JOHN C. BOLAND

This list could be a lot longer. But here are some books
(and a few short stories) I like. Most are light as feathers.

Fiction

The Care of Time, Eric Ambler

Faith/Hope/Charity, Len Deighton

The Black Book, Lawrence Durrell
                    (if only for the line, “the cadenza of flesh”)

Nerve, Dick Francis

Olura, Geoffrey Household

Thieves in the Night, Arthur Koestler

The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

Feral, Berton Roueche

Twilight at Mac’s Place, Ross Thomas

Too Far to Go (plus “Grandparenting”), John Updike

The French Girls of Killini, Arturo Vivante

The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
                    (especially "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard")

Driftglass, Samuel R. Delany

                    (especially "The Star Pit")

The Golden Man, Philip K. Dick

"The Blind Pilot," Charles Henneberg

"The Golden Horn," Edgar Pangborn

"Riverworld," Philip Jose Farmer

When the Kissing Had To Stop, Constantine Fitz Gibbon

 

Memoirs & Reporting

Memoir of a Superfluous Man, Albert J. Nock

Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris, A. J. Liebling

You’ve Had Your Time, Anthony Burgess

Scum of the Earth, Arthur Koestler

The Motion of Light in Water, Samuel R. Delany

Prospero’s Cell, Lawrence Durrell

Paris Was Yesterday, Janet Flanner

My Life of Absurdity, Chester Himes

A Sort of Life, Graham Greene

The Houseguests, John D. MacDonald

A Love Story, Lillian Ross

Two on the Isle, Robb White

A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway

The Man Eaters of Kumoan, Jim Corbett

 

Other

Knowledge and Decisions, Thomas Sowell

Climbing Mount Improbable, Richard Dawkins

The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb

Fortune’s Formula, William Poundstone
                    (but oof, what a title!)