After Zorba I listened to Guidall’s narration of Richmond Lattimore’s Iliad and John Lescault’s of Samuel Butler’s Odyssey. (12 hours of Lescault is almost as monotonous as 67.5 of Walter Zimmerman reading Warren Piece. Fortunately, both stories are good enough to compensate for the narration.)

Today I started listening to Simon Calloway’s narration of Robert Fagles’ The Aeneid. In January I’ll probably listen to Beowulf, then The Divine Comedy. Why all this epic poetry?

While listening to Zorba I decided it was time to read Kazantzakis’s sequel to The Odyssey, which I got from my father’s library. The book has intrigued me for decades, and I figured I ought to reread Homer before taking it on–it’s much longer than the original.

I’ll probably read The Rock Garden first because, according to the publisher’s note, the sections K. incorporated from his The Saviors of God are helpful in understanding his spiritual journey. The ideas also appear in Books XIV and XVI of The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel.

Then if I get really ambitious I might finally read Seamus Seoyce’s retelling of Ulysses. (Maybe I can get the library to order the full recording, which Jongiorgi Enos praised highly on AML-List several years ago.)

After all this I should be in a good position to read Marden Clark’s short study, Modern and Classic: The Wooing Both Ways, though I should read Robinson Jeffers’ Medea first. Can’t find it anywhere, though.

Indeed you should.

1. Dune by Frank Hebert
2. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
3. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
4. Collected Stories of Flannery O’Connor
5. Making Certain it Goes On by Richard Hugo

And sometime I should tell the story of how I bought Raymond Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by accident, which made me decide to become a writer.

Children’s chapter books for kids 5-6:

1. The Wind in the Willows
2. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nihm
3. A Cricket in Times Square
4. The Mouse and the Motorcycle
5. A Bear Called Paddington

This one is very shaky, though. There are a lot of other titles I might swap in were I to think of them, I bet.

William, I read The Master and Margarita earlier this week, as a matter of fact. Excellent book.

1. Dark is Rising series
2. Westmark trilogy
3. Abhorsen trilogy
4. Wrinkle in Time series
5. Chronicles of Pyrdain series

Yeah, the Book of Mormon definitely has influenced my style — didn’t OSC write an essay about that?

As for Mormon fiction that’s influenced me — actually influenced me, not just in a this-in-emulation-worthy way — possibly The Invisible Saint by Curtis Taylor. I read it at a time in my life that it’s hard to imagine my comedic work doesn’t taste at least a little invisible.

But that’s all I could come up with scanning through my Mormon books (note: this list not complete — I still have a bunch of books in the garage that remain uncatalogued).

I guess I would give a shout-out to Dave Wolverton on craft he has taught me but not style.