I took great autumny pleasure in teaching Wuthering Heights while the weather was actually wuthering. All the fall smells were heightened, and I felt all fainty for a couple of weeks.
Lots of Gorey, eg The Remembered Visit, The Object-Lesson, The Willowdale Handcar—I think I was thinking about using TWH to illustrate a point for one of my classes, but now I can't remember what, or which class…
Your reading list comes too late; it is already winter.
This will allow people to time to find the books after the inevitable run on the recommended titles.
According to Librarything, people who own "Bedtime for Francis" have an average of almost 1000 books in their libraraies.
If your gift flops, your next gift book shold be one of its antibooks: "The ultimate hitchhiker's guide", "America, a citizen's guide to democracy inaction", "Guns, germs, and steel"; "Fight Club"; Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; and Jared Diamond's "Collapse".
Yay to "Le Grand Meaulnes"...God it must be twenty years since I last read that.
I cannot but agree with 3; but, that said, there is a difference between early winter and deep winter. For this bit, I like Gormenghast (if you're the kind of person who likes that kind of thing), well nigh any Jane Austen (perhaps while eating apples), and A Maggot by John Fowles. Maybe also A Change in Climate by Hilary Mantel, The Green Knight by Iris Murdoch, The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien.
I tried Dostoevsky in summer a few years ago but discovered my reading was entirely misplaced: he's best begun in early January.
Now, however, is a good time to read The Portrait of a Lady, which I don't say simply because I'm reading it now.
unrelated, but i thought i would declare that ben's fall cd mix was teh awesome.
Russell Hoban also wrote the absolutely brilliant Riddley Walker. It's the only adult fiction by Hoban I've read, and a really remarkable book.
A Toad For Tuesday by Russell Erickson. Heat up the hot chocolate....
'"The Empire of the Qara Qitai in Eurasian History" is highly recommended.
The movie of A Month in the Country is very good, too. A young Kenneth Branagh.
It's fall where I live. So I refute you, leblanc and redfox.
Conveniently, my reading suggestions will do nicely for both.
well nigh any Jane Austen
At Thanksgiving I learned that Northanger Abbey contains the line "she began to curl her hair and long for balls."
Patagonia? Mauritius? Tasmania?
Oh, wait. I didn't say that, really.
I gave a brief presentation on aspects of Riddley Walker for my german class this summer.
My goal is to start reading new fiction again. Suggestions? Besides the Pynchon, I've got this on the bedside table.
Weather considerations don't matter much, as I live in the land of endless summer.
I've heard good things about Black Swan Green, and plan to read it over the holidays.
20: Half of a Yellow Sun is startlingly good.
It looks good. On the list, thank you.
How, on this site Chock Full o' Pedantics, has nobody yet pointed out that winter doesn't begin till December 21?
We've been too busy discussing kiddy porn on the other thread.
Quincunx is right for early winter. I might have to give that one a second read. (Winter is right for re-readings.)
You know what has a lot of discussion of quincunces is The Rings of Saturn (or, if not that, one of Sebald's other books).
Interesting-looking book, 'Smasher.
27: Eric! Lipsetts is apparently taking punctuational inspiration from Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
"It must have been late autumn of that year," it even begins!
I think Sebald goes on for a bit on quincunces in Austerlitz, during that discussion about fortresses.
It's actually Godspeed! You Black Emperor.
Shit. I am so wrong.
I'll go hide now.
That looks like an interesting book.
It used to be GYBE! and then it became GY!BE. Richard Pinhas referred to them as GSYBE on his album Event and Repetitions.
The Rings of Saturn begins like this: "Im August 1992, als die Hundstage ihrem Ende zugingen, machte ich mich auf eine Fußreise durch die ostenglische Grafschaft Suffolk in der Hoffnung, der nach dem Abschluß einer größeren Arbeit in mir sich ausbreitenden Leere entkommen zu können." The dog days of a late August are, of course, some of the most autumnal days of the year, especially in early evening—despite not actually occuring during the autumn at all!
I think you're right that it's Austerlitz with the quincunx—I may have been confused because, IIRC, Thomas Browne talks about the quincunx a bit and Browne figures in The Rings of Saturn.
(Thomas Browne is also totally awesome and shit, btw.)
The quincunx does feature in The Rings of Saturn through the Thomas Browne connection; we get a few pages about The Garden of Cyrus, and one of Sebald's weird little pictures of a Quincunx.
Also, Autumn and Winter are good times for reading; to me it would seem more difficult to come up with a spring or summer book.
36: If I recall correctly they were G!YBE at one point too.
Great band. Many good spinoffs, too.
The Quincunx is really fun, but strikes me as a winter book, not a fall book. Too long, too much privation.
Have you heard A Slow Messe, SZ? If so, how good is it?
