The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton (NYRB, $20). This vast attic of a book is the strangest, funniest, and most consoling work I know. It’s the last full expression of the pre-modern world, a compendium of bizarre anecdotes, rough wisdom, and sardonic commentary. Open it anywhere and you’ll find something extraordinary.
Buy The Anatomy of Melancholy at Amazon
Italian Folk Tales by Italo Calvino (Harvest, $25). Folk tales are the fount, the origin of all storytelling. I might have chosen Grimm, but Calvino’s tales have a sunny and bewitching matter-of-factness—enlivened by his own inventive rearranging—that is irresistible.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay (Dover, $8). This Australian children’s classic is the funniest children’s book ever written. Lindsay’s illustrations are marvelous—full of the same wicked energy that drives his prose. I’ve loved it for more than 50 years.
The Collected Letters by George Bernard Shaw (Out of print). Shaw the playwright has suffered a certain amount of neglect in recent years, quite unjustifiably: His plays are not all just talk, as they seem to be when badly directed, but intensely dramatic explorations of every kind of human emotion. And even those who find his plays too wordy might enjoy the letters. What continues to delight me even more than the brilliant wit and sparkling intelligence is the wide generosity, the unsentimental kindness of the man.
The Moomin books (all of them) by Tove Jansson (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $7 each). Jansson was a genius of a very subtle kind. These simple stories resonate with profound and complex emotions that are like nothing else in literature for children or adults: intensely Nordic, and completely universal.
The Balloonist
-
Beatriz Williams' 6 timeless books about history and human relationshipsFeature The best-selling author recommends works by Jane Austen, Zora Neale Hurston, and more
-
Aysegul Savas' 6 favorite books for readers who love immersive settingsFeature The Paris-based Turkish author recommends works by Hiromi Kawakami, Virginia Woolf, and more
-
Geoff Dyer's 6 favorite books about the realities of warFeature The award-winning author recommends works by Ernie Pyle, Michael Herr, and more
-
Laura Lippman's 6 favorite books for those who crave a high-stakes adventureFeature The Grand Master recommends works by E.L. Konigsburg, Charles Portis, and more
-
Thomas Mallon's 6 favorite books from the 80's and early 90'sFeature The author recommends works by James Merrill, Calvin Trillin, and more
-
Anne Hillerman's 6 favorite books with Native charactersFeature The author recommends works by Ramona Emerson, Craig Johnson, and more
-
John Kenney's 6 favorite books that will break your heart softlyFeature The novelist recommends works by John le Carré, John Kennedy Toole, and more
-
Andrea Long Chu's 6 favorite books for people who crave new ideasFeature The book critic recommends works by Rachel Cusk, Sigmund Freud, and more
