"Back in high school, my best friend gave me a tattered paperback of Boy Wonder by the late/great James Robert Baker. We’d been into making movies, writing stories, and living imaginatively since kindergarten, and this gonzo, out-of-print novel about a young-madman-turned-Hollywood-super-producer had it all. Boy Wonder is the perfect summer read, a fount of crazed inspiration, laugh-out-loud funny, and to this day, one of the most seminal reading experiences I’ve had."

"I first saw this film on a Criterion laserdisc in the study center at USC. Fifteen years later (jeezus), if I had a favorite film, this would probably be it. In fact, I’ve just spent twenty minutes typing then erasing inane superlative descriptions of it. For me it redefined what a film could be-both singularly cinematic and as dense, delicate, and complex as a great novel. That was no less inane than the others, but I’m going to let it slide."

"Reading Their Eyes for perhaps the eleventh time, I am still amazed. .. that it speaks to me as no novel, past or present, has ever done; and that the language of the characters, that ‘comical nigger dialect’ that has been laughed at, denied, ignored, or ‘improved’ so that white folks and educated black folks can understand it, is simply beautiful. There is enough self-love in that one book – love of community, culture, traditions – to restore a world. Or create a new one."

"Set in post-Second World War Japan, this is a masterfully written novel by the British-Japanese author about ageing, solitude, art, memory and the endless tricks it plays on our minds… Ishiguro is the kind of writer who each time asks the reader to trust him, come along for a walk in an unknown territory, and if need be, change perspective. But he does all this with an unwavering modesty and quiet intelligence that only further contributes to his literary strength."

"’ve always been a big fan of le Carré’s books, ever since I read his 1968 novel, A Small Town in Germany, and I was quick to buy this, his latest. Anything I write here would constitute a spoiler, but suffice it to say it’s about spies, mid-life malaise, and a Europe on the verge of transformation. Let me just tease to the fact that there is an element of this book that readers disgusted with contemporary politics will find extremely satisfying."

"This is my favorite novel of the past decade. It’s so sexy, scandalous and hysterically depressing. It follows two conniving brothers as they pull of jewelry scams, take a ton of cocaine, sleep with hookers, and generally make questionable life decisions. It’s largely based on the writer’s own experiences, and after I read it I became sort of sexually obsessed with him, and would fantasize about him constantly. I eventually started sending him erotic messages on Facebook, but he never replied."

"A sensation—nothing less. This novel not only won the Booker Prize in 1981 but was honored as the Booker of Bookers in 1993. I identify with Rushdie’s imaginary echelon of children born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, when India was liberated. In its rich tapestry of storytelling, magical realism, and history, the book revealed Rushdie’s staggering talent. He turns the turmoil of India and Pakistan into a Tolstoyan panorama that is much funnier than War and Peace."