This last quarter of 2014 we will read a novel that begins a very interesting trilogy, a strange and often disturbing book (which has pictures to support the text), a themed collection of short stories by an often overlooked writer, and a dash of Bizarro from the master.
That’s four books but none are too long or difficult. Besides, think of sitting alone in the evening waiting for Santa to arrive and casually reading about a bizarre Hungry Bug (what was that noise in the corner behind the electric fireplace?).
So, read all four; read one or two; or read other experiment fiction that you might be planning to read. Note also that I avoided anything obvious for the holidays, but there is always Sausagey Santa if you’re so inclined. Carlton Mellick III and the Bizarro crowd have some strange alternatives to quench your Christmas cheer.
XFX Selections for 4Q14
10-16:  Cities of the Red Night — William S. Burroughs
Cities of the Red Night is the first volume of William S. Burroughs’ final trilogy known as The Red Night Trilogy. First published in 1981, it is followed by The Place of Dead Roads and The Western Lands. The plot involves a group of radical pirates who seek their freedom to live as they chose and a parallel story follows a detective searching for a lost boy, abducted for use in a sexual ritual.
11-08: The Atrocity Exhibition — J. G. Ballard
The Atrocity Exhibition is an experimental collection of “condensed novels” by British writer J. G. Ballard. Though often called a “novel” by critics, such a definition is disputed, because all its parts had an independent life. The stories describe how the mass media landscape inadvertently invades and splinters the private mind of the individual.
12-01:  South of No North: Stories of the Buried Life — Charles Bukowski
South of No North is a collection of short stories by Charles Bukowski, the so-called “Poet Laureate of Skid Row.” The collection explores the loneliness and struggles on the fringes of society, and contains some of the author’s best work.
12-16: Hungry Bug — Carlton Mellick III
Bizarro creates a world that is like nothing you already know. In this gritty urban fantasy, everyone lives in fear of the spider people who prey on citizens like vampires. Do you like spiders?
A Celebration of Reading 