if you liked that, read this

I have a lot of answers to the question I’m asked the most often (“how do you read so much?”) but they mostly boil down to one thing:

I have no other hobbies.

I lack the variety of attention span it takes to get through TV, I forget that movies exist for 11 months out of the year, my music taste is mostly songs I first listened to 2-4 years ago.

For this reason, I am unqualified to give recommendations within one medium. But I think I can cobble together a handful if I can draw from all of them.

Then you should read fascinating, allusion-rich literary fiction. One of my favorite things about reading is the chances it gives me to discover random Wikipedia holes — I love googling artists’ names, paintings, songs, old movies that are mentioned in books I’m enjoying. Here are four good ones:

• The Idiot by Elif Batuman: Introspective, slow-moving, learning-laden account of a freshman year at Harvard

• Outline by Rachel Cusk: Nearly all dialogue, but exclusively shared between interesting, knowledgeable people

• They’re Going to Love You by Meg Howrey: Full of art and cities and friendship and love, plus is sneakily historical. These days I only read historical fiction if I’m tricked into it, like a small child taking medicine.

• Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar: I still don’t love poetry, but I do love poets’ prose. This debut novel feels radical.