Chuck Klosterman is a senior writer at Spin magazine and the author of Fargo Rock City and Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (Signet, $9). People who are intellectual (but not necessarily smart) constantly insist that Rand’s philosophy is simplistic and flawed, and maybe it is; no philosophy is perfect. But she makes more sense that anyone else I’ve ever experienced. If you disagree with Atlas Shrugged, it basically means you disagree with the concept of “being great.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Trial by Franz Kafka (Schocken, $14). What I like about this book is its unwritten theme—we all know we’re guilty of something, even if we don’t know what that something is.
A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace (Back Bay, $15). This is kind of cheating, because it’s an essay collection. But this was the best book of the 1990s, and here’s why: Wallace doesn’t tell you what to think; he shows you how to think. I remember reading some of his sentences three times in a row, simply because I could not believe a human could be so smart and so funny simultaneously.
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (Picador, $15). If you ever find yourself in a conversation with someone who keeps insisting that this book is overrated, walk away—the person you are speaking with is trying to seem smarter than they actually are. These are the same people who claim that Led Zeppelin is overrated. It is difficult to fathom how someone could construct (or deliver) a more effective contemporary novel.
If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler
-
The 7 best police procedurals of all timeThe Week Recommends There’s more to cops and robbers than just nabbing the bad guy at the end of the show
-
Shutdown stalemate nears key pain pointsSpeed Read A federal employee union called for the Democrats to to stand down four weeks into the government standoff
-
Navy jet, helicopter crash half-hour apart off carrierSpeed Read A US Navy helicopter and a fighter jet both crashed in the same half-hour during separate operations
-
Gilbert King’s 6 favorite books about the search for justiceFeature The journalist recommends works by Bryan Stevenson, David Grann, and more
-
Nathan Harris’ 6 favorite books that turn adventures into revelationsFeature The author recommends works by Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McGuire, and more
-
Marisa Silver’s 6 favorite books that capture a lifetimeFeature The author recommends works by John Williams, Ian McEwan, and more
-
Lou Berney’s 6 favorite books with powerful storytellingFeature The award-winning author recommends works by Dorothy B. Hughes, James McBride, and more
-
Elizabeth Gilbert’s favorite books about women overcoming difficultiesFeature The author recommends works by Tove Jansson, Lauren Groff, and more
-
Fannie Flagg’s 6 favorite books that sparked her imaginationFeature The author recommends works by Johanna Spyri, John Steinbeck, and more
-
Jessica Francis Kane's 6 favorite books that prove less is moreFeature The author recommends works by Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie-Helene Bertino, and more
-
Keith McNally's 6 favorite books that have ambitious charactersFeature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
