If you are lost in the homepage and wondering where to begin, try these random topics—
- “Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition”
- “The Poetics of Space”
- “The Philosophy of Wine”
- “Timekeepers”
- “Adventures in the Anthropocene”
- “A Populated Place: A City in Itself”
- “The Language of Cities”
- “Unruly Places”
- “The Truth of Fairytales”
- “Everything is All Things”
Great contemporary (and late modern) novels and short story collections—
Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin (Russia) | Boredom by Alberto Moravia (Italy) | Swimmer Among the Stars by Kanishk Tharoor (India/US) | The Door by Madga Szabó (Hungary) | The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry (UK) | The Vegetarian by Han Kang (South Korea) | For Two Thousand Years by Mihai Sebastian (Romania) | Trysting by Emmanuelle Pagano (France) | Judas by Amos Oz (Israel) | The Sleep of the Righteous by Wolfgang Hilbig (Germany) | The High Priestess Never Marries by Sharanya Manivannan (India) | Carnival by Rawi Hage (Canada) | Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh (US) | Playthings by Alex Pheby (UK) | Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (Italy) | Naked Voices by Manto (India/Pakistan) | Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo (Nigeria)
Autobiography of a Corpse by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (Russia) | Houses by Borislav Pekić (Serbia) | The Sad Part Was by Prabda Yoon (Thailand) | The Traitor’s Niche by Ismail Kadare (Albania) | The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq by Hassan Blasim (Iraq/Finland) | Death in the Museum of Modern Art by Alma Lazarevska (Bosnia) | Ties by Domenico Starnone (Italy) | Monstress by Lysley Tenoria (The Philippines/US) | Beauty is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan (Indonesia) | The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose (Australia) | The Four Books by Yan Lianke (China) | Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou (Congo/France) | The House with the Stained-Glass Window by Żanna Słoniowska (Poland/Ukraine) | A Cup of Rage and Ancient Tillage by Raduan Nassar (Brazil) | The Cost of Living: Early and Uncollected Stories by Mavis Gallant (Canada/France) | Salt Houses by Hala Alyan (Palestine/US)
Wonderful memoirs and essay collections—
Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Writer’s Awakening by Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Kenya/US) | The Sorrows of Mexico: An Indictment of their Country’s Failings by Lydia Cacho and Others (Mexico) | The Givenness of Things by Marilynne Robinson (US) | Traveling With Ghosts by Shannon Leone Fowler (UK) | My Lovely Wife: A Memoir of Madness and Hope by Mark Lukach (US) | Ugly by Robert Hoge (Australia) | Jo Cox: More in Common by Brendan Cox (UK)
Classics (ancient, medieval and modern)—
Confessions by Saint Augustine | Ḥayy Ibn Yaqẓān by Ibn Tufayl | Book of the Marvels of the World by Marco Polo and Rustichello de Pisa | Panchatantra by Vishnu Sharma | The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition: A Compendium of Knowledge from the Classical Islamic World by Al-Nuwayrī | Il Canzoniere by Petrarch | Writings from Ancient Egypt edited by Toby Wilkinson | Tales of the German Imagination edited by Peter Wortsman | Comic Sagas and Tales from Iceland edited by Viðar Hreinsson
Books on the history of art and the history of aesthetics that I feel you must possess—
- A World History of Art by Hugh Honour and John Fleming
- History of Beauty and On Ugliness by Umberto Eco
Publishers I recommend—
For visual culture: Thames & Hudson | Phaidon
For literature: New York Review Books | Deep Vellum | Titled Axis Press | New Directions | And Other Stories | MacLehose Press | Two Lines Press | Graywolf Press | Milkweed Editions | Portobello Books | House of Anansi | Allen & Unwin | Istros Books | Dedalus Books | Aleph Book Company | Soho Press | Oneworld Publications | Serpent’s Tail | Penguin Classics and Modern Classics Series | Harvill Secker | Canongate Books | Vintage | Salt Publishing | Europa Editions | Salmon Poetry | Picador | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | Galley Beggar Press | Yoda Press