Not an exhaustive list of everything magnificent ever, merely a simple register of good books which have influenced Richard some way or other. Nor is it totally made up of fiction. So, in no particular order:

Seize The Day by Saul Bellow

Joe Gould’s Secret by Joseph Mitchell

Tales of Protection by Erik Fosnes Hansen

Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth

Candide by Voltaire

The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa

The Collected Works of Billy The Kid by Michael Ondaatje

Gould’s Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan

And The Ass Saw The Angel by Nick Cave

A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

On Kissing, Tickling & Being Bored by Adam Phillips

Fup by Jim Dodge

Steppenwolfe by Herman Hesse

A Winter Book by Tove Jansson

The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart

Une Semaine de Bonte by Max Ernst

The Melancholy Death Of Oyster Boy by Tim Burton

Anything written by Raymond Carver

Anything written by Kurt Vonnegut

Anything written by Joseph Heller

Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy

Tigers Are Better Looking by Jean Rhys

The Easter Parade by Richard Yates

Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson

What’s Not To Love? by Jonathan Ames

The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Dress Your Family In Corduroy And Denim by David Sedaris

Reasons To Live by Amy Hempel

Conversations With My Agent by Rob Long

The Man Who Fell In Love With The Moon by Tom Spanbauer

Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner

Straw Dogs by John Gray

Certain Things Last by Sherwood Anderson

Exercises In Style by Raymond Queneau

The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake

Wedding Preparations In The Country by Franz Kafka

The Jerilderie Letter by Ned Kelly

Walter Winchell by Michael Herr

Assorted Fire Events by David Means

The Nimrod Flip-Out by Etgar Keret

A Winter Book by Tove Jansson

Any suggestions? Get in touch.

© Richard Bardsley 2008