Before his suicide in 2008, David Foster Wallace authored three novels, including ' Infinite Jest ' which Time magazine named among the All-Time 100 Greatest Novels (1923-2006). Wallace is praised for his short story collections and philosophical essays, such as 'This is Water,' given as a memorable commencement address at the Kenyon College graduation in 2005. What did Wallace himself like to read? Prior to his death, he contributed a list of his 10 favorite books to J. Peder Zane 's compilation "The Top Ten: Writer's Pick Their Favorite Books." His choices – ranging from spiritual to spine-tingling – might surprise you.

1. ‘The Screwtape Letters,’ by C.S. Lewis Lewis’s allegory portrays temptation as a sly tribe of demons whose sole function is to lead their “patients” astray. The plot unfolds through letters from an experienced demon, Screwtape, to a novice demon, Wormwood, advising Wormwood on the art of discouraging a human. The product of these humorous letters is an insightful commentary on the internal warfare of the human mind.



2. ‘The Stand,’ by Stephen King In King’s post-apocalyptic world, nearly the entire population has been wiped out by failure to contain an engineered super-virus. The plot follows parties of survivors as they are summoned to southwestern America by two figures. Mother Abigail, the embodiment of good, rebuilds a democratic society in Boulder. Meanwhile, the shadowy Randall Flagg uses fear to lead his Las Vegas colony. The antithetical groups are driven toward a final showdown.

3. ‘Red Dragon,’ by Thomas Harris Harris’s dark prequel to ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ centers around retired FBI agent Will Graham, who returns to crack the case of a crazed serial killer called The Tooth Fairy. Graham enlists the help of his last capture, the psycho cannibal Hannibal Lecter. However, Lecter is loyal to no one, and Graham struggles as the walls between his thoughts and those of the killer grow thin.

4. ‘The Thin Red Line,’ by James Jones Jones, a WWII combatant himself, wrote a trilogy of books to encapsulate the emotions preceding, accompanying, and succeeding the war. The second of these books is ‘The Thin Red Line.’ In the novel, the C-for-Charlie Company is fighting to survive in Guadalcanal, an island in the Pacific theater. Jones captures the physical and mental toll of battle as could only one who had experienced it first hand.

5. ‘Fear of Flying,’ by Erica Jong In the 1970's, Isadora Wing, a dissatisfied young wife, represented the uninhibited feminist psyche for an entire generation of readers. The indulgent, restless, and – above all – honest narrator travels to Europe where she conducts an affair. This affair represents her hopes for finally achieving the sexual, emotional, and intellectual fulfillment that has perpetually eluded her.

6. ‘The Silence of the Lambs,’ by Thomas Harris Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee, is ordered to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter in order to gain insight into the mind of a serial killer at large. Lecter, having great intellect and nearly supernatural psychological awareness, knows more of the gruesome case than he reveals to Starling.

7. ‘Stranger in a Strange Land,’ by Robert A. Heinlein Heinlein’s science fiction novel challenges paradigms of human love and religion through the fresh gaze of a Martian. After being abandoned by an unsuccessful Mars mission, Valentine Michael Smith is raised by Martians and arrives on earth with an alternate philosophy that asks difficult questions.

8. ‘Fuzz,’ by Ed McBain This installment of McBain’s 87th Precinct Mystery series weaves together three plots. The precinct pursues a political assassin and extortionist known as the Deaf Man. Meanwhile, bumbling thieves botch a robbery and an officer takes a dangerous undercover job in order to protect the city’s homeless from being doused with gasoline and ignited.

9. ‘Alligator,’ by Shelley Katz In Katz’s thriller, two men stalk a monstrous alligator through the Florida everglades, sustaining the same suspense and drama that made books like "Jaws" famous.