Patti Smith's Reading List

"She advised me to read more German authors," says the writer and singer, whose latest memoir is "Year of the Monkey."

By the Book: Patti Smith (2019)

NYT By the Book column (2019-09-05).

""Kingdom Cons," also by the Mexican author Yuri Herrera, floored me. His writing style is like nobody else's, a unique turn of language, a kind of poetic slang."

Star

Yukio Mishima · Buy on Amazon

""Star," by Yukio Mishima, is a startlingly modern, hypervisual jewel; it could be a really interesting movie. Both books were mesmerizing."

Pinocchio

Carlo Collodi · Buy on Amazon

"I would suggest "Pinocchio," by Carlo Collodi, for it contains the full arc of innocence and experience, encompassing love, betrayal, heartbreak, forgiveness, transformation and redemption."

The Thief's Journal

Jean Genet · Buy on Amazon

""The Thief's Journal," by Jean Genet, presented a genre that most connected with my early aspirations, a kind of autobiographical fiction, his chronicle having its own inherent truth."

The Death of Virgil

Hermann Broch · Buy on Amazon

"she also advised me to read more German authors, which led me to Hermann Broch's "The Death of Virgil," now a favorite book, always close at hand, a musical infinity of words."

Ariel

Sylvia Plath · Buy on Amazon

"I will always cherish the copy of Sylvia Plath's "Ariel" that Robert Mapplethorpe gave me shortly after we first met in 1967."

The Master and Margarita

Mikhail Bulgakov · 1967 · Buy on Amazon

"From the first page I was immediately beguiled, leading me to my year of reading Bulgakov, drawing me to venture to Moscow to seek out the landmarks in the book"

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum

Heinrich Böll · Buy on Amazon

"I like Katharina Blum, the person of interest in "The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum," by Heinrich Böll. I can't say why but she fascinates me, having read this book at least seven times and still can't pin her down."

The Glass Bead Game

Hermann Hesse · Buy on Amazon

"I could not dwell in the obscure streets of Patrick Modiano or follow the ascension of Joseph Knecht as the Magister Ludi in "The Glass Bead Game," by Hermann Hesse."

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