Nic Brown is the author of the novels Floodmarkers (selected as an Editor's Choice by the New York Times Book Review) and Doubles (Counterpoint, June 15, 2010). His work has appeared in the Harvard Review and Glimmer Train, among many other publications. Starting in the fall, he will be a professor of English at the University of 
Northern Colorado.
On your nightstand now:
Stoner by John Williams. Have you read this book? It's not about a pothead, but rather a solitary professor in the Midwest in the early 20th century. Williams (no relation to the composer of the Star Wars theme song) paces it so expertly, trusting the reader on every page. There are no fireworks. Just precise prose detailing a devastating and lovely story.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Go ahead, laugh. I was way into it. Here's a line I can quote from memory: "Tasslehoff's topknot bobbed."
Your top five authors:
In no order: James Salter, Graham Greene, Denis Johnson, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway.
Book you've faked reading:
Paradise Lost. Oh Lord. I tried.
Book you're an evangelist for:
The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It's the one book I always feel confident recommending. How can you not get totally hooked? It's literary, it's a thriller, it's written beautifully. Well, my Dad didn't like it that much, actually. Or my office mate, come to think of it (she never told me if she finished). But I'm standing behind it. Go, read!
Book you've bought for the cover:
Third Edition Columbia Encyclopedia, 1963. Giant brown tome with a gold crown embossed on a red spine. It looks both incredibly important and sort of pitiful in a very lovable way.
Book that changed your life:
Jesus' Son, by Denis Johnson. Proved you could be heartbreaking and hilarious and really very weird simultaneously.
Favorite line from a book:
"When it rains, I keep dry underneath a toadstool."--I Am a Rabbit, Ole Risom (illustrated by Richard Scarry). It's funny to think of the amount of time I spend reading children's books to my daughter. Hundreds and hundreds of hours. But this one never gets old. The author Matthew Vollmer gave it to me as a gift, and I hereby officially thank him.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. When I read the last line, my brain almost exploded. I can never put the pieces back together now.
