V. Raghunathan
Mark Twain’s quote “The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read” had a significant influence on me in my early years, which helped me take to reading seriously. More
Brave New World
Huxley’s best-known novel; a prophetic classic of speculative fiction that continues to resonate. More
Richard Fidler
Books have always excited me, and helped me place my tiny life in the great stream of events and ideas. More
Charlotte Gray
A book that influenced me and why: Middlemarch by George Eliot. More
Sanjay Suri
Why I read . . . Because I can live many lives in one, and travel many worlds in one. More
Bradley Trevor Greive
If not for My Family and Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell, I wouldn’t be a writer . . . mind you, I probably wouldn’t have had five treatments for rabies either. More
Michael Chabon
The first writer that I really fell in love with was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in particular his Sherlock Holmes stories, and the first story that I ever wrote was a Sherlock Holmes story. More
Rosemary Sullivan
I write out of compulsion. “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner,” as Alan Sillitoe remarked—the exhilaration and discipline of the run; the finish line unknown until you get there. More
Matt Haig
It sounds ridiculous, but reading saved my life. More
Barometer Rising
The first novel by MacLennan, one of Canada’s most significant novelists of the mid-twentieth century. More
Pallavi Aiyyar
I read to travel within and to range wide beyond my limited firsthand experiences. More
Emma Freedman
Why I read: To escape the everyday in worlds that wildly creative people invite us into, and to expand the mind. More
Lucy Hughes-Hallett
One life is not enough. More
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Hugo Award winner; widely considered one of the most enduring classics of modern speculative fiction. More
The Corrections
Winner of the National Book Award in 2001 and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2002. More
One Hundred Years of Solitude
This landmark of magical realism sparked a wave of interest in Central and South American literature. More