What Books Are on John Waters' Bookshelf?

Baltimore's native son John Waters is known for his outré tastes. The filmmaker is also famous for being a big lover of books. So one can only imagine what bizarro selections make up Waters' personal library. But...you might be surprised.

Image of John Waters via http://www.post-gazette.com

Waters, along with other celebrated artists and authors, have collaborated with New York's Strand Bookstore to curate literary collections that are collectively known as "The Author's Bookshelf." John Waters, comics artist Art Spiegelman, and authors Junot Diaz, Chuck Klosterman, Gary Shteyngart and many more have put together a selection of must-read books that can be seen (and purchased) in person at The Strand or online at the bookstore's website.

Looking online at John Waters' picks, I can that say some are hardly shocking: there's Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Film, by Jimmy McDonough; The Sluts, by Dennis Cooper; And I Don't Want to Live This Life: A Mother's Story of Her Daughter's Murder, by Deborah Spungen; and Inside Peyton Place: The Life of Grace Metalious, by Emily Toth. 

Yet there are other books from John Waters' bookshelf that, going by his often campy public image, I didn't think that he would be into, including: Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare, by Philip Short; The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, by Douglas Brinkley; and Stepin Fetchit: The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry, by Mel Watkins.

Introducing his picks, Waters says, "Here are books that will help you become a well-rounded, happy neurotic who can finally reject your own guilt and shame and embrace the outer limits of human behavior." I don't know about eradicating guilt and shame, but the books he chose will definitely enlighten you about the lives of outsiders, whether they're poor African Americans, ostracized authors, punk rock groupies, or makers of soft-core porn.

To see all of the choice selections on John Waters' "Author's Bookshelf," go HERE.

100 Notable New York Writers Who Are Still Living

New York City has long been recognized as an epicenter of the literary world. Home to numerous book publishers and the persons they attract - authors and editors, copy editors and proofreaders, book designers and booksellers, agents and publicists - New York is a veritable hotbed of big shots and up-and-comers in the book business. Flavorwire profiled those comprising the city's literati in its list of "New York's 100 Most Important Living Writers."

Zadie Smith

One of the reasons that drove Flavorwire to put this list together - aside from stirring up a bit of debate, I imagine - was a recent announcement made by Philip Roth. The much-lauded writer of Goodbye, Columbus, Portnoy's Complaint, Sabbath's Theater, American Pastoral, Everyman, and other impactful books stated in October 2012 that he was going to retire after more than 50 years of producing works of literature. News of Roth's retirement led Flavorwire to "look at some of New York City's most important writers, from Roth's contemporaries to his possible successors...taking into consideration their legacy, their publishing history, and their cultural relevance across the board."

Junot Diaz

Among those who Flavorwire listed in its "New York's 100 Most Important Living Writers" article are Junot Diaz, Zadie Smith, Chuck Klosterman, Patti Smith, Pete Hamill, Walter Mosley, Jonathan Safran Foer, Joan Didion, Gary Shteyngart, Paul Auster, and more. Despite some notable names being absent (I would have included Toni Morrison and Arthur Nersesian), the list is an impressive who's who of writers who are either from New York City or live in one of its five boroughs (although I'm guessing that most live in Manhattan or Brooklyn).

Chuck Klosterman

Besides presenting brief profiles of these writers, Flavorwire also interviewed some, asking questions including "How do you feel about Philip Roth retiring?", "Who is your favorite emerging New York writer?", and "What's next for you?" Their answers are touching, unexpected, and quite entertaining. (One of my favorite answers is Sam Lipsyte's response to the question, "How do you feel about Philip Roth retiring?" He said, "I didn't know you could." Writing, like any other form of creative expression, is an impulse that never stops nagging at you and therefore must be heeded. If Roth can turn that valve off, then good on him.)

To see everyone who made Flavorwire's list of "New York's 100 Most Important Living Writers," go to THIS LINK.

* All of the above photographs are from the Flavorwire article.