1. Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges (1964)

2. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (1962)

3. Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini (1921)

4. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)

5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)

6. Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe (1836–47)

7. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust (1913–27)

8. Paradise Lost by John Milton (1667)

9. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez (1985)

10. The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler (1953)

Most of what gets labeled “entertainment” is really terrible. We get the entertainment we deserve. To me, being entertained is having your mind engaged with the work of art on multiple levels. So I think a lot of what gets passed off as entertainment really does not qualify for that definition. It’s merely diverting at most.

To be entertained by something is in turn to entertain it, like you entertain ideas, a kind of mutuality there that I think is part of my definition of “entertainment,” that you’re giving back to the work at the same time the work is giving to you.