Marlon and Jake share their "gateway" books by dead authors, the first books they read that that turned them on—or off—the rest of an author's work. From John Steinbeck to Dorothy Parker, Umberto Eco to Norman Mailer, Ayn Rand to Carson McCullers, Marlon and Jake don't hold back in discussing the imprints, footprints, and thumbprints these books left on them. They also ponder the long-lasting consequences of the high school lit class, whether a gateway book can be assigned, and the enduring power of dullness in a novel, no matter the century. Listen for this and more, including what Marlon and Jake think of The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara, edited by one Toni Morrison.
- The Pearl by John Steinbeck
- The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
- Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
- East of Eden by John Steinbeck
- Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
- The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls
- The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers
- Sula by Toni Morrison
- For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
- Night of January 16th by Ayn Rand
- The Fountainhead Ayn Rand
- Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
- A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
- The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
- Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez
- News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel García Márquez
- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
- The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel García Márquez
- Enough Rope by Dorothy Parker
- The collected poetry of Dorothy Parker
- The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
- Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco
- The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco
- In the hand of Dante by Nicholas Tosches
- Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer
- Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
- Miami and the Siege of Chicago by Norman Mailer
- Harlot’s Ghost by Norman Mailer
- An American Dream by Norman Mailer
- Why Are We In Vietnam? by Norman Mailer
- The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
- Look Back in Anger by John Osborne
- Loot by Joe Orton
- What the Butler Saw by joe Orton
- Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe
- "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" by Alan Sillitoe
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
- Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas hardy
- The Return of the Native by Thomas hardy
- Already Dead by Denis Johnson
- The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara
- The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara
- Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara