Philadelphia rockers mewithoutyou are beloved for their introspective, thoughtful lyrics and the spiritual elements they imbue into their music. So it should come as no surprise that a book written by an actual guru deeply impacted their fourth album, It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All A Dream! It's Alright, released last month.

Clues frontman Alden Penner reads a lot of books. And though he doesn't necessarily finish them all, the ex-Unicorns man says a wide variety of writing influenced the songs on Clues' self-titled debut. "[A] book I read recently was a history of the Mennonites in the Ukraine, because part of my background is Mennonite," Penner tells SPIN.com.

Artists like Gang of Four and Bob Dylan have famously referenced the work of Flannery O'Connor in their songs. So it was only a matter of time before a musician in our ongoing Book Club series would praise the Southern Gothic author, whose short stories and novellas made her one of America's most critically admired writers before her death from lupus in 1964, at age 39.

Usually the musicians talking about their favorite books in SPIN.com's ongoing Book Club series are lyricists and songwriters -- which makes sense because if you write the words, you're probably influenced by reading words. For this installment, we asked Westin Glass, drummer (and non-songwriter) for the Thermals, to recommend a novel.

Chris Conley -- longtime frontman of emo pioneers Saves the Day and, more recently, part of Two Tongues, his collaboration with Say Anything's Max Bemis -- discovered a book last month that he says has caused him to rethink his life: Jack Kornfield's A Path with Heart.

MC Lars, a self-proclaimed "post-punk laptop rapper," may be best-known for his fast-talking rhymes about Hot Topic stores and hipster girls, but the Bay Area musician is notably literary, and therefore a fitting participant in our ongoing series of musicians talking about their favorite books.