Have we segwayed into "High Fidelity"? (I thought making "Top X" lists was the domain of insecure male egos.) I tend to read a lot of Brit Lit. I find the attitude refreshing, the characters more synical and the jokes funnier. Whether these books changed my life or not, still remains to be seen, but they were entertaining and worthwhile in their insights: Money, Martin Amis - a British ad man, known for his sexually exploitative commercials, tries to make it big directing a movie in the New York of the 1980s. Funny and inciteful -- still the best 1980s portrait of New York. Flaubert's Parrot, Julian Barnes - a divorced British doctor, and avid Flaubert enthusiast, searches through Flaubert's past (and not a little of his own) in search of, well, all sorts of interesting things. Full of lots of wonderful passages, including a list of mistakes most authors make, great argumentative passages and some of the funniest translations of French road signs ever! Part fiction, part literary essay. Wittgenstein's Nephew, Thomas Bernhard - not a Brit, but Austrian, this author writes these book-length monologues that are absolutely intoxicating in their sarcasm, wit, pain and sheer will. This one turns out to be a long rememberance of an insufferable friend who recently died. Others are about writers with writers-block, misanthropic socialites -- you get the idea. Very funny, very dark, with a unique voice all his own (even in translation). Adultery and Other Diversions, Tim Parks - one of the best essay collections I've read in years, due in part because he writes his essays like long stories. Within each story he muses on various topics, but as a result, you're swept along. Extremely well-written, full of incites and observations that make you stop and think. Now, what's your top ten favorite foods, and why?

1. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
Amazing juxtapositions of love and pain and war. And the struggle between love or art and money. Amazing character development, relationships. I feel in love with Chabon this summer. This is one of the best books I've ever read.

2. A Million Little Pieces / My Friend Leonard - James Frey.
Two memoirs written by an author before 35 years of age. Painful, brutal, and crude stories of stuggles with drugs, alcohol and rehab that still somehow leave you seeing hope and good in the world. Horribly depressing life stories that still end with happy resolved endings. James Frey was/is a recovering crack addict and drunk that still manages to find success in writing - First movies (His script was butchered and turned into Kissing a Fool and then memoirs. Story of a life that refused to die and refused to let anyone else save it.

3. South of the Border, West of the Sun - Haruki Murakami
I need to read more Murakami to really gain an understanding, but he uses beautiful language and recurring symbols to tell stories that aren't necessarily ground-breaking or even ones that give a reader closure, yet still manage to leave the reader feeling different after having read them.

1. Guns Germs and Steel 2. The Power Broker (biography of Robert Moses) and 3. How Does Aspirin Find a Headache. I haven't been reading ad books for a while--I like opening my mind to new things more recently. Guns Germs and Steel is great because it talks about a lot of issues throughout societies which include principals important when you're running a community with a few thousand crazy people in it. :)

Another book by Pirsig, the only other I believe, Lila was awesome. It was about many things but one of the most interesting was the relationship between Static and Dynamic forces in a culture--i.e. those that try to progress to some new uncertain position and those that fight to maintain the established equilibium. The Life of Pi is an amazing work of fiction about inventiveness and faith but not about religion and despite the title not at all about math. I'll stop at 2 to stop the impulse to constantly switch out books in favor of others... must check out Poetics of Space though. Thanks, Jeffrey!

The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard This is thick stuff but well worth the effort. Bachelard explores how our memory, imagination and our perceptions of space are intertwined with symbolism. You will see the world as a very different place. Below is a quote. "If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace".

"A Heart Breaking Work Of Staggering Genius" broke a lot of rules about fiction, such as having a memoir before reaching 30, using diagrams, and making your acknowledgements a good read. An oldie, "100 years of solitude" was storytelling at its finest, about coming full circle and letting fate take you away. I'm reading "Atonement" right now, in which Ian McEwan writes inspiring descriptions of people/places/events. I aspire to use analogies like him, to tear apart the world and then put it together in a new logic. I also read a John Wooden book a while back. John was a legendary basketball coach who really got the most out of his players and just seems to be a very positive person. Better than any Kotler book on management.

Wow that's a good question. So many books have moved me in so many small directions that collectively they outweigh the monumental ones. I have read almost all of William Gibson's work. I love his formula have multiple stories going at once and the predictions insofar as technology and personal enhancement have been earily accurate. Harry Crew's stuff (The Gospel Swinger, Feast of Snakes) are truly unique Southern Noire, and I have incorporated visually and conceptually the essence of those thoughts into some of my work. Then Bukowski's accounts of an insane person from a sane voice have taught me the beauty (and the hook) of juxtoposition. Path to Power – the LBJ Story is a good insight into the politics of power and generally a good lesson to learn about the business end of things.

But probably the top three monumental books are: 1: The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand. I am not a zealot regarding her works as many people are, but at that time and place in my life it was an important piece of the puzzle. And as an atheist, it was good to have fiction that dealt with the bigger picture.

2. Ham On Rye – Charles Bukowski. This is going to sound fucked up, but there are many parallels between his childhood and mine.

3. The Prophet – Kahlil Gibran. Again another book that at the time in my life struck a chord and still does.