Drawing: Renia Czytająca, Wojciech Weiss, 1910

“Wear the old coat and buy the new book”

            -Austin Phelps

This list is not exhaustive by any means; but I hope it serves as an introduction:

Some of the books that have greatly influenced my writing and musical composition:

Mannerism in Italian Music and Culture, 1530-1630 by Maria Rika Maniates

Image, Music, Text by Roland Barthes

Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music by Jean-Jacques Nattiez

Works of fiction that I read when I was a teenager, then re-read as I became older:

Moby Dick, by Herman Melville

I’m from Vancouver, I love sailing, and I love sea adventures.  

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

I still don’t know why, but I read this book over and over when I was a teenager…

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov  (I still think that this book is highly misunderstood!)

(Some of the) works of fiction that I admire for their great writing, depth of thought and wonderful imagination:

The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene

Howards End, by E M Forster

The Stranger by Albert Camus

I thought I understood existentialism…but I enjoyed this book anyway!

Perdido Street Station and The Scar by China Miéville

 Erasure, Percival Everett

Beowulf, trans. by Seamus Heaney

The Mahabharata, trans. by R. K. Narayan

Gilgamesh, poetic retelling by Derrek Hines

Graphic novels (don’t be shocked!)

Neil Gaiman (Sandman, Black Orchid, Signal to Noise)

Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta)

Jean Giraud aka Moebius (l’Incal, Arzach, various short stories)