If you want an interesting and varied reading list, ask a writer what to read! We asked longtime Library supporter and former Charlotte magazine publisher, now a Senior VP at Charlotte Center City Partners, for his top ten:

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
I’ve reread Gatsby at several pivotal times of my life. Once upon a time, Sun Also Rises was my favorite book by my favorite author. But, really, it’s because of this: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

And this: “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”

Those are (spoiler alert!) two of the greatest last lines in the history of literature.

Fates and Furies
My latest read. If the devil offers me a deal in exchange for the ability to write like Lauren Groff for only day, I may take it.

Why Should Anyone Work Here? by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones
I tend to read nonfiction during daylight hours and fiction after the sun goes down. I ran through a lot of pencil lead underlining passages of this book.

The Dip and Tribes
I’m new to the Seth Godin canon. The man provokes, in a good way.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon
Chabon is a prose stylist without parallel.

State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett
Patchett’s Bel Canto sat on our bookcase for years before I picked it up on a whim. It blew me away. So I read State of Wonder next. What’s more powerful than getting blown away? I don’t know, but that’s what this one did.

What Is the What, by Dave Eggers
Confession: I kinda want to be Dave Eggers. In this one, which had me spellbound, he seemingly without effort inhabits the mind of a Sudanese Lost Boy as he tells his story.

Underworld, by Don DeLillo
I’ve tried several times, but I’ve never finished this book. But the first chapter? It is dead solid perfect.