Glendale Library creates ‘Breaking Bad’ reading list
Going through “Breaking Bad” withdrawal? The Glendale Public Library has the antidote: a reading list inspired by the hit AMC show that ended on Sunday.
The list includes “Leaves of Grass,” the Walt Whitman book of poems that plays a key role in leading police to connect the main character, Walter White, to a massive meth operation and “Winter’s Bone,” a novel about another family in a financial bind that cooks and deals meth.
Library Arts & Culture Director Cindy Cleary said the list was inspired by the New York Public Library, which had created a similar reading list related to another popular AMC show, “Mad Men.”
“As always we want to promote reading and literacy so this is one of many ways that we do that,” Cleary said, noting that the library plans to do more pop culture-inspired reading lists.
Here’s the list as published on the Library’s Facebook page:
“Leaves of Grass”
Read the book that tipped Hank off to Walt. Besides the obvious connection to the show some of the poem titles have been used to title episodes.
“Killing Pablo”
Walt gives this book to his son Flynn after Hank is shot. See if you can find parallels between Pablo Escobar’s story and “Breaking Bad.”
“Difficult Men”
Is this a new golden age of television? Difficult Men looks at the antihero protagonists of Mad Men, Sopranos, The Wire, and most importantly Breaking Bad. You will get a behind the scenes look at the creative process of these shows and the way the producer’s vision shaped these shows.
“Desert America: boom and bust in the new Old West”
Over the last decade the West has undergone a political and demographic upheaval comparable only to the opening of the frontier. Now, in “Desert America,” a work of powerful reportage and memoir, Rubén Martínez evokes a new world of extremes: outrageous wealth and devastating poverty, sublime beauty and ecological ruin.
“Winter’s Bone”
Read about another family that resorts to cooking and dealing meth when their chips are down.
“To Die in Mexico: Dispatches from Inside the Drug War”
Get the real story of the drug war in Mexico. This book covers the political, social, and economic effects of the war on drugs.
-- Brittany Levine, brittany.levine@latimes.com
Follow on Google+ and on Twitter: @brittanylevine.
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