Bunkobons

← All curators

Nathaniel Philbrick's Reading List

The author of "Valiant Ambition" has always wanted to meet Hawthorne: "Something profoundly disturbing must have happened to him at an early age. I'd like to know what that was."

Open in WellRead Daily app →

By the Book: Nathaniel Philbrick (2016)

NYT By the Book column (2016-05-26).

Source: www.nytimes.com

Cover of Bleak House
Bleak House
Charles Dickens · Buy on Amazon
"Charles Dickens's "Bleak House," which has the greatest opening ever written (and the plot and characters to go with it)."
Cover of How to Live
How to Live
Sarah Bakewell · Buy on Amazon
"A riveting biography reminiscent of an Iris Murdoch novel."
Cover of Endurance
Endurance
Alfred Lansing · 1959 · Buy on Amazon
"Alfred Lansing's "Endurance" and Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember." Those two books set the standard when it comes to dramatic, impeccably researched storytelling."
Cover of A Night to Remember
A Night to Remember
Walter Lord · Buy on Amazon
"Alfred Lansing's "Endurance" and Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember." Those two books set the standard when it comes to dramatic, impeccably researched storytelling."
Sailing Alone Around the World
Joshua Slocum · Buy on Amazon
"Joshua Slocum's "Sailing Alone Around the World" and Richard Henry Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast" are the yin and yang of classic books about the sea."
Two Years Before the Mast
Richard Henry Dana · Buy on Amazon
"Joshua Slocum's "Sailing Alone Around the World" and Richard Henry Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast" are the yin and yang of classic books about the sea."
Far Tortuga
Peter Matthiessen · Buy on Amazon
"Peter Matthiessen's "Far Tortuga" (it has a minimalist poetic quality that amps up the agonizing drama of the story)."
Middle Passage
Charles Johnson · Buy on Amazon
"Charles Johnson's "Middle Passage" (a book about the slave trade that has a lot of Melville and John Gardner — one of my favorite novelists — in its DNA)."
Outerbridge Reach
Robert Stone · Buy on Amazon
"Robert Stone's "Outerbridge Reach" (weirdly chilling in a "Secret Sharer" sort of way)."
Cover of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain · Buy on Amazon
"Huck's voice seemed so real, and the scenes on the river were mesmerizing for a kid from Pittsburgh."

Suggest an update?