[Eric]

Saliocomma,y'r a real pissartist,man,but I'll answer seriusly,cos thats wot u wont,nada bulshitt,juss fax:

My tastes in books have been developed over about 40 years. They developed as follows (in sketch form):

1) School. A sprinkling of English authors such as Hardy, Lawrence, Shakespeare, Austen, George Eliot, T.S. Eliot, and a few others. Discovered Gerard Manley Hopkins on my own. Plus Gide, Camus and Mann in French and German.

2) University (UEA), where I read Swedish. Strindberg was one of my big discoveries there, especially his late plays. Also got to know about German Expressionism and Modernism in general, e.g. Kafka. Found Gombrowicz after they staged a play by him. Read Wallace Stevens and Emily Dickinson.

3) Year abroad at Åbo Akademi, Finland. Introduced me to Finland-Swedish literature. Several authors, mainly poets initially.

4) Year in Kraków, Poland, immediately after university. Discovered Schulz and Witkiewicz.

5) Several years in Sweden. Read relatively little. Sat in the student club and drank beer and wine. But did mix with literary people. Discovered Lesmian about that time.

6) Discovered Dutch and Flemish literature. As I can read Dutch, this skill came in rather useful. Authors such as Vestdijk, van den Broeck, van de Woestijne, Hemmerechts, Boon, and a few others.

7) Discovered Estonian literature. This goes on until the present day, not least because I've translated five books from that language: Kross, Unt, etc.

8) Was told about Anthony Powell by a friend. Read the whole Dance suite. Like him.

9) Recent discoveries come from Finland-Swedish, Swedish, Flemish, Estonian literature, plus Charles Morgan.

That's about it, if you want a kind of overview. But I've read other authors as well, including Norwegian ones, Orwell, poetry in various languages.

So, no fucking list, but something in that direction. I've listed the authors that have meant something to me.