My Fifty Favorite Books Equated to Albums
(alphabetically by author, with the books current as of November 1, 2020)
1. A Death in the Family by James Agee = Master and Everyone by Bonnie “Prince” Billy
2. Ghosts by César Aira = Architecture and Morality by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
3. The Other City by Michal Ajvaz = Mimikry by ANBB [Alva Noto and Blixa Bargeld]
4. The Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasm = First Take by Roberta Flack
5. The Complete Short Stories by J. G. Ballard = The Virgin Years [box set] by John Foxx
6. A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle = Avalon by Roxy Music
7. Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges = Kesto (234.48:4) by Pan Sonic
8. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov = The Great American Bootleg Tape by David Massengill
9. Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler = Let Love In by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
10. The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati = You Want It Darker by Leonard Cohen
11. The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino = Promenade by The Divine Comedy
12. Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton = Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder
13. Palafox by Éric Chevillard = Homogenic by Björk
14. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke = Asleep Versions by Jon Hopkins
15. Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell = Inland Empires by Joel RL Phelps and the Downer Trio
16. The Latin American Trilogy by Louis de Bernières = This Is the Sea by The Waterboys
17. Tales of Nevèrÿon by Samuel R. Delany = The Ape of Naples by Coil
18. The Unexpected Universe by Loren Eiseley = Green by R.E.M.
19. A Passage to India by E. M. Forster = Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John
20. The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys by Chris Fuhrman = #1 Record by Big Star
21. Paris Stories by Mavis Gallant = Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers
22. The Torturer’s Wife by Thomas Glave = Starsailor by Tim Buckley
23. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene = Hats by The Blue Nile
24. The Cockroaches of Stay More by Donald Harington = Music from Big Pink by The Band
25. The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway = Black Celebration by Depeche Mode
26. Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban = Pink Moon by Nick Drake
27. I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal = Beautiful Maladies: The Island Years by Tom Waits
28. Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls = Blue by Joni Mitchell
29. Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link = Big Science by Laurie Anderson
30. The Passion According to G. H. by Clarice Lispector = I Am Sitting in a Room by Alvin Lucier
31. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers = Miss America by Mary Margaret O’Hara
32. Centuria: One Hundred Ouroboric Novels by Giorgio Manganelli = Miniatures by Alog
33. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez = Astral Weeks by Van Morrison
34. All the Days and Nights: The Collected Stories by William Maxwell = Illinois by Sufjan Stevens
35. My Happy Life by Lydia Millet = Sail Away by Randy Newman
36. Essays by Michel de Montaigne = Aion by Dead Can Dance
37. The Sharpshooter Blues by Lewis Nordan = Trouble by Ray LaMontagne
38. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien = What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye
39. Esther Stories by Peter Orner = Brilliant Corners by Thelonious Monk
40. Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars by Daniel Pinkwater = Flood by They Might Be Giants
41. The His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman = Hounds of Love by Kate Bush
42. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson = My Life by Iris DeMent
43. Inherited Disorders: Stories, Parables & Problems by Adam Ehrlich Sachs = Dataplex by Ryoji Ikeda
44. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by José Saramago = Faith by The Cure
45. The Dragon Griaule by Lucius Shepard = Beast Box by Luxuria
46. Argyll: A Memoir by Theodore Sturgeon = The Execution of All Things by Rilo Kiley
47. The Neighborhood by Gonçalo M. Tavares = Upsy Daisy Assortment by XTC
48. The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis = Low by David Bowie
49. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy = The White Album by The Beatles
50. Stoner by John Williams = Laughing Stock by Talk Talk
— December 24, 2021