Rosie reads and reads and rereads in Etobicoke.
Ravenous Reader #5
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Category Archives: Ravenous Reader
14. Do you write? If so, how does reading influence your writing?
Ravenous Reader #4
Daniel Perry is a fiction writer living in Toronto. Nobody Looks that Young Here is his first collection of short stories.
1. Do you have an early memory of learning to read?
Yes, though it’s more of a recounted memory than something I clearly remember. Before starting kindergarten, in my school, you and your parent(s) would come in for a short sit-down with the principal. (I wasn’t supposed to be there, actually, but I was, with my father.) I had spent most of life to this point watching Sesame Street, and my parents had been teaching me, so I was a reader before I had even started school. The story goes that my dad asked the principal if I’d be challenged enough; “He can read, you know,” to which the principal said, “Well, I’m sure he knows a few words.” Dad picked up a for-parents pamphlet from the desk and handed it to me, saying “Dan, read this.” I asked where to start, Dad said “At the beginning,” and I’m told I sounded out pretty much the whole thing, and the principal said, “Holy shit, he can read,” (though that last bit sounds like standard working-class point-scoring). I didn’t end up skipping a grade – I’m born December 31, which would have made me two years younger than some classmates – but they did put me in French Immersion, which means I’m lucky enough to be able to read in two languages.
2. Have you always been an avid reader?
Other than a six-month dry spell after I washed out of grad school – I got the master’s, but didn’t turn up the next fall for the Ph. D. program that accepted me – I’ve always read, moving from Curious George through the Hardy Boys and R.L. Stine into John Grisham and Tom Clancy before hitting high school and getting into capital-L literature. I remember in undergrad, a former girlfriend’s roommate saw me somewhere that wasn’t campus and observed, “You always have a book with you, don’t you?” It’s especially true now that I live in Toronto and take transit everywhere. I never leave home without one.
3. How do you decide what to read next?
For the longest time, if I read an interesting review or excerpt, I’d go straight to the Toronto Public Library website and place a hold. What I read would then be decided by what came in when, and which books were closest to their due dates… and I was so overcommitted, most books spent the full nine weeks (three week loan, twice renewed) in my apartment. I’ve taken control, though: for 2013, I’ve placed myself under library moratorium and focused on reading books that I’ve bought but not read. There is a specific Read-Once-And-Get-Rid-Of pile that’s right beside my writing desk. I’m steadily plucking books off it, but it’s somehow growing anyway…
4. Do you have any reading rituals that you follow?
I try not to start a new novel unless I have enough time to get through a good 50 pages in the first sitting; reading Chapter 1 on the subway to work and Chapter 2 on the way home only results in having to read them both over again on the weekend. Also, I make myself write a paragraph about every book I finish, a sort of journal that I post from on my blog and my Facebook page.
5. What makes a great story or novel?
Selection. I struggle with it in my own writing sometimes, but to me a good story contains absolutely nothing that’s extraneous; as Chekhov said (paraphrase), if there’s a gun on the mantle in Act I then it had better go off by the final curtain. I go crazy reading novels in which every character is introduced with a paragraph about what they’re wearing – it so rarely comes to bear on the story! Show me what I need to see, and ditch the rest. Get on with the story. I haven’t read him in a long time, but I remember thinking there were no wasted words in Stephen Crane’s work.
6. Do you have a favourite genre?
I don’t think so… unless Literary Fiction is a “genre.” I try to read all kinds of different books, throwing in the odd thriller, mystery or historical page-turner to offset the classics, the award-winners, and the disproportionate amount of good, good, whole wheat CanLit.
7. Who was the first author you fell in love with? The last?
Leaving aside the series I loved as a kid, I think the first author I really devoured was John Steinbeck. His books were generally short, emotional wallops, and my dad was a fan; we had all the old Bantam paperbacks. Growing up in rural southwestern Ontario, I found they dealt with a kind of life and a class of people I could understand. More recently, I’ve read three books (and bought one more) by each of the New Zealand writer Lloyd Jones (try Mister Pip) and Kingston, Ontario’s own Steven Heighton (whose novel The Shadow Boxer is one of the most criminally under-celebrated books ever produced in this country).
8. What classic or well-known book have you never been able to get through?
The Lord of the Rings. This might go back to Question 5: too much scene setting. Eighty pages in, and still nothing’s happened…? No thanks. Tried it three times.
9. What book or books do you reread?
I rarely reread – there are too many books in the world! – but I recently reread an assigned undergraduate book, Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, as a mate to Geoff Dyer’s Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi. From time to time, I also pick up Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried or Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son. These two books contain some of the best short stories of our time, and I can always learn more from what they’ve done with the form. Plus, Johnson’s book is so small, I can read it on the streetcar on the way to a Jays’ game then put it in a pocket and not have to worry about lugging it around all night.
10. Do you have dry spells where you stop reading or read very little?
No. I sometimes wish I did, but I’m pretty steady: five books a month.
11. How do you organize your collection?
I have a small bookcase for drama, poetry, and non-fiction – most of it left over from university or high school – and two larger fiction cases: one for the books I’ve read and one for the unread. The small bookcase and the stuff I’ve read are alphabetical by author, while – aside from one shelf that’s restricted to short story collections – the unread bookcase is in no order whatsoever.
12. Do you enjoy recommending books to others? What criteria do you use?
I do enjoy recommending books, and I try especially hard to think of what the person likes: similar authors, style, subject matter. I read somewhere that Scandinavian cultures consider a book the most thoughtful gift you can give – long winters, just like we have in Canada – and I can’t say that I disagree. Turning someone on to a given author is a pleasure, and it’s especially nice to have the favour returned: I’ve never been into SF, but a friend suggested China Miéville’s The City & the City to me recently, and it’s one of the best books I’ve read in the last year. A great reco makes you feel honour-bound to do just as well by your friends.
13. You host a dinner party for five authors (dead or alive). Who’s invited?
Jorge Luis Borges, Henry Miller, Bill Bryson, Ernest Hemingway and… William Shakespeare… just to see if that famous portrait is actually his. (Yeah, I know. Boys’ club.)
14. Do you write? If so, how does reading influence your writing?
I do write, primarily short stories, so it’s almost the other way around: my writing has greatly influenced my reading, in the sense that I’ve probably read a thousand short stories in the last three years, and continue to be fascinated by them. There’s no one “right” way to do it, and I’ve come to like stories so disparate that (hopefully) no one influence is too discernible in my own work (except, probably, Alice Munro). What I find that reading does do is remind me how it feels to be a reader, and keeps fresh that feeling of disappointment when characters, scenes or (especially) sentences don’t pay out; I often catch myself revising as I read, saying “I’d have said it this way.” It’s like a passive(-aggressive?) form of writing practice, I guess.
15. What are you reading right now?
I want to mention two books I recently finished, Canada by Richard Ford and The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides, because they’re two very accomplished contemporary novels, and big books that don’t feel at all unwieldy. And as I write this, it’s Super Sad True Love Story, by Gary Shteyngart – funny and clever story of a loveable loser, set in the new future. I’m enjoying it.
Ravenous Reader is a regular series.
Ravenous Reader #3
Dan Murphy is author of The Amazing Adventures of the Dispatch Rider.
1. Do you have an early memory of learning to read?
Yes, I’m at home, and my mother would ask me to read something and then quiz me on what I remembered about the story. And I couldn’t tell her because I didn’t know anything I had just read.
2. Have you always been an avid reader?
No. My avid reading started in my early twenties.
3. How do you decide what to read next?
I go to the book store or library. I will switch genres if I can, almost every time.
4. Do you have any reading rituals that you follow?
No, I read mostly on transit and would hate to think what would happen if I could afford a car. Ha!
5. What makes a great story or novel?
For me, it’s leaving out a lot of detail because that just bogs me down and makes me tired. I like a fast paced story.
6. Do you have a favourite genre?
No. I read all kinds of books.
7. Who was the first author you fell in love with? The last?
That would have to be Hunter S. Thompson. The last would be J. K. Rowling.
8. What classic or well-known book have you never been able to get through?
This is a bad one because I rode a motorcycle for seventeen years, but I could never finish Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I think I tried three times.
9. What book or books do you reread?
Books that I read a long time ago and just can’t remember. A book like W. P. Kinsella’s Shoeless Joe. Kinsella’s words just went to the centre of my brain. I heard it, when I read it.
10. Do you have dry spells where you stop reading or read very little?
Rarely, but I almost always have something set up for the next one or go to the library if I don’t.
11. How do you organize your collection?
I don’t; they’re everywhere. I’ve always said that if I ever buy a house, I’ll put them all on shelves.
12. Do you enjoy recommending books to others? What criteria do you use?
I do like passing along a book, but usually I’ll know the person and will already have a sense of what they like.
13. You host a dinner party for five authors (dead or alive). Who’s invited?
Stephen King, J. K. Rowling, Paul Brickhill, Pierre Burton, and Charles Dickens.
14. Do you write? If so, how does reading influence your writing?
Yes. I think my writing is influenced (subconsciously) by just reading so much and hopefully learning structure that way.
15. What are you reading right now?
I’m reading an autobiography by Rob Lowe who has some great stories to tell.
Ravenous Reader is a regular series.
Ravenous Reader #2
Carolyn reads voraciously in Ottawa.
1. Do you have an early memory of learning to read?
No, not really, but once I got my first library card around the age of eight, I never looked back. My mother told me I was reading words from the newspaper at age four, and of course, my parents read stories to me.
2. Have you always been an avid reader?
Extremely so! I was an only child, very shy, and books were always a comfort to me. In public school (grade eight) students were required to read a minimum of five books per year and give a book report on each during class. Every student had a page in the teacher’s notebook, recording the book title and date read. By the end of the school year, I’d read fifty-three books and the teacher said I needed a notebook just for my books. Obsessive, or what?
3. How do you decide what to read next?
It depends on my mood or how I physically feel. If I’m not feeling well, I’ll read a book that doesn’t require a lot of concentration (a pocketbook I can finish in a couple of hours). When I feel really well, I’ll read historical trilogies or complicated murder mysteries.
4. Do you have any reading rituals that you follow?
I like to go to bed by 9 or 10pm and read fiction books every night until 1 or 2am, although I have been known to read until 4am (not recommended!) I only read non-fiction or magazines during the day. My bedroom is my sanctuary, and I can’t sleep without reading first. The norm is to fall asleep with the light on, glasses on my nose, and the book upside down on my chest.
5. What makes a great story or novel?
It should have a great plot, amazing characters, be fast paced, and grab your attention during the first few pages. Continually falling asleep over a book means it’s boring boring boring, or badly written and not worth my valuable reading time. I usually return such books to the library the next day. I should point out that quite a few of my rejects have been Giller Prize winners!
6. Do you have a favourite genre?
Absolutely not! I read just about anything that catches my eye, mainly historical fiction but also erotica, thrillers, adventure and even vampire stories. As far as non-fiction goes, I own a lot of cookbooks, gardening, and how-to books as well as obscure books on things like ancient Egypt, medieval Great Britain, archeology, and the Roman Empire. I think I see a pattern here! I do love historical facts and I do learn a great deal, even from fiction books. At the oddest times, I seem to pull strange snippets of information from my brain during a conversation with someone.
7. Who was the first author you fell in love with? The last?
Zane Grey, when I was very young, and the last authors I loved were Diana Gabaldon, Manda Scott, Jack Whyte, Lora Leigh, Nora Roberts (J.D. Robb), and Clive Cussler.
8. What classic or well-known book have you never been able to get through?
The Sentimentalist because I spent all my time going back and forth to figure out the storyline. I even kept reading to the halfway mark but finally gave up and took it back to the library. I dislike Margaret Atwood books, although I may be in the minority.
9. What book or books do you reread?
Very few fiction. I do plan, however, to reread Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, Manda Scott’s Boudica series and Jack Whyte’s King Arthur series. I mainly reread non-fiction such as history, cookbooks, and reference books.
10. Do you have dry spells where you stop reading or read very little?
Never, never, never! I would have to be dead, and I do hope there’s a great library when I reach the pearly gates. To make sure I never run out of books, I have boxes and boxes of them under the bed, in the basement, and in multiple bookcases around the house. I guess I really am addicted.
11. How do you organize your collection?
I don’t (see question 10). My family tells me constantly that I am totally disorganized, which I am, but I do seem to be able to find certain books when I want them. My cookbooks, gardening, how-to, and medical books are grouped together on the bookshelves by type, but fiction is impossible. I only read these once and then donate them to a thrift shop. I do need to thin out some of my over 100 cookbooks, and I would use typed labels on shelves if I ever get motivated enough.
12. Do you enjoy recommending books to others? What criteria do you use?
Sometimes, if I really feel strongly about a book, but I don’t do it very often as everybody has their own favourites.
13. You host a dinner party for five authors (dead or alive). Who’s invited?
Would never happen. I prefer to worship my favourite authors from afar. Besides they are too numerous to count.
14. Do you write? If so, how does reading influence your writing?
No. I do, however, recognize great writing when I read it! There are many published novels that never should have seen the light of day. Tip to writers: check your grammar and punctuation thoroughly, and get a good editor!
15. What are you reading right now?
Until the Night by Giles Blunt.
Ravenous Reader is a regular series.
Ravenous Reader #1
David is a freelance writer in Toronto.