Night-Table Reading

Abel Ferrara, director: The Inferno of Dante: A New Verse Translation, by Robert Pinksy (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). "It's a lot like my movies: a journey to hell and back."

Sheryl Crow, musician: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, by Deepak Chopra (New World Library). "It's the essential handbook for spiritual living in unspiritual times."

Mossimo Giannulli, designer: The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran (Knopf). "In light of all the disturbing things that are going on in the world today, it is refreshing to go home at the end of the day and read something intelligent. "

Tem Brokaw, anchorman: "Stephen Ambrose's rich biography of Meriwether Lewis, Undaunted Courage[Simon & Schuster], Calvin Trillin's evocative Messages from My Father[Farrar, Straus & Giroux], and David Herbert Donald's biographyLincoln[Simon & Schuster]. It's a kind of character-study triangulation."