Hi everyone!
In this Issue:
“What’s your favourite book?”
A Request
Are You Writing?
News and Events
SJW Recommends
“What’s your favourite book?"
I subscribe to (almost) all of the main TV streaming services. But all too often I spend fifteen minutes scrolling Netflix, Disney+ and the rest, and can’t find anything I want to watch. (Actually, the more I think about it, the more I’ve come to believe the opposite is actually true. I can find too many things I want to watch, but committing to one means rejecting the others, so I scroll on, and on, and then I find something but it’s over ten hours long and I ask myself if I really want to watch it that much, so I scroll on and on and on and…well.. you get the picture…).
Often, when this happens, I resort to YouTube, and — because I’m obsessive about music and The Cure played some new songs in their concerts last year, the recordings of which I’ve watched a fair few times — the algorithm is currently throwing up pretty much everything the Cure’s Robert Smith has ever done. And so, the other evening, I ended up in a YouTube hole of watching YouTube videos of Smith’s interviews over the band’s 40+ year career. And I noticed something. He’s pretty remarkable for having an intelligent, articulate answer for (virtually) every question thrown at him, often delivered with his own dryly acerbic wit. But the one time I’ve seen him well and truly stumped was when an interviewer asked him the relatively simple question. ‘What’s your favourite book?’
He floundered like a puppy in a lake (and I should know, because Lola fell into the pond in London’s Victoria Park when she was a few months old), then explained sincerely why he couldn’t possibly pick one. When pushed, he eventually named Peake’s The Gormenghast Trilogy, but even then he felt compelled to add caveats.
I could feel his pain. I’ve been asked the same question, many times, and it’s impossible. There are books that I loved in the past with an intensity quite unlike any I’ve experienced since, but that I know I wouldn’t care that much for were I to return to them now. The Lord of the Rings, for example. That book was given to me by Mrs. Wilson, my teacher in middle school — I guess I was somewhere around eight or nine years of age — when she recognised how much I was enjoying The Hobbit. And I was obsessed. I knew the story backwards, inside and out, upside down. I wrapped myself in my brown candlewick bedspread (it was the seventies) and pretended I was either a wizard or one of the black riders (which of course I knew were more accurately known as the Nazgûl) , depending on my mood. I read it obsessively, and even spent a fortnight in a caravan, in either Wales or Cornwall, wading through The Silmarillion and understanding not one word.
But I read Lord of the Rings again when I was in my twenties, and I’m sorry to say I felt next to nothing. I enjoyed it, I guess. Possibly even really liked it. But I no longer felt compelled to dress up as the characters, and stopped correcting people when they mispronounced the character names. And a few years later, when the films were announced, I was excited for them, but no more than anyone else who’d read the book and quite liked it. So, it’s not my favourite book.
What is then? Other books have affected me profoundly over the years. Jeanette Winterson’s early work in particular. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit spoke to me as a young gay man struggling to come out, and then a few years later Written on the Body was a jolt to my heart. Similarly Hollinghurst’s The Swimming Pool Library, though a few years later I realised I preferred The Folding Star. But, though all of them vie for the prize on occasion, I’m not sure any of them are consistently my favourite book.
Then there are the books that I re-read (I mentioned I could be obsessive, right?). I’ve read Atwood’s Cat’s Eye many, many times, and in the past I think I probably have named it as my favourite book. But, even there, I love the prose but the plot leaves me a bit cold. I’ve also re-read Nineteen Eighty-four more times than I remember, and here we are perhaps starting to get closer to my favourite book. But even then — to say that is my favourite would be to dismiss Murakami’s After Dark, and even naming After Dark would be to ignore his equally brilliant Sputnik Sweetheart and 1Q84.
Then there are people whose work I love as a whole, but with whom I’d struggle to choose one particular book (hello, Chuck Palahniuk). And contemporary writers ought to be considered, and I haven’t even mentioned Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d, or Patricia Highsmith’s work, or Mo Hayder, or Ruth Rendell or Patricia Cornwell or Tess Gerritsen or any of the other brilliant crime writers I love. Then how can I ignore Brighton Rock? And both The Collector and The Magus? I can tie myself in knots just thinking about it.
I suppose it’s because the question is one without an answer. Books are an invite to a conversation that the reader has with the writer. We bring ourselves to it, reading is not a passive experience. So the right book at the right time can be an explosion, whereas the same book at the wrong time (or, maybe, a different time) can be met with something closer to indifference. Location and time-of-the-year can have an effect, too. I read The Swimming Pool Library when I worked close to London’s Russell Square, which is where it’s partly set, and I read it in summer, too. Whereas I read The Road, which is often cited as people’s favourite book, in Spain, on holiday, lying by a pool. I hated it. A beach read it is not.
So, how to answer the question? I could say my favourite book is the one I’m writing, but that’s not true, and it sounds like the kind of thing Morrissey would say, and who wants that? I could refuse to answer the question, I suppose. Or I could answer with a list of books (much like I have here, I guess), or a long-winded explanation as to why it’s impossible to say (again, much like I have here).
In the end, though, I usually plump for du Maurier’s Rebecca. It’s a psychological thriller, so very much on-brand for me. It’s beautifully written with brilliantly drawn characters, one of whom is genuinely iconic. It has a twist. And du Maurier is dead, so by naming it I’m not going to annoy any of my writer friends and acquaintances. But is it actually, genuinely my favourite book of all time?
Sometimes, yes. Depends what day you ask…
Over to you
I’d love to hear what your favourite book is, and whether it changes from day to day or month to month. Let me know!
A request
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Are you a writer? Do you want to write? Take a look at The Writers’ Lodge, a nurturing and supportive newsletter for anyone who is writing, or who is considering embarking on a writing project and wondering whether they have what it takes, or may even just be considering their first tentative steps into writing fiction.
In the last few issues we’ve been looking at:
Getting to grips with plot and structure
How many acts does your story need?
How to get going when you’re not in the mood to write
Working with an agent
News and Events
I’m going to be leading a writing retreat at Chez Castillon in the south of France, from 9-15th May, 2023. Take a look and do join us. There are still some places left, and attendees will be getting some brilliant advice and support, and not just from me…
I’ll also be returning to my beloved Reykjavik for Iceland Noir, which takes place in November (15-18). Details here.
SJW recommends
“From one woman’s seemingly impossible predicament Sutherland has woven a compelling tale of guilt, motherhood, desire and revenge. Highly recommended.”
Bye for now!
'The Bridge' by Iain Banks. Not (re)read it for ages, but that's been my answer for ages.
This was very funny: "I could say my favourite book is the one I’m writing, but that’s not true, and it sounds like the kind of thing Morrissey would say, and who wants that?"
When it comes to movies, I say, the movie I've rewatched the most is Casablanca. (Or Arthur. Or The Philadelphia Story.) That's sort of easy. You can shut them up with "In Search of Lost Time" or "the first book, The Tale Of Genji!" Or "Moby-dick." That always quiets them down. But mostly, I make lists. http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-best-books-of-all-time-master-list_6.html