Michael C. Hall has spent much of his career inhabiting complicated men on the edge of things, from the quietly conflicted David Fisher on Six Feet Under to the murderous Dexter Morgan—roles that have made him one of television’s most compelling performers. A Tisch-trained actor with a substantial theater background, Hall has also worked extensively on and off Broadway, including turns in Cabaret, Chicago, Lazarus and Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
Sharing the books of his life with New York–based bookstore One Grand, Hall’s selections are searching, strange, darkly funny, and deeply human. From the conversational transcendence of My Dinner with Andre and the quiet profundity of Stoner to the tender recollections of I Remember and the ecstatic rage of I Hate the Internet, explore his reading list below, and dive into the book recommendations of other celebrated actors here.
Michael C. Hall’s Reading List
My Dinner with Andre by Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory
“This screenplay, a dialogue between an all too human aspirant and an imperfect guru, is unabashed, hysterical, grave, and unencumbered by irony or cool. Two men bound by their contemporary urban world and reaching for the transcendent. Over dinner on the Upper West Side. The roadmap for a singular film.” -MCH
Stoner by John Williams (also rec’d by Jamie Lee Curtis & Vivienne Westwood)
“The story of William Stoner, English professor, an unremarkable man by the standards of his world (early 20th century Missouri). Its plain and unerring truth is astonishing. Though undemonstrative and remote, I experience such a quiet and sublime intimacy with the protagonist. It’s a perfect novel.” -MCH
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (also rec’d by AOC, Jason Segel, John Green & Mark Duplass)
“It’s WORTH it. When I finished, I finally felt like I was ready to start. And did. His intellect is beyond beyond, but Wallace’s heart and instinct burn just as brightly. It’s a breathless and elliptical colossus of a book. (Don’t be discouraged by the foot notes! Just use two bookmarks.) I wish DFW were still here to break it down and distill the current moment, though IJ prophesizes it…” -MCH
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (also rec’d by Philip Seymour Hoffman)
“This novel, based on the story of King Lear and set in an Iowa farming community in the late 1970s, has a phenomenal narrator. Ginny never betrays her voice; she’s initially naive and always straightforward. Yet she manages to drop deft charges of insight on virtually every page. A devastating and gorgeous account of fathers and daughters, husbands and wives, toxic masculinity, corrosive secrets…and an abiding heroine.” -MCH
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer (also rec’d by Mayim Bialik)
“This clear-eyed inquiry contrasts the stories we tell ourselves about food with the reality of factory farming. Beautifully written and never proselytizing, Foer’s book is committed to a comprehensive assessment. It fortifies my commitment to veganism as much as anything I’ve encountered.” -MCH
Sex and Death to the Age 14 by Spalding Gray
“This compilation of Gray’s earliest monologues is heartbreaking and hilarious. Encountering the neuroses and contradictions Gray lays bare in this work gave me a permission I hadn’t yet been given: to accept and even celebrate mystery, mortality, and imperfection. To encounter these pieces is to be Gray’s vital witness. He needs you.” -MCH
I Remember by Joe Brainard
“This book is a gem. A memoir in the form of free-associative prose poetry, it’s deceptively simple and spare. Brainard’s collage of matter-of-fact remembrances creates a rich and tender portrait of the writer, his time and place, and magically mirrors the reader’s equivalent humanity.” -MCH
I Hate the Internet by Jarett Kobek
“With blatant disregard for what it ‘ought’ to be, this book is simultaneously exhilarating and devastating. It’s propelled by an ecstatic and acute rage that unmasks the insidious, mendacious, and pervasive web of technology, gentrification, racism, sexism, celebrity worship…” -MCH
White Girls by Hilton Als (also rec’d by Emily Ratajkoski & St. Vincent)
“These pieces are in their own unconstrained category. Als stokes the fires of contradiction and then carries you into the blaze. His luscious mind is somehow bold and keen enough to keep you from burning. Then, as your mind marvels, he shoots you through the heart. Again and again.” -MCH
“This graphic memoir is about becoming an artist, repression, liberation, death, the dichotomous feelings between parent and child… “Fun Home” takes you on a journey into the rich murkiness of Bechdel’s past. The fusion of her writing and illustrative skill make for a singularly vivid encounter. Devastating, hilarious, inspiring.” -MCH
(via One Grand Books)
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