You might expect that someone who spends his time watching, writing about, living and breathing theater 52 weeks a year would prefer to turn to other subjects when it comes to the pastime of leisure reading. Perhaps some molecular biology? And it’s true that for sheer diversion, or post-season recovery, I do try to avoid books that feel like homework. My new discovery – and obsession – is the British writer Angela Thirkell, who wrote more than a dozen frothy light comedies about English country life, many set in Anthony Trollope’s fictional Barsetshire.

But while reading about theater is also part of the job, it’s really a pleasure too. I recently found myself plowing through a pile of theater books to prepare for an interview with Eve Gerber of the Web site The Browser. The subject? The best books about Broadway. I was asked to choose five, and narrowing down the pile actually didn’t turn out to be as hard as I had imagined. There are some books I find myself returning to again and again, either for research purposes or simply for the satisfactions of the writing.

At the top of the list is Moss Hart’s wonderful autobiography, “Act One,” which should be required reading for anyone who either loves the theater beyond measure – or, conversely, is in danger of losing his or her love for the theater. “The Season,” by William Goldman, has attained a kind of classic stature as an in-depth look at a single Broadway season from the perspective of a writer with a frank style and opinions to spare. The newest book to join the canon of indispensable Broadway books is definitely “Finishing the Hat,” Stephen Sondheim’s first volume of collected lyrics, which is to be prized as much for his insights into his craft as for the lyrics themselves.

Perhaps for partisan reasons I wanted to choose a collection of theater reviews. There are several good volumes of Walter Kerr’s writings, but I went with Frank Rich’s “Hot Seat,” which collects the best of his work during his years as the chief theater critic of The New York Times, and like the Sondheim book is annotated with informative, insightful and sometimes juicily gossipy notes. To round out the list I chose Ken Mandelbaum’s “Not Since Carrie: 40 Years of Broadway Musical Flops,” whose subtitle pretty much says it all. If you’re interested in reading why these made the cut, check out the interview at the Browser.

I could have kept going, of course. Although theater has receded from the cultural front lines in the last couple of decades, new books about or by theater luminaries continued to be published with some regularity. The most recent such volume I read was Julie Salamon’s thorough, sympathetic and moving biography of Wendy Wassserstein, “Wendy and the Lost Boys.” Ms. Salamon provides a captivating look at the New York theater world in the 1980s, when Ms. Wasserstein’s career took off.

Many of Ms. Wasserstein’s wide circle of friends continue to be important players in the New York theater of today, giving the book an extra layer of immediacy. But it’s most to be cherished for bringing us a rounded portrait of a woman whose life was deeply engaged with her work, and whose work illuminated many aspects of her life.

Had I expanded my selection to include theater books not exclusively related to Broadway or Broadway figures, I might have included any number of other choices, from Kenneth Tynan’s fiery “Curtains,” or for that matter the revealing volume of his diaries that were edited by John Lahr. The seminal theater director Peter Brook has written insightful books about his inquisitive approach to creating theater, beginning with “The Empty Space.” And new theater books keep coming: Hal Holbrook and John Lithgow have just published autobiographies, and I’m interested in reading the new volume of Spalding Gray’s diaries that has just hit the stores.

Then again, as I turn from the computer to the vista of my living room, which is largely furnished with books – books on traditional shelves, books on those trendy upright tower shelves, books simply stacked up on the floor in neatly arranged piles that I desperately hope appear decorative – I realize that I am in danger of becoming an honorary Collyer brother and should probably begin the process of divestment. (Oops: three new Thirkells just arrived from Amazon.) Perhaps it’s time to make that Kindle leap?

Still I’d be curious to hear if you have any old or new favorite books about theater that might have escaped my attention, even if their acquisition might make it impossible for me to escape my living room