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Is it possible to be a good writer without being a good reader? I’m not sure what a “good” reader is, but a writer has to be an active reader. This is especially true for those of us who begin writing without training in the craft, who have picked it up as a person picks up a foreign language by living in a country. According to a report of the Independent Book Publishing Association, over five million American adults belong to reading groups. What, do you believe, is the basis for this country's love for literature and books? I don’t think we can say it’s just this country—everyone loves stories, and in modern life, stories are books. Television and movies, even with two inch screens a person can pull out of her pocket, are still a secondary medium compared to the seduction of a book, hours and hours of immersion in another world. And if a person can find a sympathetic community of others who want to talk about that same experience, so much the better. Have you ever belonged to a reading group? Not a real-life one, although I am a regular participant in the online Laurie R. King Virtual Book Club. We read LRK books, but also some others, and in either case, it’s interesting to see how others view them. What advice do you have for reading group members when it comes to selecting books for discussion? I like the method of having a different person offer three choices, put together a review of synopsis of each, and let the rest of the group vote. This balances individual taste with something the group approves of. What books are you reading now or do you plan to read? Sebastian Faulks, Engleby If you were stuck on a deserted island and could only bring one book with you to read, what would it be and why? What a nightmare thought—I’m a person who brings two books for a five hour plane flight! It would have to be something weighty that would keep me for years. Maybe if all of Shakespeare’s writings, from plays to sonnets, were in a single volume? That might keep me busy. If you could have dinner with three writers (dead or alive) who would they be and why? The problem with writers is, people who are clever with putting words on a page aren’t always as witty in real time. And the problem with a dinner date is, if the company isn’t well matched, it’s a pretty dead time—look at how awkward Barak Obama looked at his win-a-dinner gathering. So I’d have to put at the table people I know are good company, which pretty well eliminates most dead writers. Harry (H.R.F.) Keating is stunning company, as full of erudition and humor as one would expect. And Dana Stabenow is filled with passion and energy and a boundless interest in others. But for one addition to known quantities, a blind date as it were, I’d have to add Peter Dickinson. Never met him, but he’s a friend of Harry’s, and I refuse to believe he is anything but the very best of company. Have you ever read anything you're too embarrassed to admit (except in this interview)? I’m sure I have, but clearly I am so embarrassed that I’ve pushed it out of my mind. Favorite book when you were a child? I remember loving a couple of Golden Books when I was very small, The Saggy Baggy Elephant and The Poky Puppy, but the first novel I fell in love with was Jane Langton’s The Diamond in the Window. If you have children, is this the same book you read to them? If not, what is your favorite book for your children? I read The Diamond in the Window to the kids when they were young, but it didn’t catch their imagination the way it did mine. They liked the Tintin and Asterix books, almost unknown in the US, and I liked reading anything by Graham Oakley, similarly unknown here. The real surprise was The Lord of the Rings, which we began when my kids were maybe six and nine. I thought it would be far beyond the younger one, but we read through all three, and then he wanted to start again with the first one. By that time he was reading (it took more than a year) so I made him read it himself then. I was rather tired of orcs and hobbits, after a year of them. Favorite heroine in literature and why? So many great women, jostling for first place. One of the best is Dana Stabenow’s Kate Shugak. She’s the older sister you never had, the partner you know you could count on, the person you’d like most to be stranded on a desert island with. Favorite hero in literature and why? Peter Dickinson’s Inspector Tribble. THE most unlikely hero one can imagine, but he muddles through, keeps his head down until he’s got his hands on the clues, and, quailing all the while, nonetheless manages to stand firm against man-eating lions and Scotland Yard superiors. Words to live by? Keep breathing.
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