The books that keep us reading

'Why I Read' by Wendy Lesser
'Why I Read' by Wendy Lesser
Book cover courtesy of publisher

Nineteenth century French writer Gustave Flaubert said "do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live."

It's this sentiment that inspired Wendy Lesser to write her latest book, "Why I Read: The Serious Pleasure of Books."

Lesser joined The Daily Circuit to talk about her lifelong love of reading and why she says it's a pleasure "like no other in the world."

Lesser, Kerri and callers talked about the books they hate to see end. Here are those they mentioned on the air:

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"Wolf Hall," by Hilary Mantel

"Ghostman," by Roger Hobbs

"David and Goliath," by Malcolm Gladwell

"The Professor's House," by Willa Cather

"The Swan Gondola," by Timothy Schaffert

"1984," by George Orwell

"A Voyage to Arcturus," by David Lindsay

"Major Pettigrew's Last Stand," by Helen Simonson

"Ender's Game," by Orson Scott Card

"Philomena: A Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty-Year Search," by Martin Sixsmith

"The Princess Casamassima," by Henry James

"The Tragic Muse," by Henry James

And a few that didn't make it onto the air:

"My Notorious Life," by Kate Manning

"Richard Pryor and the World That Made Him," by David Henry and Joe Henry "Pride and Prejudice," by Jane Austen

"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West," by Dee Brown

"The Abominable," by Dan Simmons

"The God of Small Things," by Arundhati Roy

"The Dresden Files" series, by Jim Butcher