Welcome to Night Vale Reading List

I received a request to make a Welcome to Night Vale reading list (a “Summer Reading Program,” if you will) – a central place to find all books, plays, musicals, and other bits of literary reference which have been mentioned in the show.

I will put the list behind a Read More and keep it updated as more are mentioned in future episodes – this way, Read More links on reblogs will always take readers to the most up-to-date version of the list. 

If you have not listened to all episodes, you will see some spoilers below the cut.

Episode 4 - PTA Meeting:

• Cecil says that Susan Willman is dangerously obsessed with the New York Times best-selling "Freakonomics“ books.
• Michael Sandero is said to have gained the intelligence of a heavily-concussed Rene Descartes after being struck by lightning.
  

Episode 5 - The Shape in Grove Park: 

• The Night Vale Community Theater hold auditions for the musical ”Once On This Island,“ written by Lynn Ahrens and with music by Stephen Flaherty.

Episode 8 - The Lights in Radon Canyon: 

• Cecil invites you to stay tuned next for a broadcast of Eugene O'Neill’s classic play ”The Iceman Cometh.“

Episode 9 - PYRAMID: 

• The word from Night Vale’s sponsor is an ad for audible.com audio books. Titles mentioned are ”The Help“ (author not mentioned, but I believe it’s the book by Kathryn Stockett) and ”VangoNotes for Technical Communication 11/e.“

Episode 16 - The Phone Call: 

• Night Vale Daily Journal editor Leann Hart says that she will go to bloggers’ homes and chop them up – but will still follow the AP Style Guide.

Episode 24 - The Mayor: 

• Night Vale Community Theater is ready to open the production of "Once On This Island” that they announced auditions for in Episode 5 - The Shape in Grove Park.
• This reminds Cecil of when he played in a high school production of “South Pacific” (even though he played the title character from a different musical, “Pippin,” in the production).
• Cecil praises mayor Pamela Winchell for visiting schools to read Haruki Murakami’s “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” as well as books by Cormac McCarthy.

Episode 26 - Faceless Old Woman: 

• The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home mentions that she’s notating your copy of “Infinite Jest.”

Episode 28 - Summer Reading Program: 

• Cecil mentions that Tamika Flynn finished reading “Cry, the Beloved Country,” which he considers very impressive for her reading level.

Episode 29 - Subway: 

• The subway line’s slogan, “Oh, the place you will go,” is a reference to the Dr. Seuss book “Oh, the Places You’ll Go.”

Episode 36 - Missing: 

• During the weather, a helicopter crashes. Slingshots and stones are found nearby, along with a heavily-notated copy of “Death Comes for the Archbishop” by Willa Cather. Tamika has left a message in the book, underlining the phrase, “I shall not die of a cold, my son. I shall die of having lived.”

Episode 37 - The Auction: 

• One of the items up for bids is X-Men, Volume 1, Issue 3, from January 1964.

Episode 39 - The Woman From Italy: 

• The Woman From Italy sits on a bench in Mission Grove Park, reading Barry Hughart’s “Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was.”

Episode 45.5 - The Debate: 

• The City Council stands on a makeshift pyramid made out of charred copies of the official biography of Sean Penn (and, as it turns out, there is indeed an authorized biography called “Sean Penn: His Life and Times”).

Episode 46 - Parade Day: 

• Cecil states that the children learned how to fly helicopters by reading “Invisible Cities” by Italo Calvino, as well as short stories by Shirley Jackson.
• Before her arrest, Tamika Flynn waves a copy of “Life of Galileo” by Bertolt Brecht.

Episode 49 - Old Oak Doors Part A: 

• The cell that held Tamika Flynn is now empty, and she’s left a copy of Leonard Cohen’s “Book of Longing” with a bookmark laying across page 210 that has the phrase “I AM FOUND!” written on it.
• Tamika confronts Lauren Mallard with a slingshot and a heavy copy of the play “Look Back in Anger” by Joan Osborne (Lauren counters with a slingshot and a copy of the Strex Employee Handbook).

Episode 49 - Old Oak Doors Part B:

• Tamika Flynn urges Night Vale residents to take up the fight, arming themselves with slingshots and collections of short stories by Aimee Bender, or perhaps Milorad Pavic’s “Dictionary of the Khazars” (of which there are two versions, a male and female version, which are identical except for a single critical paragraph).
• If not arming with a book, Tamika recommends a rock, or the throwing stars that she says come with most copies of “McSweeney’s” (if you order any of those, don’t expect to actually receive throwing stars with your order).
• Cecil reaches for his own copy of Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” to join the fight.
• Tamika leads the teenagers, who chase everyone out of StrexCorp Headquarters with copies of Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

Episode 54 - A Carnival Comes to Town

• Cecil mentions the municipally-approved books: The Biography of Helen Hunt (nonexistant in real life as far as I know) and “all four” Dean Koontz novels (he has quite a bit more than four).
• Cecil mentions that in 1988, two copies of Pride and Prejudice were found in the library, leading to the annual “Cleaning of the Books” to find unauthorized books that may be in the library.
• Tamika Flynn urges Night Vale to protect its library, despite the danger, while waving her favorite copy of Helen DeWitt’s The Last Samurai.

Episode 55 - The University of What It Is

• The slogan used in the Outback Steakhouse ad, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law,” is a reference to the same line in Aleister Crowley’s Book of Law.

Thrilling Adventure Hour/Welcome to Night Vale Crossover

• Cecil uses the book One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez as an example to explain to Steve Carlsberg that just because something is in a book, doesn’t mean that it’s true.

The Librarian

• Children approach the Dog Park to take on the librarian armed with slingshots and well-worn copies of Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease.
  
• The children shout requested new additions to the library’s fiction stock as they give chase, including authors Maxine Hong Kingston, Larry McMurtry, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
• Tamika Flynn says that A Hero of Our Time might be a classic of Russian literature, but that it is useless against the hide of a librarian, but that Vladimir Nabokov’s translation of the book added several thousand blank pages and a carbon steel bullet-shaped duff jacket [actual book does not contain these things].
• Tamika quotes Indira Gandhi as saying “you cannot shake hands with a mangled fist that has been chewed up by an unchained librarian” – the actual quote is “you cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.”
• Cecil mentions that the librarians wouldn’t want Stephen King’s “non-fiction travel guide" The Dark Tower series to end up in the fiction section, nor would they want The Prince of Tides to end up in religious studies, as they consider it a sci-fi fantasy comic book.

Episode 65 - Voicemail

• When Steve Carlsberg leaves his voicemail, “A Wandering Star” from Paint Your Wagon is playing in the background.
  
• Tamika Flynn mentions that a copy of Night Film by Marisha Pessl is looking restless, and she’s worried that it will start a book stampede.

Episode 66 - worms…

• Cecil mentions that the new Night Vale Book Club will discuss controversies like whether Herman Melville really wrote all of the books he is credited with (like Moby Dick and Billy Budd, Sailor, for example), or just Fight Club (which was actually written by Chuck Palahniuk).
  
• This week’s book for the Night Vale Book CLub is said to be Helen DeWitt’s The Last Samurai – which was previously mentioned in Episode 54.

Episode 70A - Taking Off

• Kevin advises potential applicants to the radio station to re-read Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret in order to wish their resume into his office.
  

Episode 72 - Well of Night

• Cecil says in the Community Calendar that the Night Vale Community Players are holding auditions for a production of David Mamet’s 1992 play Oleanna – which was made into a 1994 motion picture. The production, however, will strip away all words and stage direction, hoping to use juggling and/or eating to get across an updated version of the story’s message regarding gender and power.
  

Episode 76 - An Epilogue 

• The entire episode is an epilogue for the Welcome to Night Vale novel, even though the episode came out five days before the novel did.
  
• During “a word form our sponsors,” Cecil asks who among us doesn’t have a copy of Kate Tempest’s Brand New Ancients or Annie Baker’s Vermont Plays hiding under our bed, buried in a box of linens.

Episode 77 - A Stranger

• The City Council expresses their displeasure with Dana’s plan by stomping to their rooms and blasting Rihanna.
• Cecil talks about how Lance, his receptionist, would dress up like his favorite documentary subject – the girl from The Ring.
  

Episode 78 - Cooking Stuff: Thanksgiving Special

• Earl Harlan mentions that his son Roger has adult-level reading skills, and is reading Emmanuel Kant for a book report despite being in elementary school.
  

Episode 79 - Lost in the Mail

• Bashirah’s father, in a message, asks if she remembers the song they used to sing to put her to sleep: Rush Rush by Paula Abdul.
  

Episode 80 - A New Sheriff in Town

• Cecil mentions having just picked up the soundtrack to a new musical about Alexander Hamilton.
  
• Cecil says that the A.P. Style Guide instructs reporters that acknowledgement of the existence of angels is illegal.

Episode 81 - After 3327

• Cecil relays a story from Nick Teller about a time he worked on a ship in Pennsylvania, but due to miscalculations the boat traveled through time and parallel universes instead of just becoming invisible. This is a reference to The Philadelphia Experiment.

Episode 82 - Skating Rink

• Teddy Williams (owner of the Desert Valley Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Complex issues a statement with Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock n’ Roll” playing in the background.
  
• Witnesses report seeing the City Council whistling Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby.”
• Hiram McDaniels mentions being allowed to watch part of a Lee Marvin marathon on C-SPAN. His green head calls “Death Hunt” Marvin’s finest work as an actor. Hiram’s gray head considers Lee Marvin’s role in “Gorky Park” to be one of his best, and the violet head prefers the movie “Cat Ballou.”
• Cecil warns listeners at the skating rink to stay in their hiding places, even if they play Pat Benatar.
• Intern Kareem rushes to the skate floor to skate to Janelle Monáe’s “Electric Lady.”
• Station Management and the City Council skate towards each other as Beyoncé’s “XO” starts playing at the rink.
• Coverage of the skating session ends with “Flash Light” by Parliament and Hanson’s “Mmmbop.”

Episode 83 - One Normal Town

• The sheriff voices their displeasure by singing songs from the Richard Foreman play “Film Is Evil: Radio Is Good” which was produced in 1987. I usually just link to Amazon here, but there’s just one very expensive paperback version of the play there, so here’s a link to a review from the New York Times that was published in 1987.
  
• It is announced that Ralph’s employees, as part of a new shopping system, will stand on the roof drunkenly chanting the lyrics to every Cat Stevens song in unison (until they run out of breath and can only mouth the words).

Episode 84 - Past Time

• Hiram’s violet head quotes Cecil’s favorite line from Die Hard (the line does not actually appear in the film).
  

The Investigators

• Carlos, in fantasizing about playing the role of a librarian, recommends Get What’s Yours: The Secret to Maxing Out Your Social Security by John Grisham to a reader (the book does really exist, though in our reality it was not written by John Grisham, nor is it a young adult sci-fi adventure novel as Carlos infers).
  
• Cecil references The Monster at the End of This Book, the well-known Sesame Street book (though it ends slightly differently in Night Vale).
• Tamika Flynn says that the militia of middle schoolers are donning bulletproof vests made from copies of Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon.Tamika says that she would prefer, instead of a murder mystery dinner theater, that the Secret Police would put on a great mystery tale like The Fault in Our Stars or The Time Traveler’s Wife, or James Joyce’s spy thriller Aerobee (I think – I couldn’t quite make out the title, and it doesn’t match anything I know of from Joyce), or The Phantom Tollbooth.
• Tamika says that they will crush evil under the complete seven volume hardback edition of Marcel Proust’s Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (there are actually eight volumes, and they were written by Beverly Cleary, not Proust).
• Cecil uses a special limited edition copy of The Giver by Lois Lowry to defend himself from attack.