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Famous people pick literary favourites

beer good

beer good

Well-Known Member
I thought this link was interesting:

Barnes & Noble Review: Guest Books - Barnes*&*Noble

Actors and writers pick their favourites. Apparently Neil Gaiman likes The Jungle Book (no big surprise), Stephen King reads Lord of the Flies (no surprise at all), Anne Rice reads Dickens and Tolstoy (riiiight) and Jackie Collins reads... nothing?

The question, of course, is how honest everyone's being. Anytime someone lists Fitzgerald and Dickens as their favourite books ever I become suspicious. I don't know why, really, but...
 
King goes on at length about Lord of the Flies in his novel Hearts in Atlantis and that's what compelled me to finally read the classic.
 
beer good said:
The question, of course, is how honest everyone's being. Anytime someone lists Fitzgerald and Dickens as their favourite books ever I become suspicious. I don't know why, really, but...
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Interesting link, beer good. I know what you mean about the urge to raise an eyebrow when people proclaim authors such as Dickens and Tolstoy as their all-time favourites. I think it's to do with wanting to look knowledgable (though obviously Dickens will be some people's favourite).

This made me think back to one of the first lessons on my course, where we were asked who our favourite authors were. An alarming number of people merely said "I like reading 'the Classics', you know... Jane Austen/Charles Dickens" and I'm pretty certain those were the only two authors that came to mind. I think this was partly due to being put on the spot but also to save face - no one on a literature course wants to admit to reading anything that might be regarded as 'fluff'.

I love that Jackie Collins is just left blank :lol:
 
Truthfully, I thought The Fountainhead getting a recommendation from Chelsea Handler was stranger than Anne Rice's comments about Dickens. Not that I don't believe Handler; I never would've guessed she was a Rand fan.

Anyway, thanks for posting this. I like learning about others' tastes in fiction/literature.
 
dollymixture said:
Interesting link, beer good. I know what you mean about the urge to raise an eyebrow when people proclaim authors such as Dickens and Tolstoy as their all-time favourites. I think it's to do with wanting to look knowledgable (though obviously Dickens will be some people's favourite).
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So it's possible to like Dickens but Tolstoy is pretentious?

I love Tolstoy and do not care a farthing about they way my reading taste make me look.And i think i'm not alone here to think that way about Tolstoy.

I like Pelecanos choices,specialy Fante,and i aready love his choices of musics in his book.Great soul and soundtracks from Ennio Morricone.

Bourdain is a bit obvious in his choices and so is Jamie lee Curtis but i'm really fond of her since a scene in "Trading places".....
 
saliotthomas said:
So it's possible to like Dickens but Tolstoy is pretentious?

I love Tolstoy and do not care a farthing about they way my reading taste make me look.And i think i'm not alone here to think that way about Tolstoy.
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That was merely an oversight. If I could edit my post I'd put Tolstoy in too, I just didn't think. It wasn't any comment on what I think of Tolstoy, or of those who read him.
 
Thanks for noticing -- and Jackie Collins DID pick books

Hi all -- thanks for noticing Guest Books! It's a fun feature to put together.

I saw the note about Jackie Collins' picks not displaying and looked into it -- it was purely a technical glitch with the archive of past selections, and it's now been fixed. So if you go to
the Barnes & Noble Review: Guest Books (this forum won't allow me to post the link, but you can find it above) and scroll across the bottom to Ms. Collins' thumbnail, you'll see her recommendations-- in her case it's Puzo's The Godfather, The Great Gatsby (yes, her too), and a vintage piece of 1970's cultural satire that I had never before heard of, called The Dice Man by Luke Reinhart!

Again, thanks for noticing our feature -- FYI, next week you'll see picks from movie critic and author David Denby.

Bill Tipper
Managing Ed.
The B&N Review
 
Snork Maiden said:
How can you be suspicious of someone listing Dickens as a favourite?? He's the master!!!
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Because of what Dollymixture said above. Everyone knows that he's the "master." It's a safe answer to give if you want to appear cultured and well-read, the "right" answer that people learn in school. Even people who've never read Dickens in their life know that, even if their actual favourite novel is The Da Vinci Code or some other crap. So if thousands of people are going to read your list of favourite books, what do you do...?

Also, it's boring. Everyone already knows Dickens is great. If you're asked to list your favourite books, why not take the chance to plug some book that you love but that less people have heard of?

But obviously, some people will genuinely think a particular Dickens book is the single best book they've ever read. In which case I'm being unfair.
 
No surprise indeed with Stephen King. I remember him saying once in an Amazon interview that Lord of Flies is the book he wish he'd written.

I'm surprised though by Azar Nafisi's choice. One would have thought she would choose something by Nabokov !


*Thank you Bill Tipper for such a fun feature, Thanks also to beer good for bringing our attention to it.
 
Snork Maiden said:
How can you be suspicious of someone listing Dickens as a favourite?? He's the master!!!
Click to expand...

My favorite writer, Jorge Luis Borges, once created two lists of personal favorites, The Library of Babel & A personal Library. I believe he was the most erudite and well-read man of the 20th century, who read all the Great Classics. So I admire him even more for picking sadly unknown authors like Arthur Machen, Pedro de Alarcón and P'u Sung-Ling.

Anyone can know Charles Dickens. How many will know a 17th century Chinese writer?

By the way, Snork Maiden, is that a Moomintroll in your avatar?
 
It's not mentioned here but i know from reliable sources that Sly Stalone and Jean Claude VanDam are big fans of the Alchemist by Cuelho.
 
OF COURSE Anthony Bourdain would pick something by Hunter S. Thompson!:rolleyes:

I remember watching an episode of "No Reservations" in which his trip around Vegas was chock full o' "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" references.

Although, I am surprised to see "Lolita" right next to it. Never figured him for a Nabokov kind of guy. But what the hell would I know...I doubt anyone would figure ME as a Camus fanatic.;)
 
Would agree with "Beer Good"
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