"Shawshank Redepmtion… I don’t know, it’s very uplifting and there’s something about it that motivates you, you know, and gives you that sense of “Let’s go and do it.” I’ve seen it like a million times. It’s kind of like a book that you can go back to and read again and again. I find it easier to go back to films than books, though."

"This has been on my list forever, but it’s been getting a lot of attention lately because of Todd Haynes’ excellent movie adaptation, “Carol.” It was the first novel about lesbians to have a happy ending, but it’s also a really unnerving and propulsive story, like all of Patricia Highsmith’s books. She originally published it under a pseudonym so it didn’t wreck her career."

"Beside Knausgård, Harstad is perhaps the best Norwegian writer right now. It’s about a young boy moving with his family from Norway to the USA, growing up there in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and so it’s an outsider’s look at American society, written with clinical precision and desperate humor. If you like thick, epic books like DeLillos' “Underworld,” this is probably up your alley."