Diarmuid O'Gruagain answers thirteen questions in a Booker's Dozen.


TPQ: What are you currently reading?

DG: Don Quixote, which I am trying to struggle through in the original. Very daunting to consider the tiny part that I've read and the brick that's to be gotten through before it's behind me. At least it's funny. Oh, and From Hell, by Alan Moore. My god he took the story seriously.

TPQ: Best book you have ever read?

DG: It's hard for me to even begin to frame the question in my mind of which is the best fiction book I have read. Not used to methodical reading I am impressed at times out of all proportion by a straightforward book, like The Godfather by Mario Puzo. Incredibly good read. I kept circling around different books but this kept coming back to mind. A study in the amoral exercise of power. Depending on any kind of random factors there are fifty books that I could plausibly say are "the best" but today it's Puzo.

TPQ: A must-read before you die?

DG: Slaughterhouse 5 by K. Vonnegut and Junky by W.S. Burroughs. And the Hitch-hiker's Guide To The Galaxy series. These recommendations haven't changed since I was in my late teens. Terry Pratchett is a recent addition but I am confident that he'll have his followers lauding him for years to come.

Of course many people can and do become very well-read, more so than I, without touching any of my recommendations, and in a different time and situation I might make a totally different selection.

TPQ: A preference for fact or fiction?

DG: My tastes have changed over the course of life. I have much more time for non-fiction these days. But when times are challenging I often read for escapism.

TPQ: Favourite female author?

DG: Sue Townsend is a genius. In Irish, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill is very impressive. Dorothy Parker, Flannery O'Connor. One of those.

TPQ: Favourite male author?

DG: Vonnegut. Such a gift. Always a delight.

A Berlin Book Tower in memory of the Nazi book burning.

TPQ: First book you ever read?

DG: Roald Dahl, the Twits comes to mind. Don't know if this is accurate but it is certainly one of the early ones, unless you want to include children's books. I could ask my mother and I bet she'd laugh and tell me the real first one.

TPQ: Favourite childhood author?

DG: Roald Dahl.

TPQ: Any book you point blank refuse to read?

DG: No.

TPQ: Any author you point blank refuse to read?

DG: No.

TPQ: Pick a book to give to somebody so that they would more fully understand you.

DG: My only blank. If I understood myself I wouldn't read books for clues.

TPQ: Last book you gave as a present?

DG: The Misogynous President. 

TPQ: Book you would most like to see turned into a movie?

DG: The Táin.

⏭ Diarmuid O Gruagain is a Dublin based civil servant.

Booker's Dozen @ Diarmuid O Gruagain

Diarmuid O'Gruagain answers thirteen questions in a Booker's Dozen.


TPQ: What are you currently reading?

DG: Don Quixote, which I am trying to struggle through in the original. Very daunting to consider the tiny part that I've read and the brick that's to be gotten through before it's behind me. At least it's funny. Oh, and From Hell, by Alan Moore. My god he took the story seriously.

TPQ: Best book you have ever read?

DG: It's hard for me to even begin to frame the question in my mind of which is the best fiction book I have read. Not used to methodical reading I am impressed at times out of all proportion by a straightforward book, like The Godfather by Mario Puzo. Incredibly good read. I kept circling around different books but this kept coming back to mind. A study in the amoral exercise of power. Depending on any kind of random factors there are fifty books that I could plausibly say are "the best" but today it's Puzo.

TPQ: A must-read before you die?

DG: Slaughterhouse 5 by K. Vonnegut and Junky by W.S. Burroughs. And the Hitch-hiker's Guide To The Galaxy series. These recommendations haven't changed since I was in my late teens. Terry Pratchett is a recent addition but I am confident that he'll have his followers lauding him for years to come.

Of course many people can and do become very well-read, more so than I, without touching any of my recommendations, and in a different time and situation I might make a totally different selection.

TPQ: A preference for fact or fiction?

DG: My tastes have changed over the course of life. I have much more time for non-fiction these days. But when times are challenging I often read for escapism.

TPQ: Favourite female author?

DG: Sue Townsend is a genius. In Irish, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill is very impressive. Dorothy Parker, Flannery O'Connor. One of those.

TPQ: Favourite male author?

DG: Vonnegut. Such a gift. Always a delight.

A Berlin Book Tower in memory of the Nazi book burning.

TPQ: First book you ever read?

DG: Roald Dahl, the Twits comes to mind. Don't know if this is accurate but it is certainly one of the early ones, unless you want to include children's books. I could ask my mother and I bet she'd laugh and tell me the real first one.

TPQ: Favourite childhood author?

DG: Roald Dahl.

TPQ: Any book you point blank refuse to read?

DG: No.

TPQ: Any author you point blank refuse to read?

DG: No.

TPQ: Pick a book to give to somebody so that they would more fully understand you.

DG: My only blank. If I understood myself I wouldn't read books for clues.

TPQ: Last book you gave as a present?

DG: The Misogynous President. 

TPQ: Book you would most like to see turned into a movie?

DG: The Táin.

⏭ Diarmuid O Gruagain is a Dublin based civil servant.

6 comments:

  1. Diarmuid - thanks for this - as always there is an interesting selection there. Must try Vonnegut now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Some good choices there. From Hell is excellent, especially if you consider Moore's angle that he wanted to solve the entire society in which such a crime occurred in order to make sense of it.

    The Godfather is the perfect example of a great story with terrible writing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Christopher - I read the Godfather when I was 15 - used to plant myself in the chair in the living room and read it. Tried re-reading it 2 years later when I was in Magilligan but never finished it - just too familiar with the detail. But as a book I loved it.

      Delete
  3. AM,

    It's a rare example of great storytelling overcoming clumsy prose. I haven't read it in 20 years, but I vividly recall how much I cringed at the first segment involving Johnny Fontaine.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Diarmuid, From Hell so interesting, especially given the whole Ripperology
    'industry'. Love Vonnegut and Hitchhiker's Guide too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Diarmuid - Kevin will be pleased that you gave The Misogynous President as a gift to your dad. I notice also that in last night's Alfie Gallagher thought highly of Don Quixote. I have been tempted yet again! Must invite you to do a review of what you read.

    ReplyDelete