We've heard them rave about their favorites and rant about their least favorites, but Marlon and Jake reveal in this episode their second favorite books by dead authors: the books they love that are the runners-up to the #1 spots in their hearts. From Amos Tutuola to Gabriel García Márquez to John le Carré and more, Marlon and Jake explore why one's favorite book by an author might not always be their best book, what separates an intellectual vs. an emotional response to a book, and the importance of being a promiscuous reader. (That’s right, promiscuous.) And what is the next book by a dead author Marlon and Jake will be reading together for the first time? Tune in to find out!

Select Titles Discussed:

Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
Darkness Visible by William Golding
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Shardik by Richard Adams
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Amos Tutuola
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
Shōgun by James Clavell
Airport by Arthur Hailey
The Moneychangers by Arthur Hailey
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by John le Carré
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré
The Honorable Schoolboy by John le Carré
Smiley’s People by John le Carré
A Perfect Spy by John le Carré
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Sula by Toni Morrison
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Blood on the Forge by William Attaway
My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber

Our Second Favorite Books by Dead Authors