Hernan Diaz's Reading List

"Her syntactical inventiveness, her lexical surprises, her merciless yet somehow compassionate sense of humor, her absolute earnestness that never falls into didacticism make Williams one of the most important authors writing today."

"It's so unbearably good that I had to order another copy so I could read it again without the interference of my notes, as if for the first time."

"It pulverized me. This short novel... is one of the most beautiful reflections I've ever encountered on how we dwell in time, on how transcendence may be found in the mundane. Formally, it's unlike any other novel I've ever read. Stylistically, it's perfection."

"These two copyists are the flip side of Bartleby: If Melville's scrivener "would prefer not to," Flaubert's scribes seem to be saying "sign me up!" to absolutely everything."

"Oh, how I love Wodehouse! Ever-surprising in his repetitiousness, never failing to delight, always making us safe in his breezy world."

""When they went ashore the animals that took up a land life carried with them a part of the sea in their bodies, a heritage which they passed on to their children...""