Paul McEuen's 6 favorite books

The Cornell physics professor has a fondness for Kurt Vonnegut's doomsday comedy and Bill Bryson's hilarious history of everything

Physics Professor Paul McEuen's just-released fist novel, "Spiral," was said to be "like something written by Michael Crichton in his prime."
(Image credit: Courtest Paul McEuen)

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (Dell, $15). Maybe the funniest doomsday thriller ever written. The idea for ice-nine, the dangerous substance at the center of Cat’s Cradle, came from Irving Langmuir, the Nobel Prize–winning chemist, who offered it up to H.G. Wells. Vonnegut dusted the concept off and turned it into a classic that defies categorization, a mashup of science fiction and satirical social commentary.

Marathon Man by William Goldman (Ballantine, $15). When I was in the 9th grade, my English teacher slipped me this classic about runner Babe Levy and his mysterious brother, Doc, setting off a lifetime of thriller reading. Goldman's versatility is amazing — how do you write Marathon Man and The Princess Bride in the space of a year?

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