Category Archives: The Tottering Stack

Books About Heroes Who Want to Be Alone

Books and literature recommended reading lonesome heroes


I’ve been working. Nice to have some writing to do that doesn’t have a deadline. Herein is a short report on my progress through the Tottering Stack.

The Bone People

I’ve been meaning to read this one for about a decade and a half. Gorgeously, crazily written by Keri Hulme back in the early 80s, this is about as far as one can get from workshop fiction. Hulme is a New Zealander, and the book is Maori in POV. The protagonist is part Maori, estranged from family, blocked in her artistry, and deeply Continue reading

Books or literature for recommended reading

The Tottering Stack

I’ve described my Gap List, and you’ve probably said to yourself, “That’s all?” Never judge a list by its brevity. I’ve been reading books by dead people for a long, long time, which makes me moderately well read. The Gap List is to fill gaps so that on my deathbed I will be able to consider with satisfaction that I am truly well read.

There is, of course, the addendum to the Gap List: the Tottering Stack.

Read_stackI rarely come home from a book safari with more than one or two titles from the Gap List. What I usually find are books by authors I like or have some reason to believe I might like. Often, I find books that aren’t on the Gap List but might as well be. Books by people who are still alive (which probably shouldn’t be held against them). Books that have a knowing following and have a certain nerd cred. Books that had their fifteen minutes of fame and now moulder among Continue reading