Death’s End by Cixin Liu
How did you come across the book? So, it‘s a Sci-Fi novel written by a Chinese author who is the first Chinese author to win the Hugo Award for Sci-Fi; a very famous Sci-Fi award. This is the third book of the trilogy. So it’s um… it’s really great. I listen to a lot of […]
A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
How did you come across the book? I was back home in the Philippines when I first saw a copy of the book and it seemed interesting to me at the time but, I wasn’t… I just wasn’t at the point where I wanted to purchase it because I was reading a few other books […]
The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth
How did you come across the book? My friend who is also a very avid reader was purging her quite enormous book collection… she ran out of space… and she decided to announce anyone feel free to take through so, I purged her shelves and just saw what was interesting and I grabbed it actually […]
Salvation on Sand Mountain by Dennis Covington
How did you come across the book? It was assigned to me by my class. That is, ‘Spiritual Autobiography‘ at The New School. So far, what perspective have you gained from it? Oh! The perspective of the religious… intensely Christian in the south… there are snake handlers, which I’ve never heard of before. And so, […]
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
How did you come across the book? So… I…. I’m the director of a nonprofit. Its a national nonprofit I started 37 years ago here in New York City. I now lead the Dallas office, so… I’m from New York originally, but I’m back here for a trip to see family, kids and retreat from […]
Difficult Loves by Italo Calvino
How did you come across the book? I was, uh… bookstore hopping, in the city. I just moved here. So, I was trying to find a favorite, and it was super esthetic, and um, so I decided to take a chance on it, and bought it. That’s it. I can’t tell you what bookstore it […]
Ice by Anna Kavan
How did you come across the book? Umm… I saw the cover of the original. I think I saw it in a used bookstore… its a much better cover than this version. This one looks kinda like Twilight or something. Yeah. The original, it was published in the 60s, and its a really nice black […]
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
How did you come across the book? I was sitting in this park actually, saw the bookshop over there and I thought, “Well, I’m sitting here. I want to read“, went in to the bookshop, and well, this book is actually a recommendation from a friend of mine, so I asked there at the counter […]
Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
How did you come across the book? It’s the basis of a TV show; Outlander. So, this is the third book in the series. So, I decided to read all the books. So far, what perspective have you gained from this book? Almost done. 875 out of… over 1000 pages! I think its interesting because […]
Afrikan People and European Holidays: A Mental Genocide, Book Two by Ishakamusa Barashango
How did you come across the book? Well, I was down south for the holidays. I was in Virginia. I left North Carolina on… my sister lives in North Carolina… I left there Christmas Day to go to Virginia. I left Virginia Thursday and I’ve been in New York since. So, my brother had it […]
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
How did you come across the book? It was recommended to me by two of my closest friends, on tour, three years ago. So far, what perspective have you gained from this book? Well, what’s cool is I just finished reading another book called, “The Power of Your Subconscious Mind” by Joseph Murphy… and finding […]
The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck
How did you come across the book? Uh… a friend lent it to me. So far, what perspective have you gained from this book? It’s amazing! Well, maybe you know it… maybe you’ve read about it. It’s set in the 1930s, Great Depression, where a lot of people in the South of the US were […]
A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
How did you come across the book? I was at my girlfriend’s house, um… and, I saw the book on the shelf, and I was like, “Hey, I watched the series, so might as well read the book!” And, yeah… that’s how I found myself reading it. I asked if I could borrow it and… […]
Willing Slaves of Capital by Frederic Lordon
How did you come across the book? It was recommended by a friend. So far, what perspective have you gained from this book? Well, uh… I’ve got a very new perspective towards capitalism. Yeah… it is… I’ve learned to admit the fact that we are all, slaves in a way… willingly though. Because, the system […]
Fendre l’armure by Anna Gavalda
How did you come across the book? I bought it in France before I left to come here. And, I don’t know… bought it because I know the author, I’ve read a lot of her books and I really like them. It’s easy to read and, this one, it’s just like a bunch of novels […]
A Western World by Michael DeForge
How did you come across the book? Uhh… I like DeForge’s work… its by Michael DeForge. So, I liked his work anyway, and I kind of found it spontaneously when I was shopping. The colors of one of the covers of his books just like called me out, so then I bought this book and […]
The Bible
How did you come across the book? Someone handed it to me in charity. They gave me it. So far, what perspective have you gained from this book? The first book I read in The Bible is Jobe. It’s the trials he goes through. I see it as sort of my trials in my life […]
The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick
How did you come across the book? … I have no idea! I don’t remember. Probably… graduate school? I may of come across it… oh, you know what… OK… I remember, sorry! This was recommended to me by Rob Spillman who’s one of the editors at Tin House News, also a sometimes professor at Columbia […]
Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain
How did you come across the book? Uh, I read his first novel… ‘Kitchen Confidential‘… and so, found there was a next one, and decided to read the rest. So far, what perspective have you gained from this book? I guess the shift that the author went through from, you know… well, the first book, […]
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
How did you come across the book? Ohh, that’s a good question! Uh… I was looking up comedy related books… and than this is like… this was just suggested on a Google search… on like Amazon and stuff, so… and I’ve heard about it, so I was like, “Ah OK, maybe it time.” So, yeah. […]
Over the Edge of the World by Laurence Bergreen
How did you come across the book? Well, I’ve read it before. One of my friends in Hawaii gave it to me actually. So far, what perspective have you gained from this book? Uh, I’ve gained a lot of interesting knowledge actually. It’s kind of like a text book, but it’s still like storybook, so […]
Playing The Piano For Pleasure by Charles Cooke
How did you come across the book? Um… I’m a musician, so I just pick up as much literature as I can on music and try to extract from it what I can to serve what I do play. My mother does estate sells back in Long Island… she cleans out houses and a lot […]
In the Still of the Night by David L. Golemon
How did you come across the book? The first book I read by him was called, um… ‘The Supernaturals’… and this is part two if it. He has a lot of other books out that I just haven’t gotten around to yet, but ‘The Supernaturals‘ was the first. So far, what perspective have you gained […]
Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore by Stella Duffy
How did you come across the book? Truthfully? I work in the same building as Penguin Publishing, and there’s always free books in the mailroom. Yeah! That’s how I came across it. So far, what perspective have you gained from this book? Well… its mainly about a woman who is just trying to find herself… […]
The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
How did you come across the book? Funny you should ask! I’m actually in a book club, and I am about to meet them… um, pretty soon. This was a book that someone else chose. It’s only like five of us, but one of them picked this book for the month… and I’m just about […]
The Tin Drum by Günter Grass
How did you comes across the book? Oh! I go off into Strand, and I simply like to read… I just… I guess lately I like to read European authors… and he’s German; I’ve never heard of him actually, and realized that he actually received a Nobel Prize for literature. This was his first book… […]
Visibility Marketing by David Avrin
How did you come across the book? I came across the book a few weeks ago at… Strand Bookstore. I’m a business person… an entrepreneur… and marketing is everything… and so, I looked in the column… the row that marketing books were, and I came across this one. And one thing… one of the reasons […]
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
How did you come across the book? Umm… I was… how did I come across this book? I think I was reading a review of another book… it was a fantasy book… and it mentioned this one, which is the first in a trilogy, and it described as… like, “Harry Potter for adults”… so I […]
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
How did you come across the book? This is a book my father read to me as a child… a lot of sweet memories… some of the best memories of childhood is my dad reading to me as a kid, so I thought I’d re-read this one. So far, what perspective have you gained from […]
Positive Discipline by Jane Nelsen Ed.D.
How did you come across the book? Because I needed to read it for work, so it’s a good tool to learn how to work with kids. So far, what perspective have you gained from this book? It shows that there are many ways to be kind, and to be strict with kids, and you […]
George, Nicholas and Wilhelm by Miranda Carter
How did you come across the book? It was probably an internet search… my mom is housebound so I buy a lot of books for her and she’s interested in history, so… and I’m interested in history, so… I think I just came across it and it looked interesting… and it is, very! So far, […]
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
How did you come across the book? Actually, I bought it in… is it World Aid? First Aid?… Goodwill! The american version! I’m actually on holiday and I just needed something to read… and, as I like a bit of Sci-fi, the description caught my eye… about a flu pandemic so, you know… very american, […]
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
How did you come across the book? I actually heard of the writer himself first from a friend of mine. He recommended to me a commencement speech from the same author called ‘This is Water’, and after reading that I decided to look at a couple of his fictional works because I prefer fiction over […]
The Martian Tales Trilogy by Edgar Rice Burroughs
How did come across the book? Well, I’m familiar with the seriesfrom a child… like, I read most of them in school and haven’t touched them… I’m up there so… since like, junior high. So, you know, 20 years later! I was in Barnes & Noble and I was just like, “You know what? I […]
Aristotle’s ‘Nicomachean Ethics’
How did you come across the book? It was a book that has been on my list because I’m really interested in Stoic Philosophy; I really like reading Plato and Aristotle and all that… and so I hadn’t read this one… and so I put it on the list! So far, what perspective have you […]
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
How did you come across the book? This was on one of my reading lists when I was in high school. I had like a hundred contemporary classics that I wanted to read through, and a hundred like “Classic Classics” that I wanted to get through… I don’t remember what my lists were titled… but […]
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
How did you come across the book? So… I’m an avid movie watcher and a good friend of mine, Amy, put me into the movies years ago. At first I was like, “No, I’m not watching this cause I don’t want to be a part of the system! And everybody’s obsessed with these things!” And […]
Consider the Lobster and Other Essays by David Foster Wallace
How did you come across the book? This is my roommates book actually, and he’s traveling in Europe so I borrowed it while he’s gone… and I’m in love with it… it’s great! So far, what perspective have you gained from this book? Well… David Foster Wallace’s writing is amazing… his style, if you’re not […]
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
How did you come across the book? Well it’s really famous… I mean, it’s considered one of the great american novels… so I knew about it. It’s one of my very good friend’s favorite book… and everyone kind of shits on it for being like a really liberal, douche-bag kind of book and I was […]
Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas
How did you come across the book? Well, it was written as sort of a poetic radio play by Dylan Thomas. Strangely enough it was first performed here in New York City in 1953. He was Welch but, uh… he occasionally came here and he lived here… in fact, he was a terrible alcoholic and […]
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
How did you come across the book? You know what? I’m a big Miyazaki fan… I don’t know if you’re familiar with him or not. He is an animator and makes movies… and he turned this one into a movie a while back. But… I’ve seen the movie a couple times, and you know what?… It […]
Korea, Women, Graphic Designers 11
Korean Text: ??, ??, ??? ???? 11 How did you come across the book? Umm… well… I’m on Twitter now and then and I follow designers… female designers… and it was something that was being mentioned often, so I kind of wanted to check it out. Here I never get to find Korean books, so whenever […]
Boundaries of the Soul by June Singer
How did you come across the book? First of all… I am studying psychology… and second, I love parapsychology. So, this book is about that… so, that is why I read it. One chapter focuses on reincarnation and I am just now looking at that chapter. So far, what perspective have you gained from this […]
Not Exactly Ghosts by Andrew Caldecott
How did you come across the book? Umm… I was researching Victorian ghost stories… you know, like Christmas… like those scary ghost stories in that Christmas song. So I started just reading different Victorian ghost stories around Christmas and it’s just been… kind of uh… sending me down a worm hole of all these different […]
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
How did you come across the book? In a thrift shop, I saw it and I thought… well my boyfriend likes this writer so I thought, “OK, this looks like a present for him.” But now, I started it myself! So far, what perspective have you gained from this book? Well… I’ve found interesting this […]
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
How did you come across the book? So, I was actually reading a review for Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ on GoodReads and one of the comments recommend Anthony Trollope’s ‘The Way We Live Now’. If you want to jump into a classic, without going for after ‘War and Peace’ this one is a nice step. […]
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
How did you come across the book? Well, today I was… I’m going to Italy on Friday, and I was looking for some books to read on the plane, but… I’m already almost half way through this! Anyways… so I saw The Reluctant Fundamentalist and it looked very interesting so I picked it up. So […]
The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir
How did you come across the book? Well, a long time ago I read another book by Alison Weir called ‘The Six Wives of Henry VIII‘… and that was a great book… sort of my first introduction to that period of English history… so I knew she was a good writer, and so when I […]
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
How did you come across the book? My husband has read it before… so he told me it was good. It’s a four part series book. So far, what perspective have you gained from this book? It’s about two Italian girlfriends who go through life… from when they first meet, when they are in middle […]
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
How did you come across the book? Hmm… number one… James Baldwin is one of my favorite authors and poets…and… I read this book first about 18 years ago, recommended from a friend of mine. I grew up in France, so… this book takes place… it’s by an African American author who has lived in […]
Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
How did you come across the book? Well… one of my teachers from school had told me about this book… he actually gave this one to me. So yeah, here we go… this is the bookI am reading for now. He had told me that it was interesting… and so far it is. So far, […]
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
How did you come across the book? “That’s a good question… umm… I think it came up on my GoodReads. I’m on GoodReads and I think one of my friends marked it as a book he wanted to read so I checked it out and added it to my list.” So far, what perspective have you […]
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
How did you come across the book? I watched the movies and fell in love with them. I read The Hobbit in middle school and hated it honestly. But, I am the sort to read the book if I dig the movie… and I really dig the movies! So far, what perspective have you gained […]
The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald
How did you come across the book? “I was actually in Richmond… where I’m from… and I saw it in a used book store that I use to frequent in college… but, I heard about it through another book I was reading; Known and Strange Things by Teju Cole. So far, what perspective have you gained […]
Notes From Underground & Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoevsky
How did you come across the book? “Well, I just decided that I wanted to start with something, you know… when I was about to start reading something in the English language… I wanted to start with a classic, so I decided to start from the East; from the Russian literature. He is, as they […]
The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat
How did you come across the book? “There is this book store cafe in Ridgewood called Topos…I was wandering the aisles and I stumbled upon it there and I bought it; that’s it.” So far, what perspective have you gained from this book? “The whole thing behind the book is that the author…the narrator…is kind […]
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
How did you come across the book? “I came across American Psycho… well I had seen the movie when I was a bit younger, and I don’t think grasped everything that the movie was about. And now, I was in the Strand bookstore, right off of 14th street, Union Square, and I saw it and said […]
Whistling Vivaldi by Claude M. Steele
How did you come across the book? “I’m a teacher and my school gave it to me to read.” So far, what perspective have you gained from this book? “Well, this guy is not… Oh, what to say! He’s not a great storyteller. It’s not necessarily what you would call a “good read”. But, it’s […]
“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” By Richard Feynman
How did you come across the book? “So, I told one of my friends about Richard Feynman, and I kind of droned on about physics for a good 15 to 20 minutes. She’s a very good friend of mine so she said “OK, I’m going to do something nice for him”… so she bought me […]
Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
How did you come across the book? “I’ve been a fan of Tim’s for a long time now and when the opportunity to see him live came up it was a no brainier. Back in December, as apart of his Tools of Titansbook release, he hosted and recorded a live podcast in front of an […]
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City Reads NYC 