For me, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood is one of the most important books I’ve read and among the dozens of people I’ve urged to read it, there has never been a complaint. Capote is going through a renaissance, with two films about his life in the cinemas, and this is just recognition for a man who changed the face of American literature. In Cold Blood may be the first example of creative non-fiction, and even if he is accused of taking minor poetic liberties, it buttresses one of my central beliefs: True stories are always more stunning and emotionally moving than anything an author can imagine. On a personal level, the book opened a new perspective on my work. I was a crime reporter when I read it, and was sinking in the mire of empty murders and drunken car wrecks. Capote taught me these tragedies could be turned into something beautiful.

As my own book is an homage to George Whitman and his wondrous Shakespeare and Company, I would also suggest a copy of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. This is George’s favorite book and he considers himself a real-life version of Prince Myshkin. Set between a cold Moscow winter and the white nights of a St. Petersburg summer, it is a stark but enchanting look at idealism and love and what sometimes gets lost when they collide. I guarantee if you walk into George’s shop with a well-thumbed edition under your arm, you will be soundly embraced and offered a warm bowl of soup.

James Hilton’s Lost Horizon warms the heart with its vision of a purer, simpler world. A planeload of travelers from the West crashes in the mountains of Tibet, and then are miraculously rescued and taken to a remote valley high in the Himalayas. The travelers bring all the stresses and anxieties of the sophisticated, modern world with them—only to discover, as they grow accustomed to life in the magical valley, that a better way of life exists. They shed their cares as they join the community and contribute to its wellbeing. One of the travelers, a seeker, discovers that the community conveys not only the gift of inner peace and outward harmony but of extraordinary longevity.

But all is not well in the valley of Shangri-La. One of the travelers begins to doubt the authenticity of the claims made by the monks who govern the valley. He and his brother—the seeker—leave and return to the outside world, only to meet with danger and disillusionment. The seeker, true to the vision he has found in the Himalayan paradise, slowly makes his way back to that charmed zone of peace and hope. Lost Horizon is a modern fairy tale, and like all fairy tales, it lifts us out of our limitations and allows us to glimpse the paradise we could make—if only we would.