhood. I wish I was smart enough to write a little puzzle like WESTING. I’m not! But maybe I’ll get smarter and take a crack at it someday. Another popular title was HARRIET THE SPY. I’m usually not into adults reading kid’s books but these two are well worth your time. A lot of you love Elizabeth Hand, which I am in complete agreement with. You also love Letham’s GUN WITH OCCASIONAL MUSIC and David Mitchell’s CLOUD ATLAS—I haven’t read either. And a lot of you are Pynchon fans, who I have mixed feelings about: I love THE CRYING OF LOT 49 but I kind of love it for the wrong reasons—I love the post office stuff and conspiracy stuff but I don’t love Pynchon’s jokey writing style. And most of you love DUNE. I will not be reading Dune, ever, but vive la difference.

My recommendations (top):

Death Will have Your Eyes, Jim Sallis

The Complete Short Stories of Bernard Malamud

40 Stories, Donald Barthleme

The Crying of Lot 49, Pynchon

Murder in the Age of Enlightenment, Ryunosuke Akutagawa

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson

The RECKLESS series, Ed Brubaker

Generation Loss, Elizabeth Hand

Anything by Charles Portis (I’ve been very clear here: go read True Grit)

All my recommendations (complete) (eventually) (but incomplete for now):

(I’ll keep adding to this as I get through all the emails)

The Royal Family, William Vollman

The Miracle Detective, Randall Sullivan

The Unsayable, Annie Rogers

U and I, Nicholson Baker

Mr & Mrs Fox, Helen Oyemi

The Fox, DH Lawrence (so many foxes!)

Chelsea Girls, Eileen Myles

A Fan’s Notes, Frederick Exley.

The Desert Oracle, Ken Layne

Broken Monsters, Lauren Buekes

You Who Read Me With Passion Now Must Forever Be My Friends, Dorothy Iannone.

Therese Raquin, Emile Zola

Poe's THE PURLOINED LETTER

Man With the Golden Arm by the great Nelson Algren,

The Journalist & the Murderer by Janet Malcolm

Wittgenstein’s Mistress, David Markson

Hex, Maggie Estep

The Divine Madman: the sublime life and songs of Drukpa Kunley

The House Next Door, Anne River Siddons

92 Days, Larry Brown

Persephone Returns, Tanya Wilkinson