There’s something voyeuristically thrilling about knowing what other people’s reading habits are. The Reader is a brief interview inspired by the Proust Questionnaire, which was itself inspired by a 19th century party game. We ask readers, writers, publishers and book-lovers everywhere (including our own staff) to answer eleven questions about the books they love, what they have been reading and their literary habits.
Over five days, 150 writers and thinkers will take to the stage from far and wide to inform, delight and entertain us during the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival. Featuring the very best popular and literary fiction writing, poetry, politics, science, art, fashion, history, economics and song, the festival is eagerly anticipated each year. With a background in English literature and journalism, Festival Director Anne O’Brien has previously run the non-profit organisation Women in Film and Television (WIFT) and produced Radio New Zealand National’s Nine to Noon show when it was helmed by Kim Hill. O’Brien describes the AWRF as “public radio on stage.”
What are you currently reading and how did you discover the book?
Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead, recommended to me by devoted Festival attendees.
Who are your favourite writers and what do you love about them?
The writing world is vast and filled with riches and, as a Festival Director, I love lots of different writers for lots of different reasons. I’m always in love with everyone I’m pursuing or hosting so my first list is this year’s Writers Festival guest list of more than 120 including Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Kate Atkinson, Lloyd Geering, Anita Desai, William Dalrymple, Fleur Adcock, Jackie Kay, Eleanor Catton et al!
The perfect (imaginary) Festival guest list, however, might begin with Christopher Hitchens, Alice Munro, Leonard Cohen, Seamus Heaney, Henry James, Rohinton Mistry, Maurice Sendak, Roald Dahl, Joan Didion, Marilynne Robinson, Karen Armstrong, Ian McEwan, V. S. Ramachandran, Janet Malcolm and Toni Morrison… And grow from there.
The writers I love are accomplished, thoughtful, daring and inspiring.
What are the books on your bedside table?
Actually they’re piles on the floor – see question re: book shelving in my house. Seating Arrangements, The Examined Life, Telegraph Avenue, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death, a ton of New Yorkers, and half a ton of the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books, and some Listeners…
What is your favourite book to film adaptation?
To Kill a Mockingbird.
What book have you re-read the most and why?
I don’t generally re-read as I have too much new material to read, but a couple of particularly special books to me are Lying Awake by Mark Salzman, and The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen: Thoughtful and beautifully crafted examinations of faith, belief, experience and the search for meaning.
Who is your favourite literary character?
Can’t decide so am passing.
What book have you always been meaning to read but still haven’t got around to?
Paradise Lost, much to my shame.
Which three writers would you have over for supper?
Three is way too small for a really good supper party, but any combination of loved writers above and the more the merrier.
What would you cook them?
I am too impatient to cook these days – and too busy reading and planning – so they’d probably get a salad or some combination of salami, cheese and olives, although I can guarantee lots of wine and loud, animated conversation.
How are your books shelved and organised at home?
Where ever they’ll fit, including piles on the floor. I have a good memory and usually know where particular book spines are to be found… except for when I mis-remember the spine! This always happens to me with my beloved 1970s Anthology of NZ Poetry which turns out to have a pale spine although in my mind’s eye it is dark and bold.
What it your favourite literary quote?
It was a dark and stormy night…
The 2013 Auckland Writers & Readers Festival runs from 15-19 May. For more information, visit writersfestival.co.nz
