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Below isNew Yorkercartoonist Roz Chasts list.
I prefer fiction to nonfiction and really like getting involved in a long novel.
A friend of mine said reading a long novel is like launching an ocean liner.
I like social satire and I love novels about money and social class.
I avoid books about either World War.
Or any war, really.
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I have read a lot of relatively recent novels that are wonderful too.
I loveDon DeLilloandGeorge SaundersandRachel Cuskand a million billion other writers.
And dont get me started on graphic novels and memoirs.
There is so much great stuff out there.
To paraphrasethe Stefon character fromSNL, Its got everything: love, illness, art, philosophy, religion … Its about love and ambition and social class and envy.
Its very American, in the best way.
Stern, by Bruce Jay FriedmanSternis about being Jewish in the American Dream suburbs in the 1950s.
Its very dark and very, very funny.
Maybe the funniest book Ive ever read.
The Talented Mr. Ripley, by Patricia HighsmithThis is a fascinating book about a sociopath named Tom Ripley.
Strange Life of Ivan Osokin, by P.D.
OuspenskyThis is a very odd book that I love to complete bits.
I read somewhere that the movieGroundhog Dayis based on it.
Its also set in New York City, an added plus for me.
The Sheltering Sky, by Paul BowlesA novel about a married couple set in North Africa.
Sad, frightening, fascinating.
LikeThe Great Gatsby, this is a book Ive read three times in my life.
Bleak House, by Charles DickensGreat characters.
A hilarious, biting satire of the British justice system.
Miss Flite and her birds!
And for illness buffs, theres smallpox!
