Hayden Anhedönia, the singer-songwriter better known as Ethel Cain, has built her distinctive sound around a world of Southern Gothic imagery, religious iconography, and deeply unsettling Americana. Since emerging with her early EPs, Cain has developed that world across the albums Preacher’s Daughter, Perverts, and Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, the latter serving as a lyrical prequel to her acclaimed debut.
But before becoming a modern cult icon, Anhedönia was an avid reader, growing up homeschooled in a Southern Baptist family in small-town Florida, surrounded by dense forests and foggy swamplands. Long drawn to the escapism of fantasy, she spent her childhood immersed in series like Redwall and Eragon. Speaking to Vogue on the books of her life, she said, “I remember being so painfully bored all the time, there was nothing I wanted more during the day than for everyone to go to sleep so I could turn my little flashlight on and read until 4 a.m”
Today, Anhedönia’s reading list stretches from Southern Gothic short stories and existentialist fiction to philosophy, meditation, and the creative process. From Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea to David Lynch’s Catching the Big Fish, explore her recommendations below, and check out the favorite books of other acclaimed musicians here.
Ethel Cain’s Reading List
Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock
“Knockemstiff scratches a specific itch I have for interconnected narratives circling a central location spanning multiple characters and time periods. I love when a story zooms in and out of a web because I’m just very intrigued by the reality of how we knowingly or unknowingly affect each other’s lives.” -EC
Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard (also rec’d by Marina Abramović)
“The core philosophy of the simulacrum spun up so many questions in my head about the way I live my own life and the way I change myself constantly with the cyclical nature of my own actions. It’s something that is applicable to nearly all facets of life and has shaped the way I view the world.” -EC
A Philosophy of Walking by Frédéric Gros
“This book has been a pleasant read because the act of walking has always been sacred to me, so it’s nice to see my feelings towards it expressed in words. Walking has been the core therapeutic measure that has saved me many times in my life when I felt like the world was crumbling around me, and I very much resonate with the perspectives Gros writes about.” -EC
Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre (also rec’d by Dave Eggers & Robert Smith)
“The older I get, the more intense my derealization gets, and I always find myself thinking about Nausea when little mundane corners of the world start to appear as shifted, peeling edges of reality. Existentialism is something I’d like to delve deeper into, but I also think it may drive me insane, so I think Nausea may be as far as I get for the time being.” -EC
Catching the Big Fish by David Lynch (also rec’d by Arianna Huffington & Cameron Diaz)
“This book is the one I enjoyed the most across touring. It’s very easy to get overstimulated and for my brain to feel bogged down, so this book was a very nice read as I practiced centering myself and my vision and my dreams in an attempt to stay focused on what truly matters and what I actually want. It made getting through the first leg of tour a lot easier than it has been in the past, which I’m grateful for.” -EC
(via Vogue; photo by Josefina Santos)