Night-table Reading

Neal Travis, columnist:A House for Mr. Biswas,by V. S. Naipaul (Everyman's Library). "I go back to it every couple of years. Apart from being a masterpiece, it stops you feeling sorry for yourself"

Ron Howard, director: A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance,by William Manchester (Little, Brown). "Any book with the words 'orgies' and 'Pope' in the same sentence holds my attention pretty well. "

Juliana Hatfield, singer: I Can't Go On, I'll Go On: A Samuel Beckett Reader(Grove/Atlantic). "The language of this book transcends conventional forms—there's no punctuation—yet it transmits, heartbreakingly, my deepest thoughts. "

Eric Bogosian, performance artist, actor: Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas, by Jane Mayer andJill Abramson (Houghton Mifflin). "An amazing book all about the Machiavellian screws that turn our government. "

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