These are books that I found to be invaluable for my research of my novel. That, and I just like the excuse to give to my husband that I simply have to read them in order to pursue my dream and cannot do the laundry, dishes, cook dinner, etc. The first few are about forensic knowledge. Not only extremely useful, but really cool. Sometimes I’ll just read them for ideas.
These next books are just fascinating books that I’ve mentioned in blog entries. Inside the Criminal Mind is amazing. It gave me incredible insight and points out that sometimes the scariest part of being a criminal is not being evil. Criminals apparently just pretend to act like the rest of us.
And the books about jesters are just amazing. Not that many of them around, but these are the best. I’ve already talked about my favorites. (Check out the Fools and Jesters category.) I know I gave Beatrice a hard time at the beginning, but her book, along with Enid Wolford’s, have become the most important reference guides I have now. And my favorite part about reading books about jesters? The authors all have a sense of humor in their writing.
The Fool and His Scepter by William Willeford is a little dull, but still interesting in his approach.
The Fool: His Social and Literary History by Enid Welsford is the original (English) fool book. (I managed to find my copy on Amazon, but, as of this update, alibris.com also has a copy for sale.) It’s really a very cool book. It’s totally worth it. I originally got a copy from my library if you just want to read it once, but I had to have a copy of my own. She’s a bit stuffy and prim, but it’s still amusing to read her go on and on about how she’ll soon be donning the “cap and bells” herself if she keeps conjecturing on certain points. Like I said. Totally worth it.
And then there’s the elusive (and apparently never translated) Geschichte Der Hofnarren by Karl Friedrich Flögel. I really wish I could find a way to read this book. It feels like something is missing from my jester/fool knowledge. I do have a German friend…maybe I could talk her into a little translation on the side…
And then one of my favorites that I can’t believe I’ve never mentioned before is A World Lit Only by Fire.
Although its counterpart, Daily Life in the Middle Ages is also highly entertaining (and somewhat critical of Manchester…)
Also my favorite research book is the Writer’s Thesaurus from Oxford. Does a thesaurus count as a research book? No matter. Pretty fascinating…and funny, too, if you can believe that. The entries by David Foster Wallace are my favorites, but really–any will do. I’m all for dictionaries and such online, but I find myself turning back to this one more often than not.
