The most recommended books about Las Vegas

Who picked these books? Meet our 39 experts.

39 authors created a book list connected to Las Vegas, and here are their favorite Las Vegas books.
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What type of Las Vegas book?

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Book cover of Leaving Las Vegas

Keijo Kangur Author Of The Nihilist

From my list on alienation and self-destruction.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always liked antiheroes and characters that are in some way doomed. To me, there’s something romantic about them. And over time I have come to replace the fictional protagonists of noir and horror with antiheroes from real life. With miserable authors who wrote about their own lives, where instead of gangsters or monsters, they waged battle against themselves, against their own demons and despair. Books like these have kept me company during some of the darkest periods of my life, and their unflinching honesty has inspired me to become a writer. Perhaps they can do the same for you.

Keijo's book list on alienation and self-destruction

Keijo Kangur Why did Keijo love this book?

The plot of this book seems simple enough. A guy goes to Vegas to drink himself to death, but whilst there, he develops a relationship with a prostitute. Now, if this were Hollywood, they’d end up eloping and starting a new life together. Yet, whilst there is indeed an excellent Hollywood adaptation of it starring Nicholas Cage, it is no less bleaker than the novel it is based on. A novel that was written by an alcoholic who killed himself and whose book was called a suicide note by his father.

Despite its sadness, however, the book is beautifully written. Aside from its doomed romance, it also has a romantic sense of being doomed, which I like.

By John O'Brien,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Leaving Las Vegas as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A re-issue of John O'Brien's debut novel, a masterpiece of modern realism about the perils of addiction and love in a city of loneliness.

Leaving Las Vegas, the first novel by John O'Brien, is the disturbing and emotionally wrenching story of a woman who embraces life and a man who rejects it.

Sera is a prostitute, content with the independence and routine she has carved out for herself in a city defined by recklessness. But she is haunted by a spectre in a yellow Mercedes, a man from her past who is committed to taking control of her life again.…


Book cover of Leaving Las Vegas

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