- The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Kundera) - Heavy, brutally honest, beautiful.
- Ground Beneath Her Feet (Rushdie) - The most beautiful girl Salmon Rushdie can imagine - and a U2 soundtrack
- Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) - Whoa. Seriously beautiful and with Russian prose - of course there’ll be a happy ending… right?
- Ender’s Game (Card) - Every little kid wishes he was Ender.
- American Gods (Gaiman) - Shadow is the coolest big, giant oaf ever.
- Underworld (Delillo) - The closest thing I’ve ever read to what I’d call the “Great American Novel”
- Salt (Kurlansky) - Unabridged history of salt. Still one of the most interesting non-fiction books I’ve ever read.
- Future of Freedom (Zakaria) - Fareed was right - before it all happened.
- History of God (Armstrong) - Ex-nun who believes… but not what everyone else tells her.
- Atlas Shrugged (Rand) - Even though you’re a mean bitch… I may still like your book.
- The Subterraneans (Kerouac) - Written nonstop and high, in a weekend after the last two weeks. Poetry and Jazz.
- Fierce Invalids Back from Hot Climates (Robbins) - The CIA on rainforest psychedelics.
- Oryx & Crake - A healthy respect for evil genius.
- The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana (Umberto Eco) - See Unbearable Lightness of Being.
- Ulysses (Joyce) - “Because it was there.”