Siri Hustvedt’s 10 Favorite Books

No one can agree about what Heraclitus actually meant or how to characterize his philosophy. This is promising for desert island reading because I could spend hours puzzling over just one of riddles.

I refer to the philosopher often and would need him on my island, too.

Lots of exciting stories, poems, and mysteries for a stranger in a strange land.

Although it was published in 1605, this hilarious and brilliant book seems to contain all the possibilities of the novel in a single volume.

Kierkegaard’s ironies have driven me crazy for many years, but I crave them anyway. Every time I read it, this novel as philosophy or philosophy as novel never stops producing new meanings.

This diabolical work of fiction is so complex in its structure that I remain awed by it. I have no doubt that I could read it again and again and still not get to the bottom of it.

Dickinson has amazed me since I was 11 years old.

This extraordinary book takes you into a luminous mind at work.

My admiration for this book is complete. It is as beautiful, poignant, and ruthless as anything I have ever read.

Whitehead is a bold philosopher who fascinates me, but this book is maddeningly difficult. Weeks of reading and rereading might make it a wee bit easier.