I have an obsession with books about kids with Asperger’s syndrome. I like the way they think — it suits me. The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time by Mark Haddon is great. That and [Jonathan Safran Foer’s] Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close — they’re on a separate bookshelf. They don’t understand what the other books are saying by their facial expressions, but they’re perfectly lined-up.
Q: As a lover of Russian literature, who would you say your favorite Russian author is? Thoughts on Dostoevsky vs Tolstoy?
A: Well, to say that Tolstoy Gogol and Dostovesky are the great novelists from Russia would be akin to say that William Faulkner, Mark Twain and Harold Robbins are the great American writers.
My 5 favorite books of 2020:
Antkind by Charlie Kaufman
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
Little Eyes by Samantha Schweblin
Weather by Jenny Offill
The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel
The first adult novel I read, and this is a favorite memory of mine, resulted from my grandfather — who was a voracious reader — taking me to Novel Idea in Tulsa, Okla., to pick up a book for school. As we headed to the checkout line he said, ‘Why don’t you pick out something to read for pleasure?’ I went to the Young Adult section, and he stopped me: ‘No, no. Go to the Fiction section.’ I was 12, and this was a big deal. The Fiction section is where all the books with sex and bad language lived. I self-consciously browsed the aisles, careful to avoid unwittingly picking up Fear of Flying or something, until I came to a paperback with a spooky cover. The title: Salem’s Lot. Description: Vamp...
The best non-fiction I've read is anything by Joseph Campbell. And probably the best fiction I've ever read was a Pulitzer Prize winning book called INDEPENDENCE DAY by Richard Ford.
Most books back then were awful and most books now are awful. The classics stayed on. Reading modern books is like you went panning for gold and had to go through a bunch of rocks to find one single lump of coal. Or, the way I do it, you just go into the store and they give you big bars of gold from the old days and you read those.
I loved the Great Gatsby. I can’t believe they did it in 3D. What the fuck? Dahrma bums. these are just random. My Travels with Charlie. Grapes of Wrath. Crime and Punishment. Slaughterhouse 5. All vonugut when i was a youngster. Catcher in the Rye. 9 Stories. SOmething by Thomas Mann I can’t remember. Heart of Darkness. I claudius. The Golden Ass. Hercules my shipmate. Fire from Heaven. Persian boy. The chronicles of narnia when I was a kid and now my daughters. TR biography. lots others.
I like to read funny books. I said Confederacy already but Don Quixote is funny and Lolita is funny. Just read Richard Price The Whites (not funny) but it was great.
I am currently reading almost everything I can - loving Spider-Man and Silver Surfer by Slott; bummed Fables is coming to an end; stuff by Jason Aaron is great, just read Ant-Man by Nick Spencer right before this started, and it really had that Superior Foes of Spider-Man feel. Currently re-reading Hickman's FF, which is so complex and well-thought-out, it frightens me from ever attempting something similar.
Johnny Carson
1984
Confession of an Economic Hitman
Kicking Through the Ashes
Feed The Beast
The Chitlin' Circuit
Callus On My Soul
Cheat: A Man's Guide to Infidelity
Among the Thugs
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Westies
Sweet Child of Mine: How I Lost My Son to Guns N' Roses
My Appetite for Destruction: Sex & Drugs & Guns N' Roses
Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN
Becoming Richard Pryor
The Bible
Flag of Our Fathers
I will always put "Here Comes Snoopy" by Charles Schulz first because my dad gave it to me when I was seven and I stayed up all night reading it and it was the first book that made me laugh out loud
Fragments of a Journal by Eugene Ionesco Nietzche (bio by Walter Kaufman is a great bible for Nietzche) Socrates (books about him and Plato's works) I'm reading a lot of psychology, some by Koestler I read comic theory, THE HUMOR CODE is a good read, as is Koestler's act of creation and I've been reading a lot of The Far Side and R. Crumb stuff too.
Man's Search For Meaning by Victor Frankl
Grist For The Mill by Ram Dass
Shambhalla the Sacred Path Of The Warrior by Trungpa
The Shining!! by Stephen King
Lord Amberson Volt's amazing "Home Surgery Guide"
Donald Glover