Chuck Palahniuk, best-selling author, Fight Club

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Chuck Palahniuk is the best-selling author of Fight Club, Choke, and Invisible Monsters. His 10th novel, Pygmy, has just been published by Doubleday.

Best books … chosen by Chuck Palahniuk

1. Honored Guest By Joy Williams
   
   
   (literature and fiction)
   
   "Don’t let the praise by highbrow critics scare you away from this 2004 story collection. We’re so much more likely to feel sympathy for an animal than for another person, thus the best fiction uses animals to define truly humane behavior. No one does this better than Joy Williams."
   
   


2. Knockemstiff By Donald Ray Pollock
   
   
   (literature and fiction)
   
   "Every decade, we get a stunning collection of dynamic, heartbreaking short stories. In the past, those collections came from Barry Hannah, Mark Richard, and Thom Jones. For the next 10 years, Pollock’s work will be tough for any writer to beat."
   
   


3. Flannery By Brad Gooch
   
   
   (literature and fiction)
   
   "Why do the lives of writers seem so … train-wrecky? Mary Flannery O’Connor was no exception. She survived the back-to-back snake pits of the Iowa Writers Workshop and the Yaddo colony only to find herself trapped at home with her strong-willed mother and crippling lupus. The life of this Southern Gothic belle makes the somber existence of Emily Dickinson look like a barrel full of monkeys."
   
   


4. Gladiator: A True Story Of ’roids, Rage, And Redemption By Dan Clark
   
   
   (health)
   
   "Clark played the character “Nitro” on the television series American Gladiators, and if you read only one book on vacation this year, this has to be it. After a dark childhood, steroids launch the author into a new life as a national celebrity built from mountains of chemically enhanced muscle. The dream falls apart as he sprouts breasts he can’t conceal inside his skimpy spandex costume, then suffers high colonics in order to pass mandatory drug tests. Of course, there’s redemption, but not before a ton of laughs."
   
   


5. Joan Crawford: Hollywood Martyr By David Bret
   
   
   
   
   "The perfect salacious beach read. And, to paraphrase Dorothy Parker, if it falls in the ocean … what the hell, it falls in the ocean."
   
   


Source:
http://www.theweek.com

What was the book that most influenced your life or your career as a writer?

1. The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald
   
   
   (literature and fiction, classics)
   
   "The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It showed me how to write a "hero" story by using an apostle as the narrator. Really, it's the basis of the triangle of two men and one woman in my book, Fight Club. I read the book at least once a year and it continues to surprise me with layers of emotion. "
   
   


Source:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com

What are your ten favorite books, and what makes them special to you?
These are in no particular order or rank...

1. Reasons To Live By Amy Hempel
   
   
   (literature and fiction)
   
   "Each of Hempel's stories pay off with more emotion than most full length novels."
   
   


2. The Informers By Bret Easton Ellis
   
   
   (literature and fiction)
   
   "Another short story collection, Ellis's book shows the dark and funny world of people trapped by their own need for fame and money and love."
   
   


3. Jesus Son By Denis Johnson
   
   
   (literature and fiction)
   
   "These stories have moments so shocking and distasteful that you have to admire Johnston for being brave enough to risk writing them."
   
   


4. The Ice At The Bottom Of The World By Mark Richard
   
   
   (literature and fiction)
   
   "His story, "Strays," is my favorite. All of his language pops with hard dental sounds -- P's and K's -- and this makes the collection a delight to read out loud. "
   
   


5. The Pugilist At Rest By Thom Jones
   
   
   (literature and fiction)
   
   "Again, here are hard unsentimental stories that somehow break your heart while they make you laugh."
   
   


6. Drown By Junot Diaz
   
   
   (literature and fiction)
   
   "These may be the bleakest childhood stories ever published, but the plot tension and the love between family members force you to finish the book."
   
   


7. Ill Nature By Joy Williams
   
   
   
   
   "Here is the brutal description of how humans have treated the natural world. The book is so painful, at times, you must put it down. Still, you always go back to re-read it. "
   
   


8. The Martian Chronicles By Ray Bradbury
   
   
   (literature and fiction, nonfiction, sci-fi)
   
   "As a kid, I carried this book everyday, everywhere, for two years. The stories create a collage of an epic story better than any single narrative ever could."
   
   


9. At The Gates Of The Animal Kingdom By Amy Hemple
   
   
   (literature and fiction)
   
   "These stories carry the power of great "Slam" poetry. They function more like magic spells to put you into a trance and make Hemple's world more real than your own. "
   
   


10. The Call Of The Wild By Jack London
    
    
    (classics, literature and fiction)
    
    "My brother and I memorized most of this book as children. London's frontier world seen through animals was my favorite fantasy."
    
    


Source:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com

Why should you listen to him?

Charles Michael “Chuck” Palahniuk (born February 21, 1962) is an American satirical novelist and freelance journalist born in Pasco, Washington. The press release for his latest book, Rant, states he is now living in Vancouver, Canada. He is best known for the award-winning novel Fight Club, which was later made into a film directed by David Fincher. He has one of the largest centralized followings of any author on the Internet, based around his official website.

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