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TPQ: What are you currently reading?
JMM: No Is Not Enough by Naomi Klein. Met Klein a few years back in Dublin when she was doing a book tour. She's one of the most important writers of our time, in my estimation.
TPQ: Best and worst books you have ever read?
TPQ: Book most cherished as a child?
JMM: Best: Grey Eminence, Aldous Huxley. Worst: Not easy, I've read a lot of rubbish. But let's go for The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown. Don't know why I avoided Huxley for so long, but so glad I got to him. No one engaged in politics should miss out on the sharp insights into ambition and power he offers in the Grey Eminence.
TPQ: Book most cherished as a child?
JMM: King James Bible, my dad bought me (pathetic and pious, I know).
TPQ: Favourite Childhood author?
JMM: Roald Dahl.
TPQ: First book to really own you?
JMM: Kane and Abel, Jeffrey Archer. This was one of the first 'big books' I ever read. The gran had it lying about. Archer, for all the reasons I dislike his politics, is a master storyteller.
TPQ: Favourite male and female author?
JMM: Will Fergusson and Suzanne Collins.
TPQ: A Preference for fact or fiction?
JMM: Fact.
TPQ: Biography, autobiography or memoir that most impressed you?
JMM: Long Walk To Freedom, Nelson Mandela.
TPQ: Any author or book you point blank refuse to read?
JMM: Charles Dickens! No question. Dickens is lauded in every working class school as a great voice for the poor and social reform. But any teacher who believes this has never actually read Dickens. Take Oliver Twist, for example: Nobility is an innate moral virtue that survives every adversity. Poverty, likewise, is a moral judgement. Victorian.
JMM: Charles Dickens! No question. Dickens is lauded in every working class school as a great voice for the poor and social reform. But any teacher who believes this has never actually read Dickens. Take Oliver Twist, for example: Nobility is an innate moral virtue that survives every adversity. Poverty, likewise, is a moral judgement. Victorian.
TPQ: A book to share with somebody so that they would more fully understand you?
JMM: My Name Is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok I think anyone who grows up in a family business or with certain expectations will understand Asher Lev's struggle against those he loves most.
JMM: Lord of the Flies, William Golding.
TPQ: Book you would most like to see turned into a movie?
JMM: Cancer Ward, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn If you don't know why I think this, all I can say is: 'read it.' Just read it.
TPQ: A "must read" you intend getting to before you die?
JMM: The Brothers Karamazov - in Russian, Dostoevsky.
JMM: The Brothers Karamazov - in Russian, Dostoevsky.
⏩ Jason Michael McCann is a Scottish journalist and blogger based in Dublin. He writes on politics and society, and is a regular columnist for iScot Magazine.
Roald Dahl gets quite a few mentions in these Bookers Dozens. Think of how many youngsters whose love of reading he nourished. What an achievement.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to read The Da Vinci Code but as a completist I started Angels and Demons first. His "look at how clever I am" writing technique was a turn off, very annoying so I didn't finish it. Other clever writers like Stephen Fry have a more subtle style and are not in your face with it.
The Brothers Karamazov is on my list too. You just know it'll be fantastic.
Sean Mallory comments
ReplyDeleteYeah, I would agree about Dickens....all his books are maudlin auld dirges the lot of them...Dan Browne - I read a hard backed edition of Angels and Demons as it was given to me as a birthday present...special edition too....it being a special edition print gives it more value than its content!
Read Lord of the Flies along long time ago....enjoyed it...poor auld Piggy...always reminds me of Jim Gibney.....auld Dosteovsky...always stands the tests of time
Has anyone read anything by that charlatan William Shakespeare...anyone who tells me that these plays were written by a wealthy farmers son from Warwickshire, whose travels took him as far as London and back is taking the piss.....I have been given a compendium of his works....love going to his plays and I have read bits and pieces with explanations of his writings but I intend to sit down sometime and try and read them...