David Simon's 6 favorite books

David Simon is the creator of the 2002–08 crime series The Wire. His new six-part miniseries, Show Me a Hero, is about a desegregation battle in Yonkers, New York.

One of Simon's six favorite books, as shared at The Week magazine:

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

My nominee for the Great American Novel. Not because I want to argue down Huck Finn — I don't — but because Warren caught something so dark, hollow, and true in the populist affirmations that we Americans use to adorn ourselves and our works. Read it before every election cycle as a prophylactic.

Read about another entry on the list.

All the King's Men appears on Ester Bloom's top ten list of books for fans of the television series House of Cards, a list of the eleven best political books of all time, Gabe Habash's list of ten of the biggest book adaptation flops, David Blight's list of five outstanding novels about the Civil War era, Heather Brooke's top five list of books on holding power to account, Melanie Kirkpatrick's list of her five favorite novels of political intrigue, and H.W. Brands's five best list of books on scandals...in truth or just in print; Robert McCrum called it a book to inspire busy public figures.

--Marshal Zeringue