Richard Ford's Reading List

"“A Writer at War” by Vasily Grossman. Grossman’s diaries and journalism from the Eastern Front. Riveting and immensely humane."

"Probably “Absalom, Absalom!,” Faulkner’s masterpiece. I read it when I was 19. It embossed into my life the experience of literature’s great saving virtue."

"My own book “Canada” made me cry the last time I read it. If it was any good, it should’ve."

"Beyond that, the very last book that made me cry was more than one poem in James Wright’s collected poems, “Above the River.”"

"Rick Brant science mysteries. That said, being dyslexic, I wasn’t a great reader when I was kid."

"Probably high on my list (though I don’t generally think of favorites), would be Cheever’s “Collected,” and Isaac Babel’s “Collected.” Eudora Welty, too."

"Probably high on my list … would be Cheever’s “Collected,” and Isaac Babel’s “Collected.”"

"William Trevor. Pritchett. “Dubliners.” Alice Munro. Deborah Eisenberg. Ann Beattie. Donald Barthelme. Mavis Gallant. Chekhov. There are some awfully good story collections around."

"“A Fan’s Notes,” by Frederick Exley."

"“The Glory of Their Times” by Lawrence S. Ritter. Pretty much any of Roger Angell’s collections."