Recommended Reading

Here are some of my favorite books, CD's, and other diversions. Oh, and if you make it all the way to the end, there's a really tasty recipe...

Memorials to Dead Trees - Books

For complete references to the works below, go to the Library of Congress Catalog.

• Horror fiction by H.P. Lovecraft. Check out his mostly-complete works in four volumes, edited by S.T. Joshi:

  1. The Dunwich Horror and Others (ISBN 0-87054-037-8)
  2. At the Mountains of Madness (ISBN 0-87054-038-6)
  3. Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (ISBN 0-87054-039-4)
  4. The Horror in the Museum (ISBN 0-87054-040-8)

  And no, the Necronomicon is not real!

• The Discworld Novels by Terry Pratchett.

  An essential companion to Pratchett's books is his canonical fan site, the L-space Web. Here you will find bibliographies, indispensible annotations (at least for us ignorant 'Merkins), and more.

• Various works by Lewis Carroll. If all you've read is Alice in Wonderland, you're missing some great stuff. Look for Carroll's complete works, published by Nonesuch Press (ISBN 1-87106-114-8). For online, full-text versions of the more popular stories and poetry, head to Project Gutenberg's archives.

  Some of my favorite works by Carroll:

  • "The Hunting of the Snark - An Agony in Eight Fits" (1876)
  • "Phantasmagoria" (1869)
  • "A Tangled Tale" (1880)

• The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem (I have HBJ's English Edition, ISBN 0-15-623550-1). Follow master constructors Trurl and Klapacius as they build everything from a poetry-composing computer (see this poetic sample) to a machine that can create Nothing.

• On the Internet, nobody knows you're a cat. If you are a cat (or live with one), you may enjoy these books by Henry Beard:

  • French for Cats (ISBN 0-679-40676-X). Teach your cat useful such phrases as:
    • Je ne veux pas être châtré.
      (I do not want to be neutered.)
    • Le moment est venu de changer la litiére.
      (It is time to change the kitty litter).
    • Je vous en prie, tuez le chien de la maison d'à côté.
      (Please kill the dog next door.)
  • Poetry for Cats (ISBN 0-679-43502-4). Poetry by cats throughout the ages, such as:
    • "The Cat's Tale", by Geoffrey Chaucer's Cat
    • "Vet, Be Not Proud", by John Donne's Cat
    • "To the Kittens, to Make Much of Time", by Robert Herrick's Cat
    • "Kubla Kat", by Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Cat
    • "Meow of Myself", by Walt Whitman's Cat
    • "Sitting by the Fire on a Snowy Evening", by Robert Frost's Cat
    • "The Love Song of J. Morris Housecat", by T.S. Eliot's Cat
    • "Do not go Peaceable to That Damn Vet", by Dylan Thomas's Cat
    • "Meowl", by Alan Ginsberg's Cat

The Music of the Spheres - CD's

• Anonymous 4, a female vocal quartet specializing in early and medieval music, is a favorite of mine. Look for the following on the Harmonia Mundi label:

  • An English Ladymass - chant and polyphony from 13th century England
  • Love's Illusion - motets etc. from the Montpellier Codex, a 13th century French book of fin amours poetry set to music
  • On Yoolis Night - English and Latin Christmas music from the 13th through 15th centuries.
  • The Lily and the Lamb - yet more chant and polyphony from medieval England

• Yo-Yo Ma did a remarkable series of "music videos" based on Bach's suites for unaccompanied cello. The CD with his renditions of the suites, Inspired by Bach, is one of my favorites.

And Now for Something Completely Different

OK, I promised you a recipe, so here it is. Follow the link to learn how to cook kasha varnishkes, adapted from Jane Kinderlehrer's book Cooking Kosher the Natural Way (ISBN 0-8246-0286). This is a vegetarian dish that will wow your friends.