"I bought a copy of John Keats' complete poems, and it's a book I take with me everywhere. You don't always have to understand what he's saying. Someone said that you could open a volume [of his] at any page, and you're confronted with the most beautiful, luscious use of language of any poet!"

Books, says the sprightly British 19-year-old - who's giving a critically acclaimed (and briefly nude) performance in Broadway's "Equus" - are "an amazing resource" for a young actor: "If you're playing a character like Harry, you're acting [in] situations you've never approached in your own life," he says, reasonably. "You can draw on characters from literature to help."

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
I was the only person in my English class who really liked it. Even my teacher wasn't a fan. But it's one of my favorite books of all time.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
Hilarious! It's one of the few books that made me laugh out loud. I'd seen the film and the ending isn't the best, but I'm hardly one to criticize the adaptation of books into movies.

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
You can't get more English than P.G. Wodehouse. I'm a bit homesick, and it's a nice piece of home.

Velocities by Stephen Dobyns
A person on the street gave me the book because she heard I liked poetry. She [said] that he steps into a moment and really examines it. Modern poetry I often struggle with, but this is fantastic, really great stuff. It's kind of blank verse - marvelous, actually.