Episode · How I Write · 2026-10-21
Books mentioned on Dean Koontz: This Is What Mystical Writing Feels Like | How I Write
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David Perell discussed Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. Dean Koontz recommended The Blackboard Jungle by Evan Hunter, and discussed Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot and Ash-Wednesday by T. S. Eliot.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Outer Dark
Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy is a bleak, atmospheric early novel that follows a brother and sister navigating a nightmarish, hauntingly desolate landscape filled with mysterious violence.
Discussed“Cormac McCarthy, you go to his earlier books like The Worksheet Keeper or Out of God or any of that it's very strange but it's also as strange as it all is it feels utterly real.”
Where to get it
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The Orchard Keeper
The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy is the author's stark and atmospheric debut novel, set in a remote Tennessee community and noted for its bleak portrayal of rural life and human isolation.
Discussed“Cormac McCarthy, you go to his earlier books like The Worksheet Keeper or Out of God or any of that it's very strange but it's also as strange as it all is it feels utterly real.”
Where to get it
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The Road
The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a bleak, post-apocalyptic novel that follows a father and his young son as they walk across a burned America, striving to survive while holding onto their morality.
Discussed“And when he started drifting away from that when he wrote No Country or Furlough Men or The Road and great books on their own but I kind of miss the way he used to write”
Where to get it
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No Country for Old Men
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy is a bleak, violent western thriller about a drug deal gone wrong and the relentless hunter pursuing the survivor.
Discussed“And when he started drifting away from that when he wrote No Country or Furlough Men or The Road and great books on their own but I kind of miss the way he used to write”
Where to get it
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The Blackboard Jungle
The Blackboard Jungle by Evan Hunter is a well-known novel that depicts life in an inner-city vocational high school.
Recommended“there was a writer named Evan Hunter it wasn't his real name but he was famous he wrote the blackboard jungle and a number of famous novels under that name and he was very facile but he also was excellent dialogue”
Where to get it
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Four Quartets
Discussed“well the number one with me was T.S. Eliot not the cat poetry so much it's the wonderful cat poetry and it's amazing that the four quartets or Ashland's Day are those probably read any of them hundreds of times”
Where to get it
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Ash-Wednesday
Discussed“well the number one with me was T.S. Eliot not the cat poetry so much it's the wonderful cat poetry and it's amazing that the four quartets or Ashland's Day are those probably read any of them hundreds of times”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (4) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“you have to fall in love with this book the friend of the family in this one the character is so immensely appealing the book is sent in the 30s and 40s”
“and there was a double challenge in the friend of the family because famous people keep coming into this story because the people who adopt this girl out of a freak show and give her a real life at the age of 19”
“and come up with something that never works and when you're at it while at least in my case you get the point is you have no idea what's going to sell or not sell”
“as a reader me as a writer that was an novel called intensity but I published quite a number you just got it's the clearest because I probably can give you the I have to ramble a little bit and tell story a little bit”