Bunkobons

← All curators

Zadie Smith's Reading List

The author, most recently, of “Swing Time” says the best gift book she ever received was from her dying father, who “gave me his copy of ‘Ulysses,’ along with the confession he had never read it.”

Open in WellRead Daily app →

By the Book: Zadie Smith (2016)

NYT By the Book column (2016-11-17).

Source: www.nytimes.com

Cover of Lincoln in the Bardo
George Saunders · Buy on Amazon
"if I have to choose only one, then it's "Lincoln in the Bardo," by George Saunders. A masterpiece."
Ottessa Moshfegh · Buy on Amazon
"Ottessa Moshfegh's razor-sharp short stories "Homesick for Another World""
Riad Sattouf · Buy on Amazon
"I tore through two volumes of "The Arab of the Future," by Riad Sattouf -- it's the most enjoyable graphic novel I've read in a while."
Kathleen Collins · Buy on Amazon
"I was moved, agitated and inspired by Kathleen Collins's rediscovered "Whatever Happened to Interracial Love""
Cover of The Return
Hisham Matar · Buy on Amazon
"I was moved, agitated and inspired by Hisham Matar's "The Return.""
Dana Spiotta · Buy on Amazon
"I've been meaning to read Dana Spiotta for years, and I'm so glad I finally did: "Innocents and Others" is terrific."
John Berger · Buy on Amazon
"John Berger's "Portraits" is among the greatest books on art I've ever read. I had a sort of spiritual experience with it."
Andrew Salkey · Buy on Amazon
"I remember it as the book that made me want to write. He was the most wonderful writer for children."
Cover of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Cover of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Muriel Spark · Buy on Amazon
"if I want a purely pleasurable morning where I don't need to do too much, then it'll be "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," by Muriel Spark. Not a lot of teaching happens on those occasions. It's just me sighing with happiness."
Hilary Mantel · Buy on Amazon
"if I want a purely pleasurable morning where I don't need to do too much, then it'll be "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," by Muriel Spark, or "An Experiment in Love," by Hilary Mantel. Not a lot of teaching happens on those occasions. It's just me sighing with happiness."
Roland Barthes · Buy on Amazon
"I was assigned "Mythologies" and "A Lover's Discourse," by Roland Barthes, and felt at once that something momentous had happened to me, that I had met a writer who had changed my course in life somehow."
Roland Barthes · Buy on Amazon
"I was assigned "Mythologies" and "A Lover's Discourse," by Roland Barthes, and felt at once that something momentous had happened to me, that I had met a writer who had changed my course in life somehow."

Suggest an update?