Book suggestions

Happy weekend, everyone!

I would be interested to know what you, my dear fellow FS devotees, have listed as your Book Suggestions on the FS homepage.

My list is pretty short (for now):

Independent People by Halldor Laxness
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck

I am guessing that there may already be FS publications by Faulkner and Steinbeck, but I haven't seen these and they are favourites that I would love to have nice hardcover editions of.

Also, I am curious to know whether or not anyone has seen a book they have lobbied for get published. That is, after all, what the feature is for, right?

I haven't updated my suggestion for a few years, but I listed my favourite authors as Edith Wharton, Anita Brookner, Donna Leon, Michael Dibdin, Taylor Caldwell, and Kazuo Ishiguro.

My book suggestions were A Modern Comedy and The End of the Chapter by John Galsworthy (the first trilogy, The Forsyte Saga, was my joining offer many years ago) as well as requesting more Edith Wharton and Kazuo Ishiguro, and perhaps try an Anita Brookner novel to see how it sells.

I asked for all Barbara Pym's novels, and they did publish Excellent Women, but I think if it were in response to my request (which I seriously doubt), then they must have just been toying with me, as nothing else by her has been published since. I also asked for The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold, but although they have been very good at publishing Waugh, they have pointedly ignored this request.

When they published The Master and Margarita they described it as "our most-requested title", so they must pay attention to suggestions if they're persistent and voluble enough.

I too would love to see some Faulkner done by Folio.

Pre-web I suggested Richard III by Paul Murray Kendall which was published a year or two later. I have also suggested The Day of the Triffids and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which were both published this year.

So Django6924 should stop requesting and if we want something really bad, we need to convince LucasTrask to request it :)

>6 AnnieMod:

That was my original request from several years ago and it shall stand, in thunder! I'm like Shakespeare and never blot a line.

Last summer Felixholt started the If you were FS literary editor for 2011 ... thread which ended up with prizes being awarded to both the best lists submitted and those who agreed to judge. I created a spreadsheet of all the titles in the thread on Google Docs for anyone who might wish to see the complete list. There are three sheets, one sorted by author's last name, one sorted by title and one sorted by number of times mentioned then by title. Rows in green were published this past membership year and there is one in blue that has been mentioned being published during the upcoming membership year.

> 8

I seem to remember Pinocchio was on your spreadsheets at least once, possibly twice, and the latest FS newsletter confirms that it's coming out in the autumn - "destined to become a Folio classic" they say. The illustrator is an old FS hand: Grahame Baker Smith. The website has one picture/vignette from the book, which certainly looks tempting, much more delicate than I'd have expected from his earlier work.

Pinocchio is not listed in the thread, but it may have been in another one of the numerous threads in which we post titles we would like FS to publish.

The books I do keep asking FS whenever I visit the M's R...

Journey's End by Robert Cedric Sherriff
Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice (Interview with the Vampire, Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned, Tale of the Body Thief, and Memnoch the Devil.)
Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov
1984
Brave New World
Ripley Trilogy by Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr Ripley, Ripley Underground, and Ripley's Game)

>11 r0lan6:

Second the recommendation for Ripley! Folio has done both 1984 (a very nice edition!) and Brave New World, about which opinion is divided--although I think more members here agree it is not the most attractive book the Society ever printed.

>12 Django6924:
If I had to say one thing about Brave New World, it's that it does catch my eye everytime I glance at the bookcase.

I entered my book suggestions on the FS site when it first appeared (about 3 years ago?), and have not revised/revisited them. They are:

H.V. Morton "The Call of England", "In Search of Wales", "In Search of Scotland" bound as a continuation of FS's publication of "In Search of England".
Walter Scott "Lady of the Lake" and "Lay of the Last Minstrel"
Walter Scott "Waverley" and "Heart of Midlothian"
Jhumpa Lahiri "Interpreter of the Maladies"

The only one that they've published, that I know of, is Scott's "Waverley".

Os.

Longtime reader, first time poster.

I encourage everyone join my campaign for a Folio 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' by Joan Lindsay :)

>15 Cinerobber: I like the idea of this. But tell us about your proposed campaign - my campaign to get a FS edition of The Master and Margarita took years to come to fruition with a couple of false starts from FS along the way. FS is not easily persuaded when ideas are not invented in its backyard!

> I keep asking for the novels of Thomas Love Peacock that haven't already been done.

I'm still waiting for them to print an edition of C. S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy. I had to buy from Easton Press recently, and their version is sadly full of misprints.

Welcome, Cinerobber! I've never read the book (Picnic...) but, of course, I've seen the film. Do the two bear any resemblance to one another?

>18 boldface:

I'd welcome anything further by C.S. Lewis. Seems almost strange to have Screwtape in print and none of his other books (I know Narnia was done but it's been long out of print). I have Out of the Silent Planet on my list :)

As I've mentioned in other threads I'd quite like to see Folio go further afield with printing more Asian and South American literature, I can't see how it would be any less successful than some of the rather obscure victorian British works they go for soemtimes.

I would like to see a William Faulkner set. I think this should include at least

The Sound and the Fury
Absalom, Absalom !
As I lay dying
Light in August

> 19 Since you’ve mentioned Asian literature, I would love to see a lavishly illustrated edition of The Tale of Genji.

>21 Stephan68:

Tale of Genji and The Water Margin are the two books I was asking for in my other thread. I would love complete and up to date fine bindings of both of those books! They're both open to wonderful possibilities for illustrators too.

>16 appaloosaman: Thanks for the welcome! Not so much a campaign as it's just on my requested titles list, hehe.

>18 boldface: I remember them being very similar but I have not read the book in at least a decade. I lost my copy which was hard to track down in the first place. For some reason it's always been a hard find in the U.S. Easier now with eBay, and there looks to be a beautifully illustrated Australian edition, but Picnic's out-of-print status and illustration potential just beg for the Folio treatment. So I wait...

>19 LipstickAndAviators: 'The Space Trilogy' is on my list too! I have a good feeling about this one. The Wyndam set was such a class act all around; I'm really digging the slightly more 'pop' direction of some of the new Folios.

I have been an FS member for over 30 years and have had many wishlists. Over the years, FS have gradually published many of my favourite wishlist books, eg On the road, various Booker prize winners, some Balzac (we could do with more), Dance to the music of time, Dickens, Lawrence etc etc. I would be surprised if my occasional requests have directly led to any of them being published, but my thinking is that eventually FS will publish most of the books I value highly.

>7 Django6924: Looking at the spreadsheet, I am still hanging out for the Rabbit books, Sometimes a great notion, more Scott, Tin Drum, some John Fowles, the list goes on. Looks like I will need to live to be 100+!

>24 rdurie:
Would agree on the Rabbit novels. In the meantime the rather nice Everyman's edition will suffice.

>7 Django6924:, 24, 25

I would love some of Updike's short stories. A&P is one of my all-time favorites.

>20 Quicksilver66:

I would like to see all of those as well as long as they aren't packaged together as a set in a single slipcase.

> 25, 26

I have never been able to get into Updike. I found the Rabbit novels very hard going and gave up after 100 pages - very rare for me. I know he is widely liked so I will have to give him another try.

I have a volume of Updikes criticism and essays which I do like, though.

Italo Calvino! I would love to have a nice edition of Invisible Cities or Cosmicomics. They have potential for some great illustrations. Calvino also has compiled a collection of Italian Folktales, which would be lovely to see as a FS edition.

I filled in the suggestions a long time ago, the authors were
Umberto Eco, Louis de Bernieres, Emile Zola, Thomas Hardy, Kazuo Ishiguro, Emily Carr, Isabel Allende, Nicolas Bouvier, Oliver Sacks, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Toni Morrison, Neil Gaiman, Garcia Marquez, Jim Harrison and among the books were Mani, Dalva and The Road Home, as well as all the autobiographical works by Emily Carr. Actually I wouldn't buy any Zola or Nicolas Bouvier in English but I do think they would be good FS books.

Peter Ackroyd's biography of Dickens might be a desirable Folio choice, now that the latter's novels have been so well served. It's very entertaining, and Ackroyd has an amazing command of his material. However, it's also very long and would probably have to be one of FS's 2-volume jobs.

> 31

I second that. I would love to see this in a Folio edition.

Well, this suggestion should definitely be taken up by FS since it will have three, three I say, guaranteed purchasers. Peter Ackroyd's London would be another good choice for the FS treatment.

I'd like to see James Herriot's animal stories. They would be wonderful illustrated! Anyone?

>34 majoong: My dad is a huge fan. That would be an instant Christmas gift for me.

Emphemeralda, I've just got round to reading this thread. Thanks for starting it.

The books I've suggested on the FS website are something of a mixed bag. They are unlikely to appeal to all, if indeed anyone, but they are all titles that I think would be well suited to the 'Folio treatment'. My selections tend to be a bit 'pulpy' or 'popular' and are not terribly high-brow, but I think FS have made some interesting strides into genre fiction and I don't see why this shouldn't continue!

The Woman in Black, Susan Hill.

The Floating Admiral, by members of The Detection Club, inc. Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, GK Chesterton. Was recently republished by Harper Collins.

To the Devil a Daughter and The Devil Rides Out, Dennis Wheatley.

The Strange Case of Mr Pelham, Anthony Armstrong. Somewhat overlooked. Famously filmed by Hitchcock for TV and the basis for The Man Who Haunted Himself starring Roger Moore as Pelham.

Conjure Wife, Fritz Leiber. A renowned horror classic. Basis for British horror movie Night of the Eagle.

The Black Cloud, Fred Hoyle. Classic sci-fi.

The Iron Man, Ted Hughes.

The Saint stories, Leslie Charteris. Perhaps a best of edition (2 volumes were recently published in paperback).

My Name's Bond, James Bond...An anthology from the fiction of Ian Fleming, ed. Simon Winder (first published by Penguin). Simon Winder recently did the intro for the FS edition of The Mask of Dimitrios. This anthology of excerpts from the Bond books would make a neat little Folio edition for all Bond fans. I can just picture it in 8x5 inch cloth bound edition.

From Russia with Love. A contender for best Bond book. Imagine it with an Orient Express journey map on the endpapers! I think Folio's survey of proposed titles once mooted a Best of Bond 4-voulme set, including FRWL. That would be superb!

The Ipcress File, Len Deighton. With suitably retro design details.

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, John le Carre. The Karla trilogy was well done by FS.

To Catch a Spy, ed. Eric Ambler. An anthology of spy stories that will appeal to the same crowd who purchased Graham and Hugh Greene's 'The Spy's Bedside Book'.

The Simple Art of Murder, Raymond Chandler. A great essay, would make a nice little edition.

Who Killed Roger Ackroyd, Pierre Bayard. A modern classic, taking delight in playing about with Agatha Christie plots.

A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess.

The Tomb of Tutankhamun, Howard Carter.

The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Physical Universe, Roger Penrose.

The Man Who Knew Too Much, David Leavitt . A great book on Alan Turing.

Pioneers of Modern Design, Nikolaus Pevsner.

An Outline of European Architecture, Nikolaus Pevsner.

Stylistic Cold Wars - Betjeman vs. Pevsner, Timothy Mowl.

The Dam Busters, The Great Escape and Reach for the Sky. 3 volume set of Paul Brickhill's true stories as made into the famous movies. I can imagine this would be a real winner.

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Kate Summerscale.

Hitchcock: A Definitive Study of Alfred Hitchcock, Francois Truffaut.

What I currently have in my book suggestions box:

Dead Souls by Gogol.

Dante's Inferno illustrated by William Blake (Reissue)
The Leopard (Reissue)
Capek's War with The Newts.
The Good Soldier Svejk
The Dream of the Red Chamber
The Tale of Genji
Peter Brown's History of Late Antiquity (currently the most influential book on the period of roughly 400-800 AD)

Crime and Punishment.

Anything Faulkner.

John Berryman's Dream Songs or selected poems.

A selection of Ezra Pound.

A selection of William Carlos Williams.

I'd love to see Eric Garcia's trio Anonymous Rex / Casual Rex / Hot and Sweaty Rex in a slipcase together. I think a deliberately faux-looking dinosaur skin binding would be particularly appropriate.

I would love to see a copy of "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay." Can you imagine the illustrations that could go with it?

Imagine a James M. Cain set!
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Double Indemnity
Mildred Pierce

Shirley Jackson How have they missed her???

Umberto Eco

The Great War and Modern Memory by Fussell

I would love to see The Raven published (has it ever been?) with high quality reproductions of the Gustave Doré illustrations. Maybe a limited edition like Alice's Under the Ground?

>41 cdekeule:
The Easton Press published a leather version of the Raven with the Dore illustrations. I almost bought it several times but keep hesitating due to some mixed reviews from members of the Easton Press forum and the unappealing fact that EP just stuck a leather binding on another publisher's book.

There have been various editions over the years of Edward Lear's travel journals in Greece and Turkey - I have two very ordinary ones,
Journals of a Landscape Painter in Greece and Albania and Edward Lear in the Levant: Travels in Albania, Greece and Turkey in Europe, 1848-49. Looking at these the other evening, it struck me that Lear's quirky but endearing diary, coupled with the beautiful paintings and sketches of his travels, could be made into a very attractive Folio edition, perhaps even a LE.

>41 cdekeule:, 42 The Chartwell (Easton Press) Raven does NOT have high quality reproductions of the Dore illustrations. This is the most disappointing volume I have ever purchased from the Easton Press (I own over 200 EP books).

> 44
Thanks for letting us know. I may just have to continue "avoiding" this one, much to my chagrin as I collect Dore illustrated EP books and the other Chartwell editions, while not perfect, were certainly acceptable. Clearly the illustrations in the DLE Divine Comedy are superior to the previously published EP/Chartwell reprint of the Dore illustrations, but surprisingly the quality of the Chartwell holds up fairly well to the DLE on that title at a fraction of the price.

The Chartwell books have reasonable quality illustrations but not at the LE level. I have a Chartwell copy of The Fables of La Fontaine with the Dore illustrations that I'm quite happy with since the book cost me around $10 (not from EP and not leather bound).

> 41
Were you asking if FS has ever published an edition of The Raven? It was published as a miniature book (about 3.5 x 4.5 inches) in 1995. Illustrated with engravings by George Tute.

I would like to see a Folio edition of The Three Impostors by Arthur Machen and of Decadent Poetry from Wilde to Naidu edited by Lisa Rodensky.

I'd also like an edition of Carnacki the Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson, but I'd want it to reprint Iain Sinclair's Afterword from my paperback edition.

>47 housefulofpaper:
Thanks, I was indeed wondering if FS already did publish The Raven. The miniature book seems like a good format for the book. If with the Doré illustrations, it would be the perfect stocking filler!

I guess that, given some of the lesser recent novelists that the society has published recently, I am surprised that they have never done anything by Nobel Prize winner VS Naipaul. His prose is exquisite. I have never suggested that the FS do any of his books though.

How do you recommend a book exactly?

Online a member's account page has a section for book recommendations

I'd add to my list Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark or O! Pioneers

Os.

> 51

For the dull and dimwitted :-) can you elaborate with instructions?

>53 LesMiserables: Login to FS website.
Click on "My Account" tab.
About half way down the page is a place where you can list "Book Suggestions".

> 54

Ah, I see where I have erred! If I would have read post one properly, I would have spotted '...on FS homepage', rather than assuming that we were talking about LT. Mystery solved. Thank you.

> 54

I've just noticed on that page that they have erred grammatically.

"Thing we'd like to know"

They are asking for more than one piece of information, therefore I do believe they need a plural.

Shocking stuff.

Just thinking that FS never seems to have done a version of Hobbes' "Leviathan". I think they could do that quite proud.

> 57
Great suggestion! With period wood cuts and marbled boards (similar to the Book of Common Prayer) would be most lovely!

> 57 I "third" this suggestion

I could do without the woodcuts though : But not without this book.

In my Book Suggestions box I currently have:

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
After Nature by W.G. Sebald
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
Arthur & George and Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes
The Ballad of Desmond Kale by Roger McDonald
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Restoration by Rose Tremain
The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead
The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
Fugitive Pieces by Anna Michaels
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Giant, O'Brien by Hilary Mantel
English Passengers by Matthew Kneale
The Radetsky March by Joseph Roth
True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
If on a Winter's Night a Traveller and Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino
The Book of Dave by Will Self

There was a post on one of the FS blogs about Quentin Blake proposing to illustrate la Fontaine's Fables which I think is a brilliant idea and should be taken up by FS immediately.

60: Re QB and the LF Fables: Yes indeed and if the price is right (or similar to the QB Candide) these are going to go lickety-split.

>57 InVitrio:

Yes, agree!

I added to my suggestions this week on the FS site after reading some of The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems by the 2011 Nobel Prize winner Tomas Transtromer. Very beautiful, clear and accessible poetry that might lend itself well to the Folio philosophy and treatment

> 63

I have several poets listed in the "Favourite Authors" box, I'd love to see Folio do more poetry. I know they've done the English big guns, as well as Whitman and now Frost, there are probably others I'm unaware of, but how about Rilke, Neruda, Tagore or Dylan Thomas? Seamus Heaney would be wonderful, or Verlaine, Rimbaud or e. e. cummings. OR a book of haiku. Basho's On Love And Barley could be a superb Folio.

>60 letterpress:

I would also love to see The Book Thief, True History of the Kelly Gang, and If on a Winter's Night a Traveller.

Adding them to my list now.

>63 booksandsunshine:

Oooooh, Tranströmer in a Folio edition would be great, but can't imagine reading him in English. It might be like reading him anew, though.

Well, since you asked...

Venus in Furs (Yes, really: I think this could be amazing)
The Immoralist
Les Fleurs du Mal
A selection of Algernon Blackwood's short fiction.
The King in Yellow
Some of Byron's poetry (a tiny, well-illustrated copy of just 'Darkness' would be a Holy Grail volume for me!).
Ray Russell's Gothic work ('Sardonicus,' 'The Cage,' etc.).
The Island of Dr. Moreau

Some nice, hefty volumes on a given artist, with lots of illustrations, would be lovely (Taschen is fine, but it would be nice to see some of my favorites (Klimt, Schiele, Caravaggio, De Lempicka) given the Folio treatment).

I could think of a dozen more, but those are all books I've been craving to see Folio do for quite some time...

(Oh, and I'm also all-for the Ripley novels!)

'Some nice, hefty volumes on a given artist...'

I'm not so sure about that, isis. I want the product, but suspect that the best route is for FS to continue its relationship with eg Abbeville. The Abbeville books that FS has offered at big discounts are very well made books: Italian Frescoes - five volumes altogether - The Art of Florence, The Art and Spirit of Paris, and (not quite so well bound) The art and architecture of Persia and The art and architecture of Mesopotamia, for example. Abbeville do monographs too - I have Fra Angelico - including Caravaggio at least from your list.

Abbeville is only an example; other fine art specialists, such as Abrams, Yale, and Thames & Hudson, also produce books of similar standard to FS. These books are so expensive to commission (unless they are mostly picture books like Taschen) that I'd rather see marketing deals; I don't think the FS doing them themselves would produce much extra quality, and the price would be bound to be very high.

I'm waiting for the Abbeville Italian mosaics from my New Year sale order.

67

I don't think the FS doing them themselves would produce much extra quality, and the price would be bound to be very high.


I'm inclined to agree with you, affle. Good points...

Folio 60 mentions some presentation volumes from 1960-1970 which are larger format(almost 12x9) art books featuring Van Gogh, Degas, Picasso, Rembrandt, Renoir, Canaletto, and Durer, I may have missed some.

Like many F60 items I want to try I haven't gotten to them yet so I can't comment on the production, but if Ardis has some then pics should be available. I notice that they came with glassine covers and generally are low priced.

> 69 I remember my grandfather having several of these. As I recall they were very slim volumes. Unfortunately for me, all his books (including some nice sets of Scott, Stevenson and Conrad) went to my firstborn uncle rather than my mother!

70
Yes, F60 shows 60-80 pages, definetely not in the massive 'Abbeville' style. And sorry 'bout the books, but, where would you put them;?)

> 69-71 I have the Picasso: Four themes. It's not paginated. There are 29 colour plates printed on rectos with some notes by Roland Penrose on the facing verso. They are arranged in four sections, and each section has a one page introduction; there is a two page biographical note as well, and a frontispiece. So 65 pages maybe.

This is one class of book where older is not better: the colour plates are good for their age (1961) but not up to modern best quality, the notes adequate. It was cheap (£5, in very good condition without the original glassine wrapper), but I haven't been tempted to track down the others.

Yes I bought Picasso: Four Themes as well and paid £4 but I agree with affle it is not one volume I will be tempted to track down

72,72

Thanks then, if they are all like the Picasso description I can see why the prices are so low, would still be curious to see Renoir and Durer in particular.

I see some discussion of The Golem elsewhere at devotees. Maybe Folio might do well to put out an edition of He, She, and It by Marge Piercy, get a bit of sci-fi and medieval Prague at the same time.

I'd quite like to see The Neverending Story. It was one of my favourites as a child and I'm sure the illustrations and an auryn for the binding could be done so beautifully

> 75

Maybe I should look at this again. When I read it to my son, not long after it was published, I remember thinking that many of Bastian's adventures were too much like the Lord of the Rings for comfort.

>74 olepuppy:

That sounds like a great idea. I feel like the FS has a very limited sci-fi/fantasy selection, at least since I became a member this past August. It's too bad but at least they have a pretty good selection of mtyhs&legends and fairy tale books.

> 76

Hmm can't say it ever struck me like that, although I didn't get round to LOTR till years later.

> 77
I'm quite happy with the support for children's books so far but could possibly do with a sci-fi/fantasy boost. Would like to see the Foundation trilogy or A Song of Ice and Fire (maybe in 10 years when he's finished :))

I think this is the most SF titles offered by the Society at the same time, at least since I joined a decade ago.

>75 cpmbailey:

I like this suggestion! Not just a lovely story, The Neverending Story really lends itself to Folio style, as well; the original hardcover publication (and several reprints) featured red and green text and possibly illuminated lettering at the beginning of chapters (it's been a long time since I've seen a copy like this, so I can't quite remember).

I would also love to see A Song of Ice and Fire once it's all wrapped up (yep...probably a while off given his record! Hopefully the added pressure of the TV show will get him moving a little quicker). A complete set would be amazing.

My current suggestion is (more fantasy) The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. There are currently 13 books in the series and the final 14th book is expected out this year. It would be quite an expensive series to purchase but I would love to see it done by folio. The artwork could potentially be fabulous as there is already a big culture of reader/artists with these books.

I’m generally for FS publishing the first 3 or 4 books in a series if they originally made a trilogy or tetralogy. However, I'm generally opposed to FS publishing any long series, at least completely. Most of them, especially SF and fantasy, tend to get tired, at least the ones I’ve read. More to the point each book in a series FS publishes is one less slot available for another author’s work to be published by FS

Did anyone else receive an email from FS with the new title research survey?

It includes Donna Tartt's The Secret History!!

ETA: Here's the whole list I got (I know others will get different lists):

Donna Tartt, The Secret History
The Kalevala
T S Eliot, Selected Essays
Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest
Rudyard Kipling, Kim
Norman F Dixon, On The Psychology of Military Incompetence
Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology
Howard Carter and A C Mace, The Tomb of Tutankhamen
Simone Roux, Paris in the Middle Ages
Graham Greene, The Comedians
Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety
Peter Bernstein, Against the Gods: the Remarkable Story of Risk
L A Carlyon, Gallipoli
Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
L P Hartley, The Go-Between
Apuleius, The Golden Ass
Johann David Wyss, The Swiss Family Robinson
Geoff Dyer, The Missing of the Somme
Olivia Manning, The Great Fortune
Mary Renault, The Alexander Trilogy
E T A Hoffmann, Tales of the Uncanny
Paul Theroux, The Great Railway Bazaar
Albert Camus, The Rebel
Barbara Pym, Quartet in Autumn
Dava Sobel, Longitude
C R Leslie, Memoir of Constable Composed Chiefly of His Letters
Philip K Dick, The Man in the High Castle
John Steinbeck, Once There Was a War
Jonathan Raban, Coasting
Rumi, Masnavi - Books 1-2
Samuel Beckett, Murphy
George Eliot, Silas Marner
Sir Charles Oman, The Art of War in the Middle Ages
Sigmund Freud, Selected Essays
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, August 1914
K M Briggs, Hobberdy Dick
Robert Graves, The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth
Winston Churchill, River War: The Reconquest of the Sudan
Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's
Philip A Kuhn, Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1798

I wasn't sure whether to start another thread, so if anyone would prefer this to be its own thread feel free! I can edit this comment back down and copy the list to the new thread...

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
The Magus by John Fowles
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
The Seven Mysteries of Life by Guy Murchie
The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I received one as well...

I may be missing it above but mine also had a H P Lovecraft volume.

>85 SirFolio16: No, my list didn't include any Lovecraft. I would have put him on my 'definitely buy' list!

If it makes you feel any better I put it on my 'def buy' list... so it has at least one vote.

I went ahead and started a thread for the surveys - I thought it was a strong enough topic for it's own thread :)

http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.php?topic=130471

Do we think Folio could do something with Lennon's "In His Own Write" and "A Spaniard In The Works"? Or are they spectacular enough as is?

Just finished the re-reading of The Day of the Jackal, one of the most riveting book I know. Don't you think Forsyth would deserve an FS treat?

> 90 I do agree.. After all they did Fleming's Live and let die .. and it would be a logical continuation of Buchan , Childers and all those early XXth century thrillers..

> 69-74

I have all of these and they are in similar format and quality to the Picasso described by affle. They are nice, but nowhere near what one would consider the modern FS treatment.

>90 Pepys: Ooh +1 on that

>90 Pepys:

Pepys, great call on The Day of the Jackal. That would be a must-buy for me.

One of the many pleasures of speculating about potential new titles is to imagine how you would approach designing a book.

Given the way that Forsyth wrote it - looking back on a failed assassination as if it were fact, within the context of other attempts on de Gaulle's life - I'd be tempted to illustrate the book as if it were a factual/historical text.

One could have plenty of fun with that: captioned black and white photographs showing locations referred to in the text, a diagrammatic representation of the Jackal's passport application scam, a mock-up of the Jackal's faked IDs, etc.

More and more we've seen some innovative approaches to Folio illustrations - cartoonish diagrams in Schrodinger's Cat; Neil Gower's illustrations rather than photographs in Storm of Steel; the collages of found-images in the Ripley trilogy. Lot of creative thinking going on in the production offices, I dare say. What a lovely job that must be.

This is exactly what I thought: The Day of the Jackal leaves the reader with so many vivid pictures (for instance: a one-legged man behind fences lined up with policemen) that there could be a profusion of illustrations.

I would be happy to see the Day of the Jackal given the FS treatment. I would like to see the Odessa File even more as this is my favorite Forsyth novel.

>2 Ooshie: I have also listed Anita Brookner, probably Hotel du Lac is the most likely pick. I would also like to see J. B. Priestly, perhaps An Inspector Calls

I'd say The Ancestor's Tale. I admit I tend to like all Dawkins books, but this one should, I think, be greatly appreciated even by its most ardent critics. The idea of a pilgrimage backwards in time is great and wonderfully executed. It's a book that requires time and patience to be read, but it is extremely rewarding.

There's never been much from the FS in the way of film and music titles. Some recent surveys have suggested possible ventures into this territory (e.g. Mark Cousins - The Story of Film; The Land Where Blues Began; Revolution in the Head (about The Beatles). Strikes me as fruitful ground and something I'd like to see more of.

A general text on cinema I can see going down very well. I guess the problem with music is that personal taste can vary so much, even with the Beatles (who my mum still hates).

The same goes for sport as a subject: too divisive perhaps. If FS were to do a title on cricket for example (and there are many examples of fine writing in this field - excuse the pun), I would be over the moon, but I imagine there's plenty of members who would be turned off by the very mention of the game.

Still, cricket is easier to forsee than a FS stab at any other sport.

I would love to see a FS set of the Flavia de Luce mysteries The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, A Red Herring Without Mustard, and I Am Half-Sick of Shadows. There really is no other 11 year old chemist/poisoner sleuth like her.

I think it would be great to have a nice Folio edition of Sir Donald Bradman's The Art Of Cricket, although I'm not sure how popular that title would be...being a U.K.-based publisher it's at least possible, I hope.
I'd also love to see some of the Enid Blyton series I grew up reading in beautiful Folio volumes, particularly Secret Seven, Famous Five and Noddy.

> 101 "a nice Folio edition of Sir Donald Bradman's The Art Of Cricket": great idea ! - especially if issued as a pair with Douglas Jardine's In Quest of the Ashes. The designer could have great fun with bindings or slipcases: for instance, placed side by side one way they could show Bowes bowling Bradman for a duck in Australia's first innings of the Second 1932/33 Test, placed the other McCabe catching Jardine for nought off Ironmonger in the MCC's second innings.

I'd love to see:

William Burroughs "Naked Lunch" or "Cities of the Red Night"
Richard Matheson "I am Legend"
Richard Brautigan "Trout Fishing In America"

I also have an old favourite film book - "The Great Movies" by William Bayer. A really wonderful introduction to some classic films. Would be great in a large format Folio version.

Mine are

Winged Victory by V. M. Yeates
The Book of Merlyn by T. H. White
The Anger of Achilles by Robert Graves
The Odyssey translated by T. E. Lawrence

I would like that they print / reprint:

-Marguerite Duras: "The Lover"
-Marguerite Yourcenar: "Memoirs of Hadrian"
-Mikhail Sholokhov: "And Quiet Flows the Don"
-Henri Charrière: "Papillon"
-Kahlil Gibran: "The Prophet"
-Curzio Malaparte: "Kaputt"
-Hermann Hesse: "Steppenwolf" or "Siddhartha" or "The Glass Bead Game"
-André Malraux: "Man's Fate" or "The Way of the Kings"
-Henryk Sienkiewicz: "Quo Vadis"
-Robert M. Pirsig: "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"
-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: "The Little Prince" but any other of his books also
-Julio Cortázar - his novels
-Marco Polo and Thor Heyerdahl in the explorer series
-Wade Davis - any of his books
-Jorge Luis Borges, Edgar Allan Poe, Michael Crichton, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Carl Sagan and so on.....

>104 Flogiston: The Odyssey translated by T. E. Lawrence, I would buy this in a heart beat!

> 105 - Sholokov and Malaparte would be autobuys for me.

105, I would also definitely purchase Sholokhov, and anything by Isaac Singer, especially the short stories

Sandor Marai's, "Embers", would make a beautiful Folio edition.