Frasier Crane is a pompous psychologist who moves to Seattle to take up a job as a call-in radio host. His move to Seattle also allows Frasier to repair his relationship with his father, a retired police officer who moves in with him while recovering from a gunshot wound. While Frasier offers well-meaning advice and counsel to his listeners, he is doomed to be unlucky in love in his own life.

Like its parent show, Cheers, Frasier deals with issues of class and human relationships in a gentle but still funny way. The snobby, elitist Frasier and his brother Niles often butt heads with their father over their loftier sensibilities versus their father’s down to earth esthetics. At the end of the series however, the Crane men have a respect and understanding of their differences and similarities as they enrich each other’s lives.

One of the things that Frasier does exceptionally well is farce comedy which relies on exaggerated, absurd plots and misunderstanding. To watch Kelsey Grammer and the cast at work in these complicated and well-crafted scenes is to see the genre at its finest. The show ran for eleven years and consistently won awards during its run.

Here are a few items you might find on the bookshelf of Frasier’s stylish apartment.

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This blog is one in a series highlighting the diverse collection of materials through the imagined reading lists for fictional characters and authors. Search the tag From the Protagonist's Bookshelf for more reading lists.