You may not know it from her shows — or standup gigs, or that 1992 spread in Playboy — but Sandra Bernhard is a sucker for history.
“I’m a little obsessed with Lincoln and John Kennedy,” she confesses. “I just reread William Manchester’s ‘The Death of a President’. . . you feel like you’re right there!”
On Wednesday, Bernhard will be right there onstage at off-Broadway’s “Circumcise Me,” at the Bleecker Street Theater. She’s doing a post-show talkback, but “I have no idea what I’ll be talking about,” she tells The Post’s Barbara Hoffman.
She does have firm ideas about what she likes to read — and how. “I know everyone’s into Kindle and reading books on the computer, but I still love the idea of going into a bookstore and browsing. I like buying books and supporting authors. I like handling a book and holding the paper.” Here’s what’s in her library.
The Humbling
by Philip Roth
I’ve read quite a few of his books. I read “Portnoy’s Complaint” when I was 12; I hid in the bathroom. It was such a seminal experience! . . “The Humbling” is about an actor who’s lost his way and hooks up with a young woman, a recurring theme in Philip Roth’s life. It’s very succinct and to the point. I think Al Pacino’s turning it into a film.
Manhunt
by James L. Swanson
This is a fabulous, riveting book about the days leading to the Lincoln assassination, the death of Lincoln and the capture of John Wilkes Booth. He describes how Lincoln was carried from the Ford Theater to a house across the street, and how the doctors in those days didn’t have gloves — they just put their fingers into his brain. It’s very visceral.
Beware of Pity
by Stefan Zweig
My girlfriend and I are really good friends with Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Gos, and she’s a voracious reader. She turned my girlfriend onto this book, and then I got it, and I couldn’t put it down. It’s a parable about a man who goes through a war and survives. It’s about getting duped, and then feeling sorry for the person who’d duped you.
Half Broke Horses
by Jeannette Walls
It’s based on her grandmother life in the Old West, her struggle and her survival. It’s a very personal and beautiful book.