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My earliest memory of reading
I remember reading all my childhood, but it’s hard for me to remember what I remember from my childhood. In many ways, it is as if my childhood began when I learned to read. I remember picking up Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s Dangerous Liaisons off the shelf when I was maybe 10 or 11 – too young to read. I was suitably disappointed and happy about it.
My favorite book growing up
I read a lot about Theodore Dreiser growing up, for reasons that are incomprehensible to me now. I don’t know how I came to him: he was never sent to school and no one in my family read his books. But his focus was on the female characters and maybe even then, that sounded familiar. I started with Sister Carrie, then I read Jennie Gerhardt and An American Tragedy, but Sister Carrie is the one I came back to again and again.
A book that changed me as a teenager
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. I was 12 years old when I read it and it changed my understanding of stories. It was the first time I understood the potential of this book not only to comment, but also to effect social change.
The author who changed my mind
Almost every author changes my opinion – that’s the point of reading.
The book that made me want to be a writer
Kenzaburō Ōe’s A Personal Matter. I was in my twenties and my father was dying of cancer. I understood the possibility of writing differently when I read Ōe, how everything is in common life and gives me a chance to understand.
The the author returned
Yasunari Kawabata was not easy for me to understand when I was young. His books are small, and when I was young they felt confusing, both sensitive and restrictive. Now, I read him and every book seems like a small miracle.
I read this book again
Henry James’s Portrait of a Lady. It is one of those books that has multiple meanings and seems to change every time you read it, which is one of the many signs of its greatness.
I can’t read this book anymore
There is probably no book that I would not read again. Even a book that I know I won’t enjoy now can be fun to read, to know how much I and I have changed. And there’s always a chance I’ll have fun with it. Books always surprise you.
The writer I realized later in life
Muriel Spark was a late find. I read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Girls of Slender Means when I was in my twenties, and probably too young to appreciate their genius. I’ve been reading some in order, from Loitering With Intent and Memento Mori to my favorite, The Driver’s Seat. It has been one of the most satisfying and surprising reads of my life.
The book I am reading now
I have also been reading Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier and Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair.
My comfort read
Probably the same books as the answer above, and the entire work of Javier Marias.
