Three Book Suggestions

List three book suggestions that you would like the Folio Society to publish. Here are mine (two novels and one short story collection):

1. Grendel
by John Gardner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grendel_(novel)

2. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen
by Tadeusz Borowski
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Way_for_the_Gas,_Ladies_and_Gentlemen

3. The Shadow of the Wind
by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_of_the_Wind

1. The Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder

2. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

3. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson

Number 3 will never happen (it's obscure even in America), but it's my favorite book.

>2 Jason461: Winesburg, Ohio is a great choice. I know Ray Bradbury was a huge fan of that book as well. In fact, it inspired him to write The Martian Chronicles.

>3 erbisoeul:

I've probably read it 15 times. It's the book that turned me into a writer.

The Tartar Steppe - Dino Buzzati. I have read that the existing translation(s) into English are poor. If that is true, given how extraordinary I consider this book in the translation I have read, I would dearly love to read a proper translation.

The Book of Ebenezer LePage - G.B. Edwards. The semi-fictional story of a man living on one of the Channel Islands through much of the 20th century. I need to re-read this book, for the enjoyment of a story magnificently told, with wonderful language and a superb finish.

A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr. I would (reluctantly) give up the first two for a proper Folio treatment of this book. Its treatment of science and religion is unparalleled in my experience. And it's a gripping read as well. A book that I have pressed on many people (along with the other two, of course, but this one most of all).

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott
The Dominion of the Dead by Robert Pogue Harrison (my willfully obscure submission)

Euclid, Elements of Geometry
Xenophon, Conversations of Socrates
Pascal, Provincial Letters

Set of Hemingway Novels

Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker

Edgar Allan Poe

>8 benbulben:
Easton Press just announced a limited edition of Poe:

http://www.eastonpress.com/prod/514/POE-S-MASTERPIECES_2986.aspx

1. My War Gone By I Miss it so - Anthony Lloyd
2. Histories Grecques - Maurice Sartre
3. Eels - James Prozek

>8 benbulben:

FS has published a set of Hemingway's novels already - you can find copies on the secondhand market for pretty decent prices.

>8 benbulben: >11 scholasticus: Folio has published Poe several times as well. I have two copies of Tales of Mystery and Imagination published by them. One from 1957 (with a dust jacket!) and one from 1999.

I might trade my Hemingway set for any of the following:

1) Aldo Leopold
2) US Grant's Memoirs
3) Ken Kesey - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

R.V. Jones' 'Most Secret War' - Jones was the UK Air Ministry's R&D guru during WW2; his memoirs are both educational and excellent entertainment.

Herbert Werner's 'Iron Coffins' - charts Werner's career as a U-boat commander in the Kriegsmarine during WW2 .

Orson Scott Card's 'Ender's Game' (And also the three other books in the quintet!) - great sci-fi and in the latter books, also quite thought-provoking.

>1 erbisoeul:

Nice suggestion about Shadow of the Wind. I do think this would be popular among members though I have the signed limited edition and would probably not be interested in buying a FS edition.

>7 jroger1:

Now that's a great list. I second it. I have Taschen's Euclid and it's wonderful

Practically any of the suggestions I could make with any marked enthusiasm would almost certainly afford the FS a shove in the direction of the rocky road to receivership. Since, however, LT reminded me that yesterday was the 98th anniversary of her birth, I'll propose a centenary edition of the three novels of Anna Sebastian, Let Thy Moon Arise, The Monster, and most essentially The Dreams. I almost half believe it could succeed, bringing the Society an enduring shot of literary kudos and Anna/Friedl a readership she never had.

The Glass Bead Game - Herman Hesse
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
Wilt - Tom Sharpe

I don't think that the FS has published any of these, but they were part of my youth as I tried to grow up, and all worthy of illustration (the books that is, not my youth)!

>2 Jason461:
I don't think Winesburg, Ohio is that obscure! Not that I've read it -- but you intrigue me enough to want to do so.

Still trying with these:

1. Till We Have Faces - C.S. Lewis
This retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, set in Hellenistic times, would fit so beautifully with Folio's classical titles and their Lewis selection.

2. The Neverending Story - Michael Ende
This beautiful, poetic fantasy set actually INSIDE A BOOK begs for the Folio treatment.

3. Midnight Is a Place - Joan Aiken
This Gothic romp would nicely complement other recently published 20th century children's classics like The Ghost of Thomas Kempe and Smith.

>17 SimB:
Hmm. I can't help feeling that there's something about Tom Sharpe that demands a grubby paperback. Reading him in a nice edition wouldn't be half as much fun! (He definitely deserves Folio treatment, though. One of the really great comic writers of our time.)

What I'd like to see:
- A Ronald Firbank set (have they ever done any Firbank? I don't remember ever seeing any. His novels really lend themselves to luxury treatment.)
- The adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan by James Morier - a superb comic novel that hardly ever gets reprinted and would really benefit from illustrations
- Novel on yellow paper by Stevie Smith - (I've a vague idea they might have done that in the past, but if they haven't, it's one of my favourite obscure novels)

1. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
2. Shogun by James Clavell
3. Winds of War & War And Rememberance by Herman Wouk

>2 Jason461: I agree that Winesburg, Ohio is a great choice and I would buy if published by FS, but my choice of three would be:
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald. This could be beautifully illustrated with German Romantic watercolours.
The Rings of Saturn by W G Sebald, which would (in my opinion) have to be illustrated with the original photos.
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, which I would like illustrated with photos of 1930's America.

1. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (probably would need to be a two-volume set)
2. Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada
3. The Fall of Paris by Alistair Horne

The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

1. A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth
2. A House for Mr. Biswas V S Naipul
3. The Emigrants W G Sebald

>24 cronshaw:
I second the choice for Seth's A Suitable Boy.
I hope the Folio Society will publish more books from Indian writers in the future...

>1 erbisoeul: Subterranean Press made a nice edition of Shadow of the Wind.

>2 Jason461: Winesberg, Ohio is a fairly well known book. The Limited Editions Club published a beautiful edition in 1978.

>7 jroger1: Check out Taschen's facsimile of the 1847 edition of Euclid's Elements.

>19 thorold: The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan illustrated by Honore Guilbeau was also done by the LEC in 1947

The Easton Press has also published a number of the titles mentioned here.

Lots of nice choices. I'll second:

The Unbearable Lightness of Being
A Prayer for Owen Meany
and a Steadman illustrated Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

>23 Evets_Kainzow:

Lolita! Or anything by Nabokov, really.

>27 kdweber:

I suppose it's well-known in certain circles, but Folio doesn't tend to publish fiction that isn't very widely known, with a bias toward UK writers. So, while I'd love it, I'm not counting on it.

>25 EclecticIndulgence:
Oooh, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas with Steadman illustrations - now we're talking!

That would be awesome. And then some. Come to think of it, I haven't read it in years; I'll bring it to the top of my to read-pile. Can't wait!

>15 ironjaw:
>27 kdweber:
Thanks for the tip about the Taschen edition of Euclid. I have ordered a copy.

I also just ordered the Taschen Euclid.

I don't have 3 suggestions, but somebody really needs to reprint William T. Vollmann's 'Rising Up and Rising Down' (7 volumes, unabridged).

I have a copy, but would love to see a Folio Edition. Would also like to see Vollmann get the recognition he deserves.

Some great book choices folks!

1. Ian Fleming 007 books.
2. Classic Tom Clancy books.
3. Somerset Maughm books.

Oh and Toni Morrison or James Baldwin would also be awesome.

>32 gatsby61:
I can't believe there's no Folio edition of Morrison's Beloved!

1. Last and First Men / Starmaker by Olaf Stapledon
2. All for the Union by Elisha Hunt Rhodes
3.The Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard by Arthur Conan Doyle

>23 Evets_Kainzow: I would heartily agree with your suggestion of Kundera and Nabokov, both which I've listed in my FS account suggestion box for a while now. In addition, I would love to see:

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
Zuckerman Bound by Philip Roth

The Christian Year, by John Keble
Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux
A London Family 1870-1900, by Molly Hughes
Sketchbook of Washington Irving
Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier
Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks
Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury
Journals of George Eliot
Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
Kilvert's Diary

And more, because who can stop at three? :)

The latest Folio Society newsletter mentions 'next year’s edition of The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury'. There's a start.

I tried really really hard to think of books I'd like FS to publish and I really struggled as I just couldn't think of any where the current edition is particularly lacking or where I would feel warranted in paying £40+ for a folioed version.

>27 kdweber:
That's interesting - when I was looking for a copy of Hajji Baba a few years ago, the only one I could find was Cressett Press, 1949. There must have been some sort of Morier revival in the late forties.

I wonder what the FS could do with such a list of so many different sublists which almost never overlap... However, my try is:

1. Life A User's Manual, by Georges Perec, listed by Donald Knuth (IT scientists here will know his name) as "perhaps the greatest 20c. novel".
2. Robert Hooke's Micrographia. I dream to have this in a facsimile Limited Edition.
3. John Evelyn's full edition of the Diary. Also an LE?

And I'm amazed to see that, out of all the books proposed hereover, I've read only 3 or 4. It makes me feel very humble.

PS - Lolita: yes of course, but I've always heard that it was a copyright problem with the FS...

Some great suggestions. I agree that any Nabokov would be eminently desirable, but have been told that the rights cost is deemed to be prohibitive.

I would also love Sebald, but I wonder if FS sees any scope to "Folioise" his work, given that the books are already illustrated and that the gritty, smudgy quality of the pictures is part of Sebald's aesthetic.

My suggestions:
1. Canetti's trilogy of memoirs
2. Amongst Women or That They May Face the Rising Sun by John McGahern
3. Joan Didion's reportage - Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The White Album, Where I Was From

(Bonus final suggestion - a single slipcased edition combining both Mr and Mrs Bridge by Evan S. Connell.)

I'd enjoy an FS Phantom of the Opera too. But what I'd really like them to publish are the three volumes of Alec Guinness's memoirs (Blessings in Disguise, My Name Escapes Me, and A Positively Final Appearance). They're awesome books, and the first two are out of print, so the FS really should get on this! :-)

>42 Bookworm59:
If Folio doesn't bite, maybe Slightly Foxed would for their series of memoirs.

I'm another one who'd love to see an FS edition of A Suitable Boy. If I had to list three, that would probably be number one.

Limiting to three is desperate. As the above has already been listed, I'll suggest three others:

The History of the Countryside by Oliver Rackham (using the original text!)
Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen by Fay Weldon
Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie

but there are absolutely masses of others, especially classics and non-fiction. I'd especially like to see some non-royal biography; a literary biography series of 'great women writers' just jumps to mind. Or a series on real-life 'adventure', following on from Touching the Void, e.g. The Perfect Storm, A Voyage for Madmen, The Cruellest Miles, Shackleton's Boat Journey. Somebody tackling Zola's 'Rougon-Macquart' series. Woolf's 'The Waves' and 'The Years'. Sir Walter Scott (Ivanhoe?!). Some more travel, au Raban or Dalrymple. Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy (if it's not too recent) And so I could go on (and on and on!).

Watership Down by Richard Adams

>45 cweller:

I would buy Watership Down in a heartbeat.

>27 kdweber: I'm not really a fan of Subterranean Press, although I am, of course, aware they made a limited edition of The Shadow of the Wind, which sold out years ago. I think a Folio Society edition of this phenomenal novel, which is adored by millions of readers all over the world, would be much more appropriate.

>37 gdsamphier: Glad to hear they're publishing The Martian Chronicles. Although one has to wonder what took them so long in the first place. I will definitely be purchasing a copy!

>36 Lady19thC: The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. is an excellent suggestion!

There's also A Sense of an Ending by Barnes!

>43 withawhy99: Ah, I didn't know Slightly Foxed had a series of memoirs. (I'm not that familiar with the company.) Interesting!

>50 Bookworm59: - They do, and those books are probably the greatest bargain there is nowadays. I've got about a dozen (from a selection of 25 or so) - all are wonderful memoirs of people who've led way more interesting lives than most of us, lovely bound in cloth and very conveniently sized.

The price is bordering on being a joke - £18/volume including shipping outside the UK, unless I am much mistaken.

I hope the FS is looking at this thread because there are a lot of great suggestions including some I'd buy in a heartbeat. Some things I'd love to see:

more Maugham; Ashenden would be great for the next volume
more Burgess; Man of Nazareth and Kingdom of the Wicked would make a nice set
Tolkien's posthumously published The Children of Hurin

The Bone People by Keri Hulme
Anything by Nabokov except Lolita
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Les Murray - Killing the Black Dog

Venedikt Erofeev - Moscow to the End of the Line

Neil Postman - Amusing Ourselves to Death

1. John Harington's seventeenth-century translation of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.
2. Edward Thomas - a selected ed. of Poetry and Prose (in the same format as the FS Manley Hopkins' Poetry and Prose)
3 - a reprint on a smaller FE scale of the LE Surinam Album - great demand for this (at least from me).

I'd like to have a nice copy of Roald Dahls books illustrated by Quentin Blake. I have some old paper backs I've kept but want a nice edition to read to my nephew.

>56 JuliusC:

You are in luck--FS has already done a nice Dahl box set (either five or six volumes) back in the early 2000s. I don't have access to mine right now so hopefully someone will post the titles.

>36 Lady19thC:

FS published Journal of a Country Curate : Selections from the Diary of Francis Kilvert 1870-1879 in 1977. It's not the 'full' version (probably around a third, in fact), but then even the 'full' version is itself incomplete, thanks to Kilvert's family and the carelessness or otherwise of the first editor. FS's edition has the advantage of being very cheap on the secondhand market.

>53 overthemoon:

Totally agree with you about The Bone People - came within a whisker of being included in my threesome.

>59 Willoyd: >60 EclecticIndulgence: Hah.

>44 Willoyd: I heard quite a while ago that Shackleton's Journey was being prepared.

>57 podaniel: ooohhh that's great! do you know if the illustrations are in colour? I hope they reissue it.

>60 EclecticIndulgence:

!!! :-))

Beryl Markham-West with the Night
L. M. Montgomery-The Blue Castle
Laura Ingalls Wilder-The Little House series

Some excellent suggestions here! I'm just going to go with the first few that spring to mind, or I'll be typing for hours.

Landscape and Memory by Simon Schama
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Book of Dave by Will Self
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

I've not read any of the following (which is good, as I try to avoid buying different editions of books that I already own), but they've all been on my wish list for quite a while now, and I imagine they would all make excellent illustrated editions (no collages please).
The Night of the Hunter - Davis grubb
Red Harvest - Dashiell Hammett
The Ascent Of Rum Doodle – W. E. Bowman

Red Harvest could be a companion to The Maltese Falcon, but the other two are probably very wishful thinking on my part.

>66 letterpress:
Wolf Hall and True History of the Kelly Gang: Two Booker Prize Winners.
And yep,definitely something from Shirley Jackson! She was such a good author...

>68 Evets_Kainzow:
To my three top picks, I would love to add Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle...

>63 JuliusC:

I should have thought of this earlier--there's actually a Librarything thread (with great photos) of the Roald Dahl box set (and, no, the illustrations are not in color):

http://www.librarything.com/topic/129768

I'm adding another (how could I forget)...

Edward Curtis-The North American Indian series

At Swim Two Birds - Flan O'Brien
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
Anything written by Terry Pratchett

>72 N11284:
I agree on anything by Flann - they've done At Swim-Two-Birds before I think?
A nice edition of The Third Policeman would be a treat.

>73 ian_curtin:

The FS did publish The Third Policeman, in 2006. I remember placing an order for it in a sale, but was just too late: it's one of the relatively few standard FS titles that tends to sell on the secondary market for more than its original price, so perhaps there's some chance of a reprint.

>73 ian_curtin:
Don't think they have published At Swim, I have the Third Policeman lovely edition. Must read it again!

>74 terebinth: >75 N11284:
Ah, thanks - my mistake. Don't know how I missed a FS edition of Policeman! I am off to look it up.

In that case, At Swim definitely makes more sense. Although I would argue that the stature of his work for the Irish Times has grown sufficiently that you could make a case for a compendium of the various collections (eg Best of Myles) of articles as well.

>76 ian_curtin: Already been done!

The Best of Myles was published by the Dalkey Archive Press in 1999. It's mainly the Cruiskeen Lawn from the IT
ISBN 1-56478-215-8

>77 N11284:
Yes, absolutely, I have the Dalkey edition - it updated an extremely battered Flamingo edition from the 80s. I meant that I'd consider it for FS treatment as well...

Horatio Hornblower series
Roald Dahl's autobiography
C.S. Lewis' Space trilogy

>79 Chris_El: the C.S. Lewis' Space trilogy looks interesting. I would definitely buy that as I haven't read it.

>79 Chris_El:
>80 ironjaw:

The Space Trilogy has been on my FS wishlist for years.

Three more from me:

The Later Roman Empire by Ammianus Marcellinus
Froissart's Chronicles
Adventures in Time and Space by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas

>82 Betelgeuse:

There are translated extracts from Froissart's Chronicles, together with extracts from Jean le Bel and Enguerrand de Monstrelet, in the Folio Society's "The Hundred Years' War", which was first published in 1966 and has been out of print for a long time.

I don't really know the originals, and so I'm not sure whether a translation of the complete Chronicles would repay publication.

>83 TabbyTom: TabbyTom, thank you! Probably not, it is surely wishful thinking on my part!

Two titles by Francis Hodgson Burnett

The Shuttle
The Making of a Marchioness
and perhaps for fun, a third of hers T. Tembarom. She is primarily known as a children's author now, but she did write some lovely novels for adults.

I own the Folio version of Cover Her Face but would love the rest of the run of PD James in Folio editions

And I'll lend another vote for Letters to Alice by Fay Weldon.

I would third (or fourth) The Unbearable Lightness Of Being; Kundera
The Kindness Of Women; Ballard
Less than Zero and/or American Psycho; Ellis

This thread has provided much food for thought; I will certainly check out The Space Trilogy

Oh, yes! I missed that. Definitely C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. A great Folio set that would be!

>6 galford83: absolutely agree re Invisible Cities and >17 SimB: The Glass Bead Game. I'd like to bid for a new edition of Out of Africa as my current FS edition is looking like it's been to Africa and back a few times, despite being careful of my books.

1. Burr by Gore Vidal
2. A Thurber Carnival by James Thurber
3. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

I'll stop now.

My Name is Red would be a wonderful book to illustrate.