Before she was famous (“American Pie,” “Slums of Beverly Hills,” “Party Monster”) and infamous (a DWI, an eviction, drugs), Natasha Lyonne was reading books. Lots of them.
And yes, she says, growing up in an Orthodox Jewish home in Manhattan probably had something to do with that.
“When you’re in a house on a Saturday and [can’t] turn on the TV, you end up becoming a reader,” she tells The Post’s Barbara Hoffman. “I sought a lot of solace in literature as a child, and it’s definitely stuck with me.”
She’s winding up her second turn today as part of the rotating cast of off-Broadway’s “Love, Loss and What I Wore,” but her own reading style skews more dark than light. Here’s what’s in her library.
The Long Goodbye
by Raymond Chandler
“I like a nice easy mystery and I like to walk around pretending to be Philip Marlowe. It’s like walking out of a good movie at the Film Forum — my mentality’s changed. I love books that can change the way you see the world.”
Beneath the Underdog
His World as Composed by Mingus
by Charles Mingus
“I think that’s the best title, ever. I’m reading it concurrently with a Miles Davis biography — they’re the original troublemakers. They’ve seen it all.”
Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad
“I think I was 15 when I first read it. A man left with his own soul, going into the belly of the beast . . . I have a strange story, so somehow I found books like that comforting. As a young teenager, it seemed to speak my truth. I felt ‘Heart of Darkness’ helped make the world make sense to me.”
A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson
“I’m definitely one of these left-minded people, and there’s something about his voice that let me laugh while making me comprehend things my teachers at school could never get me to grasp. I loved conceiving of the world as a bigger place, scientific evidence that I’m not the center of the universe — a harsh lesson for any actress!”