1) It’s A Hell Of A Life But Not A Bad Living by Edward Dmytryk:A candid memoir from a longtime Hollywood director who was a victim of the Black List in the 1950s.

2) Film Noir by Alain Silver & Elizabeth Ward:Excellent source book for American film noir.

3) Bridge of Light by James Hoberman:Spans the forty years in Yiddish films and brings that period back withastonishing poignancy.

4) The Rough Guide To Westerns by Paul Simpson:It does a good job covering a wide range of films from the Western genre that stretch from the early days to the present and also includes various things to know and enjoy about the genre for both those familiar and those less familiar with the Western.

5) Movie Wars by Jonathan Rosenbaum:Perceptive take on Hollywood by one of the best current film critics.

6) The Anarchy of the Imagination edited by Michael Töteberg & LeoA. Lensing: Covers interviews, essays and notes from the late German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. It helps make sense of the great filmmaker’s legacy.

7) Negative Space by Manny Farber: I think it’s my favorite book of film reviews. It might even be indispensable.

8) Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema by David Bordwell: I would be suspicious of a collection of film books that didn’t include at least one on Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu.

9) Classics of the Horror Film by William K. Everson: He was my teacher in film school. I never met someone with a better film collection, such a love for film and was such a classy guy with a generous disposition. As for the book, it’s a good intro into the classic Hollywood horror film.

10) Sculpting in Time by Andrey Tarkovsky: One of the most important directors of our time shares his visionary outlook, spiritual longings, observations of his films and his strong sense of Russian heritage. It’s a must read for the serious movie person.