Labyrinths
An inspiration that never runs out of batteries for me. Shines a new light on everything; Borges follows no one’s rules but his own.
The Bear
I bought this for 50 cents at a garage sale when I was 17. The combination of story-telling and facility with the language blew my socks off. I immediately became an English major.
The Most Human Human
A book about the wild frontiers of chatbots reveals more than expected about what it means to be made of flesh and blood.
The Arrival
A wordless story about the immigrant experience. Peerless.
The Road
Who would have thought the Pulitzer Prize committee would fall in love with a post-apocalyptic tale with almost no dialogue? It’s clear why they did. Haunting for all the right reasons.
Invisible Cities
Mother’s milk for my own writing career. It’s a series of very short stories that are all about the same thing.
Plagues and Peoples
An early book that unmasked the deep influence of the invisibly small on the very large.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
A rare combination of perfect wordsmithery and limitless imagination.
Cosmos
Oldie but goodie. Changed my life as a child.
Last and First Men
Science fiction written in 1930. Describes the future of humans 2 billion years into the future. Boundless imagination.
SUM has been turned into an opera at the 
