Good morning, everyone. Sorry about the delay but, you know, without a little problem, life is no fun, right . As some of you know, im a federal judge about two blocks away, and im reminded this morning this is deja vu all over again. Now, one could draw a couple of conclusions from this, and that is i did such a great job they asked me back, the other one is they had to find someone who was willing to get up on a saturday morning and do this. But i think the second explanation is really the best one, because were all readers, and we all love authors, and we just want to be here. So welcome. So starting at my right is the narrator of this mornings panel, pamela paul. Shes the editor of the New York Times book review and is also an author in her own right. She writes the popular feature buy the book and interview feature in the magazine. Every morning i and many other readers of the New York Times book review turn with anticipation to see which novelist, historian, short story writer or artist will be the subject as we grab our morning cup of joe. Joining her this morning are the following authors Margo Jefferson is a pulitzer prizewinning critic of the New York Times and she is a professor of writing at columbia university. Her book on Michael Jackson was published in 2006. Her most recent book is a memoir, negroland, and it offers a reflection of race, class and gender in the united states. Brad metsler is the author of a series of thrilling novels, and he is a recovering attorney. [laughter] his penchant for research has made history cool, and i think hes the only south floridian on the panel this morning. If you want to see more of him, turn on the history channel. His newest thriller, the president s shadow, opens with one simple idea. One morning in the white house rose garden, the first lady uncovers a severed arm buried in the dirt. [laughter] sloan crossly is a noted essayist, and she writes frequently of life and the world for the New York Times. Many of us were under a misguided assumption until last month that class was her debut novel, but she blew the whistle on herself, and we now know it was her second novel, and maybe this morning she will fill us in on the details. Rick moody is the author of four novels. His latest novel is hotels of north america. I havent read the normal, however the novel, however, i have learned there are discussions of various scams and cons including the melon drop. As a former prosecutor, i think i need to do some research. T. J. Stiles is the author of several nonfictions and biographies. His newest work is custers trial a life on the frontier of a new america. This book does an amazing job of telling the story of custers life, a fact often forgotten in the story of his death. As New York Times book review stated, he is a skilled writer with the rare ability to take years of farranging research, boil it down until he has a story that is illuminating and at its best captivating. Ladies and gentlemen, buy the book live at the fair. [applause] good morning. Im going to start off by talking about another book event this week at the National Book awards on wednesday night, johnty lille low accepted a Lifetime Achievement award. And in his acceptance speech which was not webcast or televised, so i will share it with you here, he did not talk about his lifes work, he did not talk about his own novels, about his process. Instead he talked about books he reads. And he describes the book, the mass market paperbacks on his own book shelves. And he said here im not the writer at all, im a grateful reader. When i look at my book shelves, i find myself gazing like a museum goer. Thats where i want everyone on this panel to be for the next hour, thinking about the books that surround them, the books that make a writer a reader and a realizer a writer, the books that tell us who we are in this world and in the world inside us and our imaginations. So on this panel, probably unlike many of the other panels at this years book fair be, the writers here will be talking not about themselves as writers, but about themselves as readers. As judge cook described, this book panel came out of a book that i wrote or edited called buy the book, writers on literature and the literary life, which itself came out of a weekly feature in the book review called buy the book. And in that feature is an interview with a writer or an artist, musician, public figure about their life story as told through what they read. Unlike other profiles, which well go into, you know, childhood trauma and all that other fun memoir stuff. This is the way i think of my life which is through the book sites ive read when i think back to moments in my life, i often think about what i was reading at the time. And buy the book, the idea is by the book, the idea is you learn about a person and who they are not only what they read, but through what they read. So theres no preparation for this panel. Everyone here is a little bit off the cuff. None of the people on this panel have done a by the book, so this is a kind of by the book live. And i will warn you that its im going to ask terribly unfair questions. With by the book in the book review, everyone has time to prepare and to mull and to contemplate and to pour over their book shelves. And here you have them unaided, reminding them of what they realize last week, so i hope that everyone will have patient. And everyone here should be free to go back and say, you know, no, no, no, no, no, i just remembered which were the books that made me who i am today. So this is really going to be a conversation, and were not going to go in any be particular order, and in any be particular order, and im going to starlet with an easy question for the panelists which is what did you read on your way to the Miami Book Fair . I guess, brad, this is unfair, because you were here. I was going to say, did you mean in the car . [laughter] in miami, you can do that, right . [laughter] [applause] right . Thats not even a joke. What did i read on the way to you know what . Comic books. Thats what ive been reading. Ive been reading, just finished the sandman overture which i just loved, and that was the one that i i was on 95 and in stoppage. [laughter] i just held it on the Steering Wheel as i crashed into the car in front of me. And what brought you to that particular book . I just, i grew up on comic books, and my family didnt read when i was growing up. My mom read only two things, the star and the inquirer. And my father realize just the sports page, that was it. There were no books in my house. My mom used to say the inquirer had all the news. Comic books were what fed me. And that was and i think, you know, its easy to say, oh, im supposed to give you a big answer and say, oh, moby dick was what inspired me. But the reality is the first morality tales you realize, maybe its the bible, but its not the bible. When youre a kid, its batman and spiderman and wonder woman. The most important participant of the story is clark kent because were all clark kent, and we all know what its like to be boring and ordinary and wish we could do something beyond ourself. And what i love about the work is it lets us step into the fantastic. Truly in i never read anything that i feel like i can do, which means i read a lot. [laughter] but it takes me into that world of things i know i cant do. Having opened up with comic books, youre going to make everyone else here feel much more comfortable about their airport reading. [laughter] thats right. Comics dont deserve any snobbery. To me every genre is 90 garbage and 10 gold. Thats literary fiction be, history and comics. And we used to see this as hierarchy. Thats garbage. Thats snobbery. To me, you find the 10 of gold in anything, and neil gayman and ryan moore, thats the gold in that world, and i love that i get to support it and be out there and talk about it. All right then. Sloan . Thats definitely on. Hello. I read, actually this is a little bit belated, but i read h is for hawk, i dont know if you guys have realize this book, by helen mcdonald. I got halfway through it, and one of the joys of the book, and i meant to pick it up forever, but its a memoir about a british woman whos also a poet and is also [inaudible] and her dad dies, and as sort of crazy reaction, it reminded me a lot of the year of magical thinking in a lot of ways, just sort of like a kind of insanity that she felt she had to experience by herself. She decides to train a hawk. And its, i was about halfway through it, and one of the joys of coming to this fair really is that i was sitting with the publisher on the plane. I happened to be sitting next to morgan [inaudible] and i just sort of lifted it out of my bag as we were about to take off. Almost like wearing the tshirt of a band at a concert. [laughter] i was so excited. I usually sit next to an author whose book the times book review trashed. But go on. [laughter] yeah, no be, i was very fortunate. But i was so excited, and, you know, he sort of gave me a thumbs up. People have their plane activities, and i got about halfway through it. I just couldnt stop reading it. It was absolutely stunning and beautiful, and i just love reading nonfiction that has a weird Wish Fulfillment quality. To be an expert like that in something that you dont have to be an expert in, maybe its the same sort of thing you were saying where you want to read things that i dont know about, so that leaves a lot of books. But its a beautiful book, and i got about halfway through, and then i realized she called the hawk, she names it. I got to that part, and she called it mabel which happens to be the name of my cat. So i was just sort of grinning at this very sad book, and morgan sort of looked at me. [laughter] its not supposed to do that. Yes. But its a really stunning book, so i would suggest it. I cant see it going downhill from here. Im only halfway through, but i would suggest anyone pick it up. And how did you come to realize that book . You know, i sort of was aware of it probably and this is, i know im sort of, like, playing to the panel here but probably through garners review. And the things that he had said about it. And i think i also have just it should writing fiction, and im sort of looking forward to getting back to nonfiction. But its a muscle thats sort of slightly atrophied in a way, and i wanted to realize a really good example of it to read a really good example of it, and i kind of knew this would be one of those examples. Margo . Hello. Can you hear me . Okay. Well, im hoping [laughter] thank you. Now you can hear me. Im assuming that some of you in the audience are teachers, because im, i was reading some student papers on the plane. I teach graduate and undergraduate nonfiction, and so i was reading, actually, a very good personal essay. But i always have many things in my bag with me, and i was also just starting to dip into a book for the second time called h, h, h, h by a french writer. And its walking this terrific line between historical fiction and history. The subject is a great one. It could be, you know, a historical thriller. Its about the only successful plot to assassinate one of hitlers top, top, top generals. But he starts off wanting to write historical novel, then he starts questioning all the conventions and conceits of historical fiction. Then he starts to question what history, in fact, history arranges, you know . History shapes things so that you could call certain decisions close to lie or heavy interpretation as truth. But then he creates these wonderful scenes, you know, but says, okay, you know, its a scene based on fact but, you know, its a scene. Its in my head. So you keep moving in and out of the story which is overwhelming. And the making of the story and the limits and the prejudices and the, you know, the tonalities of this writer in the grip, you know, in the grip of the research, the narrative. So its exciting. Im really interested right now in books that are moving between, drawing on history or various nonfictional forms and techniques and fictional ones. So, you know, i had just finished eduardo galeanos threevolume genesis which is a history, a challenge history of latin america. Based on millions of sources but also with interior monologues. So this is kind of my obsession right now. Thats going to bring me naturally to our historian on this panel, t. J. Stiles. Is this working . Okay. So same question, what was i reading on the way here . Yes. And why. Actually. Yeah, im going to lie, i read all of tolstoys work on the plane. [laughter] i had some notes for him also. No, i was reading, i just started reading billy lynns long halftime walk. Somebody remind me of the name of the author, hes a well known author whos beloved ben . Thats right, ben fountain. Thats right. And, you know, this has often been praised as one of the best novels about the experience of the wars in iraq and afghanistan. And, you know, im interested in, as somebody who writes nonfiction, i see myself as both playing a role specifically as a biographer both being be a historian and also being a writer. And that, you know, biography is about the world and the outer world and, in my case, the making of the modern world, but its also following someones life, you know, through, as they move through the world can and trying to understand, you know, the person and trying to evoke something that you ultimately cant get to in nonfiction is something that i try to do. And so im always reading fiction. I actually read for pleasure much more fiction than nonfiction. So having just written this book about someone who went through war, terrible, the nations costliest war in our history, George Armstrong custer in the civil war, and he came out of it with his romantic mindset, ive really been interested in recent writing about, you know, our experience overseas. And so, you know, i love phil clydes work, redeployment, which is absolutely amazing. And so i just picked this up. And it just is a wonderful experience of getting inside the mindset of soldiers who, you know, are not the kind of guys who themselves are going to be writing literary fiction. And it really, you know, its just really spectacular. And, you know, also i like reading the stuff right now because, you know, we talk about the literary life. Its very much like that of a soldier in war which is long, long periods of tedium punctuated by brief moments of utter terror. So its kind of [laughter] maybe its not the same thing, but anyway all right. Rick . Am i allowed to be reading four books at the same time . Yes. cuz i brought a big pile of books. Im on book tour, and i brought a pile of books to sort of satisfy every mood. And so i they dont call him moody for nothing. [laughter] believe it or not, ive herald that one before. [laughter] ive heard that one before. So i brought two novels, dirty girls which is about africa, great book. Steve erickson, the great, speculative fiction, literary fiction crossover guys book art decks which starts with a really amazing jefferson and Sally Hemings passage, and then i brought because all right, so heres the problem. Im on book tour, and i can never sleep. So i brought the dullest book imaginable to try to help me sleep. [laughter] thank you. And who are you going to insult . [laughter] im here to tell you that the dullest book imaginable is hideacres being in time. So i brought german philosophy with me to read in the middle of the night if i got really, really insomniac. And then i totally bogged down on that. So on the road i bought Elvis Costellos memoir which is called unfaithful sons in disappearing ink, and its the best music book ive read in some time. I have a guilty pleasure sideline in music books. So all of the books got set aside while i read that in a famished state. The inspiration for by the book came out of a book that ive been keeping, a kind of journal of sorts that i call bob for book of books, and ive been keeping this journal since i was 17 where i write down all the books ive read. So unlike normal adolescents, i didnt write about love affairs or angry disputes or just general despair, i just wrote down what i read. But looking back on it, it sort of tells the story of not just where i was at that time sort of in my real inner life, but also how i came to read what ive read. I could see a trajectory. If i was in a George Elliot phase or if id been confined to books that i was buying while backpacking through china and just had to pick up whatever i could find left in hotel rooms. So im curious always in finding out what leads people to read what they read . I do have a dog in this race. Id like to believe that its book reviews that motivate people always. [laughter] but i know that there are book clubs, and people go into bookstores still, and theres word of mouth, and you might realize something online or in print or just have a favorite author. So i just want to go down the panel here and find out how you decide what youre going to read next. You know, if its pure choice, i do it pretty much the way i choose what music im going to listen to. Its some little thing in me says this is what you need, you know . You need this rhythm, you need this harmony. Sometimes its someone i want to imitate, sometimes its someone thats, oh, god, im feeling noncourageous here today. Give me a dose of George Bernard shaw because i have to write something forceful and sound convinced, you know . And some days you just need to imagine something that hasnt imagined you, so you read some totally alien book. Other times you need to in some way fee see some, what you think is some notion of yourself reflected, you know . So then you might go for, you know, some memoir, some novel about a world you know. But, you know, its really answering, you know, different parts of the psyche and intellect almost on instinct. Brad . I think for me every book is, chooses almost the Supreme Court definition of pornography which is you know it when you see it. I feel like books almost choose you. You dont choose them all the time. Sometimes it may be a review, but when i trust the reviewer. I tend to be much more skeptical now. I really, really care about who that reviewer is now. Used to be you could put up look at the blurbs on a movie or a book, and youre like, wow, the New York Post said so and so, so it really has to be a person i trust. I will say sometimes its just that, i know i leave it a lot to chance, but my son was assigned, and i was telling you as we were walking in, he was assigned lord of the flies. Ive never read it. Its always been on my list, and we just never read it in junior high school. I was, like, this is my calling, i want to read something with my child and experience it the same way at totally different levels. So i just let faith kind of pick that one. You know, that Supreme Court decision is so useful as an answer to so many questions. [laughter] is there pretty much lead my life by that really. [inaudible] sloan . Hello . Yeah . But only if i touch this . Be oh, yeah, were good. Hi. You know, its funny because for a long time i worked in book publishing, so i worked for can knop be of, and it was my job to read so many books, about two or three a week. Which is a lot only because you have to be paying attention. You cant just fly through it, because youre going to be publicizing them. So i happened to work for a very good, very literary house, so i was feeding my brain things that, to margos point be, it wanted to be fed anyway. Which is also, i like that. Its almost like, you know, when you these health cookbooks that come out that say what you should be eating to be healthy, but not to say you shouldnt buy them, but dont you already know and youre just not doing it . Dont you know that blueberries and salmon and kale are good for you and you shouldnt be eating pizza before you go to bed . You know this youre going to make many authors here, cookbook authors here unhappy by revealing that secret. I know, i shouldnt go off on it, but i really mean it as sort of an analogy for what you want to realize and what you know you should be reading. And, you know, if you give yourself a good amount of junk, you can give yourself a good amount. And the way i decide now and the way i used to decide was honestly what i had to work on, because i didnt have much time. And now that i quit my job about five years ago, its just an exhilarating feeling of being able to read whatever i want. I think, oh, my gosh, this is what people do . This is amazing. And, you know, ill go into my local independent bookstore, and theyre wonderful, and thats [inaudible] in manhattan. And for the first time in my life i find myself east asking what either asking what i should read or a lot of times ill choose what to read is by refreshing ive read so much of the same kind of thing. Im short im sort of a short story fanatic, and ill move on to Something Else thats very different. Ill tell you what not to use. Dont use amazon reviews. [laughter] i like to collect really this is mindful of a book thats already been cited in the conversation. I like to read really bad reviews of moby dick on amazon so you can see the twostar reviews. This is the most tedious book ever. Where is the whale . When is the whale coming back . [laughter] the whales been gone for 300 pages. [laughter] i think everyones saying let desire be your guide, thats what were all saying, and i feel thats really important. But because youre here, im going to plug the better reviewing organs and say that not only the tbr, but also new york be review of books, book forum. And i really like rain taxi. Do you read rain taxi . Its a little indie book reviewer out of indianapolis, totally excellent. Okay. Well, sometimes its a mix of questions. I mean, part of that, you know, what do i need to feed my brain. I really like that answer. Theres some sort of intuitive side to just what you feel like you need. Theres a few answers to that question for me. I mean, one is sometimes you talk about needing to read for work, but specifically time for reading for pleasure, because i do a lot of research. But it crosses over a little bit. Like, if i have an event with someone, if im, you know, doing a conversation with someone even if its not a part of my tour, of course i want to go and read their work. So i read i did an event before my book came out with adam johnson. We had a conversation about fiction and nonfiction. So i hadnt read the orphan masters son yet, and i hadnt read fortune smiles, and i was totally blown away. My wife and i were fighting over the books, and we went out to dinner with him and his wife after, and it was a wonderful experience. And the flip side is then people i know, you know, i know them, i have some sort of professional connection, im interested in their work. And ive become huge fans. I had a fellowship at the new york public library, and i really felt out of place because Jennifer Eagan and nathan englander, fantastic literary biographers, a lot of other people were there. And, you know, i started to read their stuff because i knew i them. And, of course, like, they write wonderful, wonderful bookings. So, and then sometimes i think i want to read fiction that relates to themes or things that im trying to do like my current interest in reading about the iraq war, i want to know more about that experience, and im trying to understand more about kind of almost retrospectively what it is that im trying to write about. And sometimes, you know, i did the same thing when i was working on this book about custer where i wanted to think about, you know, fiction, about, you know, people so i went back and i read a lot of tolstoys shorter stuff based on his experiences as a soldier. Some of which is amazingly applicable. And isaac baubles work, cavalry stories, etc. Just fantastic stuff that is universal. And gave me, i think i understood cus kerr far custer far better are from reading tolstoys writing, the ray. And he talks about a character who is just like custer. I felt like thousand i understand him now i understand him. Sometimes its what i need, sometimes its just for pleasure. When i read nonfiction for fun, its often a field i never do any work in at all. So i love classical history. Im never going to write about ancient greece or rome, so its fun to read about it because i have no idea when theyre completely wrong. Its interesting that you bring up tolstoy, i was talking to the executive editor of the New York Times the other day, we were talking about afghanistan, and someone had told him and he then read it and agreed that if you want to read one thing to help you understand afghanistan, it was tolstoy writing about chechnya, of all things. I want to go just a little bit deeper into the question of why you choose what to the read to get at sort of a fundamental be question, why we read. I was at my own Book Club Last year, and we were having a heated debate about one book or another, and someone just sort of stopped the conversation and said, well, to the group, why do you read . Its a very simple question, but theres a lot of ways to answer it, and i want to ask everyone here if you could distill it into sort of one sentence, i read because, how would you answer that . How would you fill that in . Or i read to, i read in order to. I am going to invoke that old word, escape. I read to escape from parts of my life and myself, and i read to escape to Something Else that i know i want or need or must have or well, im going over my sentence. Yeah, so its an escape from and an escape to. Lots of motivation going on in escape. Not a simple word. Thats a variation on my own which is i read to be transported. Brad . I was going to say i want to look through someone elses eyes. I feel like its the one moment, especially in a book, where you can really sort of see through someone elses pupils and experience their world. But i do think as i get older, i think in the beginning, you know, from a little kid when i fist got that Library First got that library card, but as i get older; i feel theres a subcongresses thing in me subconscious thing in me that wants to connect. There is something rewarding and nurturing when you read a book and someone else has read it and you get to explore that. I remember, i mean, i feel like all of my closest friends in writing are people who i connect with and we share that love of a certain book. I remember junot diaz or even neil, we just love the same things, and that connection is just, theres some kind of i dont know, maybe its nurturing, maybe its something, but just that brings you together that is more than i think and in one sentence, that was brad. [laughter] sloan . Still on. There we go. I mean, this is going to be sort of repeating whats already been said in a way but i think with a slight twist. I read for empathy, and i read for entertainment, and i just pray for crossover because its not you know, theres a sort of magic that happens when that crosses over. The authors that im thinking of are not just nonfiction authors, but lori moore or michael cunningham, tobias wolf, jim shepard, he has a tiny, slim book called project x that you should i mean, dont leave now. [laughter] were all in the middle of talking, but then afterwards. Maybe go pick it up. And i read to be moved when im not looking. I mean, i know it sounds i mean, you want to feel like youre in good hands with any author, theres a relationship of trust, but i also want to be laughing until the very end when i get kind of punched in the gut a little bit. I kind of read for the language. At the end of the day, if it doesnt sing somehow, if its not leaping off the page, im going to find myself impatient. So for me even if theres the issue of translation thats in the way, the language has to go somewhere and to something particularly special or else im going to turn elsewhere. Im reminded of my son was 2, i think, he had a favorite book, and, you know, i came into his room, and he had the book on the floor open, and he was trying to get his foot inside the book. He was literally trying to get inside the book. [laughter] and, you know, thats just such a, you know, its cute and makes a nice story, but thats, you know, thats the experience you want when youre reading. And, you know, reading for information is interesting. Sometimes something is not immersive, but its just a good story, you want to know what happens next. And thats, you know, i dont turn up my nose at that at all. But that feeling of later when he was, i think, 5, and he really got into comic books, and i did this thing where i bought all of the marvel classics. You know, theyve republished the original marvel comic books, the original spiderman be, i thought this is americas mythology. You love superheroes, lets start with the classics. And i remember, and he loved batman. I wish gotham city were real, i want to live in gotham city you know batman started because his parents were dead. [laughter] exactly. Its a little disturbing. But, you know, its to know people, to get inside somebody elses head, to live in that world and to understand, you know, i mean, i love reading fiction that has i talked like, about, you know, reading war stories, veterans stories, but, you know, i love edith wharton. I love getting inside the lives of people, you know, of women, of people of completely different cultures, of different eras. But, you know, when you really get a great writer who immerses you in that experience, theres nothing like it. No other medium does it for me the way that a great book does. So, you know, ultimately, thats why also not to sound stupid on panels like this, you have to read. [laughter] i, that brings me to another subject dear to my heart. I always, i have little patience with people who disparage childrens literature because its what we read when we are children that makes us readers, that makes lifelong readers. And its those books often that we turn to when we have children and that we think back on when we think about what inspires us. So id love everyone on the panel to just describe what their life was like as a childhood reader, what kind of books they had, the books that were dear to them, the heroes and heroines that inspired them. All right. Were going to start again with t. J. Back to superheros. By the way, im going to say hi to the people over here that cant see me behind the podium. Yeah, its interesting because when i was little, i loved comic books, but my father had this, like, 1950s idea that comic books were pad for kids and, you know were bad for kids and, you know, taught them to play pool and awful things like that. So it was like this special pleasure because it was forbend, you know . Iron man is really going to turn you into a bad kid. I guess you would, because you become a drunk and etc. But so that was, like, you know, the kind of furtive pleasure and having to go to a friends house to read comic books. It was great. And then as i got a little older and i started to read real novels, i had the same experience of having, you know, friends who were recommending books. And, you know, we started to read count of monte cristo, the three musketeers, you know, Science Fiction like dune that was just, like, you know, it was just this amazing add venture that, you know adventure, you know, that was living out. And that pleasure of kind of the adventurous life even though now, you know, i write about an adventurous life, and im finding the dark side, and im thinking about what its like, theres still something about that, you know, just that pleasure of somebody putting themself in peril and how are they going to get out of it. Inside of me theres something really deep that i love ant that. So i about that. So i find myself writing about often detestable people, but they have these physically dramatic lives, and i think that goes back to what i read when i was a kid. Like many people, i have that sort of lifechanging experience with where the wild things are. [laughter] by Maurice Sendak, and i love all of sendak, sort of the thorny, prickly intensity was moving to me then and still is. And ive had occasion to think back as an adult, i have a 6yearold daughter, so shes into many of these books. Ive had occasion to go back to where the wild things are and try to figure out what about it is so remarkable. And i think, you know, sendak was an acute and very intellectual thinker about why Childrens Books were valuable and what was important about them. And i think where the wild things are is about young in a way. Its about the unconscious and the way that can kids, you know that kids, you know, are sort of like, theyre like icebergs. Theres a little part of the top, this conscious, and then theres a huge lower section that they dont really have access to. And i think in retrospect thats part of what that books about. And its why its so resonant for kids, and its still resonant for me now. I just i just want to say that that book is, like, about the reading experience, you know, where the kid descends into this other world, or ascends, i dont know how you want to put it. Youre right. Its so powerful because you live that experience Everyone Wants to talk about Maurice Sendak. Just as an aside, i interviewed him a couple years before he died and he talked about that book and talked about, you know, children are little beasts. Were all really little beasts. And another aside about that book which i think is in dear genius which is a collection of letters by u. S. Rah nordstrom from Ursula Nordstrom who was the editor of sendak and many other amazing Childrens Book authors of that period, and there was a dispute over the last line of that book. The editors wanted to change it, you know . He comes back from where the wild things are, and he comes back to his dinner, and Maurice Sendak had written and it was still hot. And they wanted it to be warm or lukewarm, they wanted him to have somehow have suffered for his indiscretion chasing the dog with a pitchfork and all that. But he was very insis tent, sendak, that, no, he comes back, and the dinner is still hot. I love that, thats beautiful. So i have sort of a formative splatter painting when i was a kid. My parents were literate people but not hyperliterary. So we had, you know, like shelves of, you know, the yellow spines of National Geographics as far as the eye could see and a little bit of robin cook. And my dad had spent some time in ireland, so we had [inaudible] but these are not really Childrens Books, although my mother did read me all of gone with the wind when i was a kid. But i wasnt even sure what to read. I mean, they read to me alice in wonderland, certainly, very formative. I remember reading the secret garden and my mind being blown. And really for the same reason that where the wild things are, this escapism and the idea that its still hot, and you can travel through time in this portal, and nothings changed. You know . You can have these adventures that lets you out a little bit. The escapism we look for as adults, but its just so much more visceral and active as a kid. And then i went to a book fair, but i still wasnt sure what to read. And i remember i went to a book fair at a church in New Hampshire when i was, like, 10, and we could pick up two books. And i picked up i really did not know what to do and i picked up the far side and Thomas Hardys far from the men in the crowd. You were on the far section. And i still have the thomas hardy with all the words i didnt know underlined like various, you know . Figure out that one later. And the first time i think i remember falling in love with writing though was i finally when i was in middle school, and it was funny, it went back to the beginning, we read double [inaudible] by james joyce. And there was a short story, and i dont know if everyones familiar with it. The gist of it, very quickly, a kid has a thing for his older next door neighbor, and he asks her to go to the fair, and she cant go. But she says, oh, you know, bring me back something. He is so excited, he has this crush, you know, he has this mission. He goes and he wanders the fair all day, and finally he goes up to a stall at the very end of the day, and i think he sees like a blue vase, and he says to the Woman Working the stand, oh, can i see that, but he realizes that hes pulled her from a conversation with two other gentlemen her anal. She looks at her age. She looks at him and gives him the same smile and says how can i help you . Never mind, he walks away. I think what changed me when i was little with mike grandmother given me that library card that was a big deal for me. I remember she took me to the Brooklyn Public Library and it was so far from her house the librarians said this is your section. I remember thinking, these are mine. I thought this was awesome, right. The first 1i remember reading from there was agatha christie. I remember coming home with murder at the vicarage. I did not know what of vicarage was, i was a was a jew in brooklyn. I just remember sitting there and and there is a chapter one there is a dead body. That was just amazing to me. Theres Something Special in there that its the imagination and a special way. The one that did it for me that maybe comeback was it judy bloom. Judy bloom bloom was just it. I remember it started in an almost obvious cliche way, it was the first book that i thought she was writing about me. Then i remember hitting puberty and liking girls and her book are you there god its me margaret, that was like an instruction manual to me. To this day, she is a hero to me. The books that stick with me are the books, not that i enjoy the most but the books that at that moment in my life i needed. I really, really needed. They were just like life preservers. When you are very little, reading comes through the ear a lot. I got red to buy my mother, she read a lot of poetry, i especially love nonsense poetry. Lewis carroll, so it is language separated from the usual meaning and that to me was absently wonderful. You could hear and read simultaneously and words and rhythms would do unexpected things. Also, in my house and certainly in my head, at least, early on words on the page and being read to got mixed in with a lot of words used at home. So gilbert and sullivan, those are both in some way outgrowth of nonsense poetry. In my day we had a book of folk song which covered everything from blues to early bluegrass. You play them on the piano but then you would recite them, you would sing them, all spiritual. Now i am going to do a shout out to sean for secret garden and a little francis. These girl books with heroines and huge for a young girl and little women. Speaking of books at a certain point, little women. Okay. Im. Im going to ask one final question of the panel, i can rest 20 more. One of the questions i asked him by the book is if you could recommend a book for the president what would that one book be. If you could you could bring a book to an island, what would that book be . Im going to ask because we have a room here readers, if there is one book that you think and you want to evangelize and say, what one book would you recommend whether it is something great you read this year or something that you always have to good good reader. What would that book be . We will go no order. Just as he think of it. Will actually what i would recommend to the president and also something that i just love and so many people are this is kind of one of those things where you recommend a story such a copout because of course you could read the story it is so intimidating to a lot of people. These gigantic novels. But it was like a war and peace and 150 pages. It goes bizarre at the local level and crosses culture boundaries. Its amazing story and amazing piece of story. Its an astonishing piece of writing and unfortunately extremely appropriate also. That was a book about afghanistan, correct . I am going to go live at don lake keith ho tate today im really into the pre19th century classics right now. This is a good one, its an adventure story, a dream story, love love story, its incredibly funny. There are few novels that are is funny. The editha growth translation is the want to go. And you can read all of these writers here at the miami book festival. Im good to go with something current. Hilo by jed wittig. We do an interview show at my house and no offense to anyone at my panel, the book, the person i invited to my house last night for dinner was the captain underpants. It unlocked reading for my kids. My son read 12 books in three weeks. Suddenly he was a reader. I wanted to shake that man down. Margo question. Emily dickinson. Thank you so much to the authors on this panel. Thank you. [applause]. Can we have a roundabout plots for authors . Thank you very much. Let mac
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