William Cook

Here is a list of my favorite literary works. The list is not complete and is totally subjective in that the books listed are my personal favorites - the books that I go back to for whatever reason and read again and again. This is NOT a list of books I think have the most literary merit, this IS a list of books I have enjoyed reading the most for whatever reason. My friend and peer, Vincenzo Bilof has done a similar list you may find of interest here , in response to a challenge I made to him. This, of course, being my response to said challenge.  My Favorite Books (to date) - Recommended Reading Fiction (Novels) Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk Big Sur – Jack Kerouac Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad Infinite jest – David Foster Wallace The Killer – Colin Wilson The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson Winesburg, Ohio – Sherwood Anderson The Stranger –...

In researching my new novel, 'Blood Related,' I started out with a mission to read the majority of first person accounts of serial homicide, stream of consciousness-style fiction. Not for material, more for inspiration and admiration - just like those crazy books, quite glad my tastes are slowly shifting to a more classical appreciation of the dark arts! Not a soft option by any means! Here is my list. 1. Killer on The Road by James Ellroy 2. A Special Place: the heart of a dark matter by Peter Straub 3. The Killer by Colin Wilson 4. Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite 5. Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates 6. The Girls he Adored by Jonathan Nasaw 7. Head Hunter by Michael Slade 8. Stray Bullets (series) by David Lapham 9. The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson 10. I AM Not a Serial Killer (John Cleaver) by Dan Wells 11. Frenzy by Rex Miller 12. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks 13. American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis 14. Slob by Rex Miller 15. Psycho by...