Carlos Ruiz Zafón's Favorites

Some places on planet earth that cheer me up:

• Big Sur Coast, California
• Amoeba Records, L.A
• Cologne Cathedral, Germany
• The road from Nice to Montecarlo
• Powell's city of books, Portland, Oregon
• Pacific Coast Highway, from tip to bottom
• Queen Anne, Seattle, WA
• Broadway & Columbus, NYC
• Bryce Canyon, Utah
• Carmel Beach, California
• Acres of Books, Long Beach
• Sydney Harbor, Australia
• Jardins de Luxemburg, Paris

Dead fellows you should see and read frequently:

• Charles Dickens
• William Faulkner
• Charlotte Bronte
• John DosPassos
• Emile Zola
• Honore de Balzac
• Victor Hugo
• Alexandre Dumas
• Graham Greene
• Raymond Chandler
• James L. Cain

Composers that make Ipods the safest places on earth:

• John Williams
• Sergei Prokofiev
• Gerald Finzi
• J.S.Bach
• Harry Gregson-Williams
• Jerry Goldsmith
• George Gershwin
• James Newton Howard
• David Diamond
• Patrick Doyle
• Danny Elfman

A few films that can teach you more about storytelling than years of college:

• Blade Runner
• Jaws
• The Godfather Trilogy
• Schindler's List
• Alien
• Citizen Kane
• Ryan's Daughter
• Seven
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Chinatown
• ET
• L.A. Confidential
• The Color Purple

Critters I find cute and most people don't:

• Great White Sharks, Crocodiles, T.Rexes, Neapolitan Mastiffs,
• Carnivore
• Plants (I had one named Gertrude that captured and devoured huge spiders. I'm planning to get another one to feed it snobby people and fanatics of all sorts)

Indelible proof women are smarter than men:

• TO KILL A MOCKINBIRD by Harper Lee
• JANE EYRE by Charlotee Bronte
• THE FALLS by Joyce Carol Oates
• THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson
• THE WOMAN IN BLACK by Susan Hill
• WUTHERING HEIGHTS by Emily Bronte
• BURNING YOUR BOATS, complete short fiction of Angela Carter