Pamela Paul conducts one of her infamous “By the Book” interviews… on herself.
In celebration of her new book, By the Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life from The New York Times Book Review, we asked Pamela Paul to answer the questions she's usually asking some of the world's most talented writers.
Earl Wilson / New York Times
What books are currently on your nightstand?
Pamela Paul: Right now, I'm reading Moss Hart's marvelous memoir, Act One, a delight on so many levels. I saw the play based on the book earlier this year, and had been meaning to read it ever since. Now that we've got our Notables and Best Books picked for the year, I can do a little "freelance reading." Also, among books published quite a while ago, John Le Carre's A Perfect Spy, which I was inspired to turn to after reading Ben Macintyre's hugely entertaining A Spy Among Friends earlier this year. I still want to read Lawrence in Arabia by Scott Anderson, which came out last year. And I haven't read Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, also on the pile.
Children's books too: The Little House books, which I'm reading aloud to my daughter at night. The first Harry Potter, which I am midway through re-reading as an ongoing project for my children's book club, Kidlit. I feel doubly inspired because my middle child just finished the books for the first time, and my eldest just re-read them a third time. I'm a slacker by comparison.
What are your favorite books of all time?
PP: I've got a long list, even though I'm just going to stick to the classics. First, the Russians: Anna Karenina, War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov. Short stories: "The Nose," "The Double." Another favorite story: "The Secret Sharer," by Joseph Conrad — I've always wanted to make it into a movie. I generally love stories at sea even though I don't particularly like being at sea — "Benito Cereno" is another. My favorite Edith Wharton by far is The House of Mirth and for George Eliot, I am tied between Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda. I loved The Magic Mountain and Buddenbrooks. The best book that made me cry was The Portrait of a Lady, and the books that have made me laugh more than any others were and still are Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse-Five. Other random favorites: I adored Of Human Bondage, William Dean Howells's A Hazard of New Fortunes, and A Modern Instance.
As for nonfiction: George Orwell's essays are still the very best. The Emperor of All Maladies by Sidddartha Mukherjee. Lenin's Tomb by David Remnick. Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon. Self-help: How to Talk So Kids Will Listen ... And Listen So Kids Will Talk (works with grown-ups too).
I gobble up memoir and biography and so must subcategorize in order to do some justice. Memoir: Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy, Wild Swans by Jung Chang, Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng, Remembering Denny by Calvin Trillin, Present at the Creation by Dean Acheson, The Long Road to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens, everything by Spalding Gray. Graphic memoir: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Stitches by David Small, Maus by Art Spiegelman. Biography: The Power Broker. Literary biography: Richard Ellmann on Oscar Wilde.
Comics: Claire Bretécher's Les Frustrées. She and Roz Chast graphically narrate my life.
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