Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told?
By: Jenny Diski
3.97
Format: 432 pages, Hardcover
A collection of the best of the indomitable Jenny Diski's essays, selected London Review of Books e…
Want to Read $ 9.99"Indolence has always been my most essential quality. ‘Essential’ in the sense that it is the single quality I am convinced I possess and by which I can be recognised and remembered, and also in the sense that I feel most essentially like myself when I am exercising it. I cannot recollect a time when the idea of going for a walk was not a torment to me; a proposition that endangered my constant wish to stay where I was. I imagine myself, child and adult, curled up in an armchair, reading and being told (as a child) or invited (as an adult) to go out and do something. I cannot think why a person sitting with evident contentment in an armchair causes the desire in others for their immediate activity."-Jenny Diski, Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told?
"Indolence has always been my most essential quality. ‘Essential’ in the sense that it is the single quality I am convinced I possess and by which I can be recognised and remembered, and also in the sense that I feel most essentially like myself when I am exercising it. I cannot recollect a time when the idea of going for a walk was not a torment to me; a proposition that endangered my constant wish to stay where I was. I imagine myself, child and adult, curled up in an armchair, reading and being told (as a child) or invited (as an adult) to go out and do something. I cannot think why a person sitting with evident contentment in an armchair causes the desire in others for their immediate activity."-Jenny Diski, Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told?
"Indolence has always been my most essential quality. ‘Essential’ in the sense that it is the single quality I am convinced I possess and by which I can be recognised and remembered, and also in the sense that I feel most essentially like myself when I am exercising it. I cannot recollect a time when the idea of going for a walk was not a torment to me; a proposition that endangered my constant wish to stay where I was. I imagine myself, child and adult, curled up in an armchair, reading and being told (as a child) or invited (as an adult) to go out and do something. I cannot think why a person sitting with evident contentment in an armchair causes the desire in others for their immediate activity."-Jenny Diski, Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told?
If you liked the nonfiction plot in Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told? by Jenny Diski , here is a list of 13 books like this:
1. Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days
By: Jeanette Winterson
3.95
Format: 293 pages, Hardcover
From the New York Times bestselling author of "Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?" comes an enc… read more
Want to Read $ 9.49Similar categories in Jeanette Winterson's Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days book and Jenny Diski's Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told?
- short stories
"Our memories change as we do."-Jeanette Winterson, Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days
"Most of us can only see the world we know."-Jeanette Winterson, Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days
"Love affairs are discoveries of new worlds."-Jeanette Winterson, Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days
"The future is not fixed unless we allow it to be so."-Jeanette Winterson, Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days
2. Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
By: Elizabeth Taylor , Paul Bailey
4.00
Format: 206 pages, Paperback
Librarian Note: An alternative cover for this ISBN can be found here On a rainy Sunday in Januar… read more
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"Abrió el libro, pero ninguna página parecía ser lo bastante potente para borrar la soledad que sentía."-Elizabeth Taylor, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
"La catastrofe de la vejez residía en no atreverse a ir a cualquier parte, en resignarse a perder la libertad"-Elizabeth Taylor, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
"If you don't praise people just sometimes a little early on they die of despair, or turn into Hitlers, you know?"-Elizabeth Taylor, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
"...pensaba en el amor y en sus espantosas desigualdades. Siempre hay alguien que ofrece la mejilla y otro que la besa."-Elizabeth Taylor, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
3. Two Serious Ladies
By: Jane Bowles
3.67
Format: 230 pages, Paperback
Eccentric, adventurous Christina Goering Meets the anxious but equally enterprising Mrs. Copperfiel… read more
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4. The Light of Day
By: Graham Swift
3.09
Format: None pages, Paperback
On the anniversary of a life-shattering event, George Webb, a former policeman turned private detec… read more
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5. The Hero With a Thousand Faces
By: Joseph Campbell
3.79
Format: 32 pages,
The first popular work to combine the spiritual and psychological insights of modern psychoanalysis… read more
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- nonfiction
- history
- psychology
6. Hotel du Lac
By: Anita Brookner
3.93
Format: 245 pages, Paperback
"Impeccably written and suffused with pleasing wit."--Newsweek In the novel that won her the Booker… read more
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7. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
By: Legs McNeil , Gillian McCain
4.19
Format: 488 pages, Paperback
A Time Out and Daily News Top Ten Book of the Year upon its initial release, Please Kill Me is the … read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Legs McNeil's Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk book and Jenny Diski's Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told?
- history
- nonfiction
- biography
- memoir
"Bob Gruen: La gente veniva da noi per farsi mordere, non per farsi accarezzare."-Legs McNeil, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
"Penny Arcade said: At that time, the DRUG world and the ART world ran through each other. (1971 - 1974)"-Legs McNeil, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
"Hippies survived Nixon, but punk caved in to Ronald Reagan, know what I'm saying? Punk actually couldn't take a good challenge."-Legs McNeil, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
"Ed Friedman: [talking about Patti Smith] One time she told me, "Allen Ginsberg thought I was a cute boy and he tried to pick me up, so I said, "LOOK AT THE TITS, ALLEN! NOTICE THE TITS!"-Legs McNeil, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
8. Outline
By: Rachel Cusk
4.20
Format: 488 pages, Hardcover
A woman writer goes to Athens in the height of summer to teach a writing course. Though her own cir… read more
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9. The Member of the Wedding
By: Carson McCullers
4.00
Format: 64 pages, Paperback
Twelve-year-old Frankie cannot understand why everyone disapproves of her idea of going on her brot… read more
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10. The Franchise Affair (Inspector Alan Grant, #3)
By: Josephine Tey , Robert Barnard
4.09
Format: None pages, Paperback
Robert Blair was about to knock off from a slow day at his law firm when the phone rang. It was Mar… read more
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11. Foe
By: J.M. Coetzee
4.67
Format: 127 pages, Paperback
With the same electrical intensity of language and insight that he brought to --and in so doing, d… read more
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12. Beyond Black
By: Hilary Mantel
4.80
Format: 360 pages, Paperback
A New York TimesNotable Book of the Year Colette and Alison are unlikely cohorts: one a shy, drab b… read more
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13. Sweet Days of Discipline
By: Tim Parks , Fleur Jaeggy
4.50
Format: 176 pages, Paperback
Set in postwar Switzerland, Fleur Jaeggy's eerily beautiful novel begins simply and innocently enou… read more
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14. Leaving the Atocha Station
By: Ben Lerner , Alva Dahl
4.54
Format: 253 pages, Paperback
Adam Gordon is a brilliant, if highly unreliable, young American poet on a prestigious fellowship i… read more
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15. Fingers in the Sparkle Jar: A Memoir
By: Chris Packham
4.02
Format: 424 pages, Paperback
Every minute was magical, every single thing it did was fascinating and everything it didn't do was… read more
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16. Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma
By: Claire Dederer
3.79
Format: 257 pages, Hardcover
From the author of the New York Times best seller Poser and the acclaimed memoir Love and Trouble, … read more
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- history
- memoir
- nonfiction
- criticism
- essays
"Biography used to be something you sought out, yearned for, actively pursued. Now it falls on your head all day long."-Claire Dederer, Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma
17. Roman Stories
By: Jhumpa Lahiri
3.80
Format: 224 pages, Hardcover
Rome—metropolis and monument, suspended between past and future, multi-faceted and metaphysical—is … read more
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- short stories
18. Unlawful Killings: Life, Love and Murder: Trials at the Old Bailey
By: Wendy Joseph
4.43
Format: 320 pages, Hardcover
Every day in the UK lives are suddenly, brutally, wickedly taken away. Victims are shot or stabbed.… read more
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- nonfiction
- history
- memoir
19. Exteriors
By: Annie Ernaux
3.57
Format: 91 pages, Paperback
Taking the form of random journal entries over the course of seven years, Exteriors concentrates on… read more
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- memoir
- biography memoir
- short stories
- nonfiction
- essays
20. Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out
By: Shannon Reed
3.71
Format: 336 pages, Hardcover
A hilarious and incisive exploration of the joys of reading from a teacher, bibliophile and Thurber… read more
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- history
- memoir
- humor
- biography memoir
- nonfiction
- essays
"I think, therefore, I cry..."-Shannon Reed, Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out
"Life is so much better with books than without."-Shannon Reed, Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out
"But reading! That I could do. When I read, I felt smart."-Shannon Reed, Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out
"The act of reading makes me feel safe. Not the book itself--but the exercise of running my eyes over the words. The translation from symbol into meaning. The direct, pleasant diction of the voice ins…"-Shannon Reed, Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out
21. 100 Boyfriends
By: Brontez Purnell
3.76
Format: 192 pages, Paperback
An irreverent, sensitive, and inimitable look at gay dysfunction through the eyes of a cult hero … read more
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- short stories
"You never stop looking like art to me"-Brontez Purnell, 100 Boyfriends
"I, being what one therapist jokingly referred to as a “clinical sex addict,"-Brontez Purnell, 100 Boyfriends
"I had fucked enough boys with Catholic damage to know that if he's wearing a crucifix, he's definitely a ho."-Brontez Purnell, 100 Boyfriends
"My only desire is to be desired. I feel like the whole equation cancels itself out and what it really means is I have no will—I can (at will) rip out all sense of self just so a boy can have one more…"-Brontez Purnell, 100 Boyfriends
22. The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World
By: Sarah Weinman
3.42
Format: 8 pages, Audiobook
7 Hours and 26 Minutes Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita is one of the most beloved and notorious novels… read more
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- history
- biography
- nonfiction
23. Disillusioned: Five Families and the Unraveling of America's Suburbs
By: Benjamin Herold
3.89
Format: 496 pages, Hardcover
Through the stories of five American families, a masterful and timely exploration of how hope, hist… read more
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- nonfiction
- history
24. Nobody Wants Your Sh*t: The Art of Decluttering Before You Die
By: Messie Condo
3.75
Format: 192 pages, ebook
Free yourself and your family from the f*cking clutter before you croak! Inspired by The Gentle A… read more
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- humor
- nonfiction
25. The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust
By: Elizabeth White
4.03
Format: 336 pages, Hardcover
The astonishing story of Dr. Josephine Janina Mehlberg—a Jewish mathematician who saved thousands o… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Elizabeth White's The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust book and Jenny Diski's Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told?
- history
- biography
- memoir
- biography memoir
- nonfiction
"People are not fully defined by either the best or the worst of their actions"-Elizabeth White, The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust
26. Mantel Pieces: Royal Bodies and Other Writing from the London Review of Books
By: Hilary Mantel
3.91
Format: 335 pages, Hardcover
A stunning collection of essays and memoir from twice Booker Prize winner and international bestsel… read more
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- history
- biography
- memoir
- short stories
- nonfiction
- criticism
- essays
27. Homo Irrealis: Essays
By: André Aciman
3.83
Format: 256 pages, Hardcover
The New York Times-bestselling author of Find Me and Call Me by Your Name returns to the essay form… read more
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- short stories
- nonfiction
- essays
28. Scaffolding
By: Lauren Elkin
3.86
Format: 388 pages, Kindle Edition
The story of two couples who live in the same apartment in north-east Paris almost fifty years apar… read more
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29. Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told?
By: Jenny Diski
3.97
Format: 432 pages, Hardcover
A collection of the best of the indomitable Jenny Diski's essays, selected London Review of Books e… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Jenny Diski's Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told? book and Jenny Diski's Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told?
- history
- biography
- memoir
- humor
- psychology
- biography memoir
- short stories
- nonfiction
- criticism
- essays
"Indolence has always been my most essential quality. ‘Essential’ in the sense that it is the single quality I am convinced I possess and by which I can be recognised and remembered, and also in the s…"-Jenny Diski, Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told?
30. Honey Mine: Collected Stories
By: Camille Roy
4.36
Format: 352 pages, Paperback
Honey Mine unfolds as both excavation and romp, an adventure story that ushers readers into a lesbi… read more
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- short stories
- essays
