Fredrik Backman's 6 favorite books

Swedish novelist Fredrik Backman is the author of A Man Called Ove, the international best-seller that inspired an Oscar-nominated film, and the new novel Beartown. One of his six favorite books, as shared at The Week magazine:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

This was one of the first books that made me understand it was okay for literature to be silly and funny and stupid and hilarious. I assume that this life-altering experience at age 10 or 11 still shows in my writing today.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy appears on Jon Walter's top ten list of heroes of refugee fiction, Becky Ferreira's list of the six most memorable robots in literature, Charlie Jane Anders's lists of the ten most unbelievable alien races in science fiction, eleven books that every aspiring television writer should read and ten satirical novels that could teach you to survive the future, Saci Lloyd's top ten list of political books for teenagers, Rob Reid's list of 6 favorite books, Esther Inglis-Arkell's list of ten of the best bars in science fiction, Don Calame's top ten list of funny teen boy books, and John Mullan's list of ten of the best instances of invisibility in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue