Rumors to the contrary, Irvine Welsh didn’t write “Trainspotting” between breaks on his thesis. But it’s close: “I was doing an MBA at the time, and I kinda got into writing a thesis on equal opportunities and the public sector,” says Welsh, who left his native Scotland a few years ago and now divides his time between Miami and Chicago. “After that, I decided I could write the novel.” Buoyed by Danny Boyle’s ’96 flick of the same name and a killer cast led by Ewan McGregor, “Trainspotting” became a cult classic of druggy urban despair. Welsh followed it with “Ecstasy,” “Filth” “Porno” and now “Skagboys,” a sprawling prequel about the “Trainspotting” gang and their slide into hell-raising and heroin. Here’s what’s in hjs library.
Men at Arms
by Evelyn Waugh
This is one of a trio of Waugh’s war novels, featuring the upper-class Guy Crouchback. They’re kind of antiwar novels from an upper-class perspective, about a guy who got caught up in the idea of serving his country but became quickly disillusioned. Waugh is, along with Orwell, the greatest modern English novelist.
Tales from the Mall
by Ewan Morrison
This is an amazing book. It’s a novel, short-story collection, multimedia experience and a treatise on architecture, modern capitalism and consumerism. It’s also a quietly angry book: Read it and found out how we’ve all been conned. You can watch it great on a Kindle — it’s an interactive process, a very cleverly constructed book.
Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
I was quite young when I first read it, and I found it confusing: Each guy’s got like four different names. But once I got that, I liked the idea . . . It’s a masterpiece of morality, and its durability is the testimony to its qualities. It’s one book I pick up every few years.
Pimp
by Iceberg Slim
This is the most brutal, honest exposition of the ghetto sensibility. In some ways, Slim is more influential than Shakespeare. The music’s ubiquitous, and so are the clothing and style, and it all comes from the most vilified, dispossessed part of America. It’s probably the reason I became a writer and the reason why white people say “Yo!” — but don’t hold those things against it.