OK so you know when someone asks you what your favorite book is and you say something normal like "oh I love Elena Ferrante" or whatever? Cool. Cool cool cool. Valeria Luiselli does not do that.

Luiselli, who is a genuinely brilliant novelist and also the kind of person who makes you feel like you should be reading more, told The New York Times about her favorite obscure book. And it is Pliny the Elder's Natural History. Which is an encyclopedia. An ancient Roman encyclopedia. Thirty-seven volumes long, apparently.

This woman, when asked about her favorite obscure book, bypassed every single novel ever written and went straight for a Roman encyclopedia. I cannot stress this enough.

We don't know exactly what drew her to it from the interview itself, because the piece is really about Luiselli and her new novel Beginning Middle End (which is exactly the kind of title that makes you smile because of COURSE she would name her book that). But just the fact that someone's favorite obscure read is a thirty-seven-volume ancient encyclopedia... I'm obsessed with that energy.

We tend to think of favorite books as novels that changed us, stories that cracked us open. And Luiselli is out here choosing an ancient encyclopedia. The scope of it alone is so good. A thirty-seven-volume reference text from ancient Rome being someone's most beloved obscure read.

Anyway. Beginning Middle End is a real thing that exists and I am adding it to my list immediately. And I am adding Pliny's Natural History to my list too because apparently I have no self-control and also because if Valeria Luiselli says it's worth your time, that is enough for me.