Reading Preferences: On Novels and Non-Fiction

 

These days I rarely turn to a novel, out of choice. For many years (with very exceptional cases) I have found the essays, letters, non-fiction and autobiographical writings of novelists more interesting and absorbing than their fictional works.

Just for starters, here are some of my most-read works by noted novelists:

Alan Sillitoe:

Mountains and Caverns, selected essays by Alan Sillitoe

Life Without Armour, An Autobiography

Kingsley Amis:

The Amis Collection, Selected Non-Fiction 1954-1990

John Fowles:

Wormholes, Essays and Occasional Writings

The Journals, Volume 1 and 2

Lawrence Durrell:

Lawrence Durrell and Henry Miller, A Private Correspondence

Prospero's Cell

William Golding:

The Hot Gates

A Moving Target

Anthony Burgess:

Little Wilson and Big God: Being the First Part of the Confessions of Anthony Burgess

You've Had Your Time: Being the Second Part of the Confessions of Anthony Burgess