David Remnick's Reading List

"And, in case of imminent apocalypse, "The Code of the Woosters.""

"I loved Alex Ross's "Wagnerism.""

"Karla Cornejo-Villavicencio's "The Undocumented Americans" is an amazing debut."

"I finally got to "Hope Abandoned," the sequel to Nadezhda Mandelstam's "Hope Against Hope.""

"I finally got to "Hope Abandoned," the sequel to Nadezhda Mandelstam's "Hope Against Hope.""

"Rereading him was a way of lighting the candles on the cake."

"not long after Toni Morrison died, I realized that I'd never read "Sula"; not that it's news to anyone, but it's stunning."

"all my Russian friends thought of that novel as a touchstone, a phantasmagorical masterpiece soaked in vodka and its era, the Brezhnev era."

"Peter Guralnick's Elvis bio and his magnificent "Sweet Soul Music.""

"I do read an awful lot about music and musicians."

"A first edition of "Pale Fire" from my friend and editor, Henry Finder."

"Those works, read alongside more obvious works in English — from Orwell to Baldwin to Jill Lepore's "These Truths" — help keep alive the spirit of democratic values."