Hundreds of New York writers, actors, leaders, socialites, and a guy in a lion suit gathered at the New York Public Library last night for the 2008 Library Lions fund-raising dance party. This year’s honorees were playwright Edward Albee, illustrator Ashley Bryan, director Nora Ephron, and novelist Salman Rushdie.
Much of the fund-raising money will go towards the famous library’s book buying fund, so GalleyCat decided to ask party-goers about their favorite books–building a socialite bibliography.
Christina, a Columbia student, said her favorite book was Betty Smith’s classic, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. “It talks about life experience,” she said. “Everybody can relate to that.” Ally loved Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, while her friend Nell said Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game had been a favorite since middle school. Other favorites among the stylish crowd were Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera.
Finally, a publicist named Ellen cited Jeff Pearlman’s sports expose, Boys Will Be Boys, the Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty. “They really are out of control!” she laughed.