I haven't lost myself in a book in a while—I've been in a bit of a dry spell. I usually get books from friends whose taste I trust, and my dad did give me a subscription to the New York Review of Books this year. He likes it and thought I would, too. He's a voracious reader.

I have friends who read entire novels in the bath, and I'm not like that—I don't zip through books. But I invest in them completely. And I'm very interested in intimacy—how people relate to each other, what the inherent limitations are of choosing to love someone, and how we are very limited, actually, in our efforts to escape our loneliness. I think there is a strong sense of loneliness in all the stories I've picked. They're full of people who feel a bit abandoned. I don't know why I am drawn to that, but I am.

What's on Claire Danes' bookshelf?