Penn Jillette is one half of Penn & Teller, the world-famous magic act who headline at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. He is the author of God No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales and the novel Sock; and co-author, with Teller, of Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends; Penn and Teller's How to Play with Your Food; and Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic. His latest book is Every Day Is an Atheist Holiday!: More Magical Tales from the Bestselling Author of God, No! (Plume, October 29, 2013). In his spare time, he has made countless TV and film appearances, produced the movie The Aristocrats and been a guest on Dancing with the Stars and The Celebrity Apprentice. He lives with his family in Las Vegas.
On your nightstand now:
It's an iPad, so all of what I'm reading is on it. Always Moby Dick and the Bible. There's also Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature; Tenth of December by George Saunders; and Collins and Skover's Mania.
Favorite book when you were a child:
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I don't remember any real children's books--I guess Make Way for Ducklings.
Your top five authors:
Melville, Nicholson Baker, Christopher Hitchens, Samuel Beckett, Nabokov.
Book you've faked reading:
Anything by James Joyce.
Book you're an evangelist for:
God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens.
Book you've bought for the cover:
All the James Bond books when I was young.
Book that changed your life:
Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
Favorite line from a book:
I've got two:
"Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunk Christian." --from Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
"Personally of course I regret everything.
Not a word, not a deed, not a thought, not a need,
not a grief, not a joy, not a girl, not a boy,
not a doubt, not a trust, not a scorn, not a lust,
not a hope, not a fear, not a smile, not a tear,
not a name, not a face, no time, no place...that I do not regret, exceedingly.
An ordure, from beginning to end."
--From Watt by Samuel Beckett
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker. I was blown away the first time.