Rupert Holmes's Reading List

"I recently decided to reread every novel I was obliged to read in junior and senior high. Each time, I've found myself thinking, "Oh, so that's what this was about!" The latest is a period piece: "1984." It made me wistful for my youth, when the distant future was something I could barely envision, instead of what I wake up to each day."

""Les Misérables." I and the title were as one."

""The Agony of Modern Music," by Henry Pleasants, altered the course of my life in high school by encouraging me, a classical musician, to embrace the "illegitimate" music forms of the day."

""The Thirty-Nine Steps," "The New Adventures of Ellery Queen," "The A.B.C. Murders," "The Complete Sherlock Holmes," "The Complete Father Brown Stories" and "I, the Jury." All before I turned 16."

""The A.B.C. Murders," "The Complete Sherlock Holmes," "The Complete Father Brown Stories" and "I, the Jury." All before I turned 16."

""The Complete Sherlock Holmes," "The Complete Father Brown Stories" and "I, the Jury." All before I turned 16."

"When I read "A Night to Remember," by Walter Lord, I put the book down when a lookout first sights the iceberg."