What were you reading when you were a teenager?
Rev Blackstone: Books on Zen
Dr Perkins: Not sure I read very much…but after some research asking my wife and my parents we’ve come to the conclusion it was mostly Bernard Cornwall's King Arthur trilogy.
Mr Boss: Lots of fantasy fiction – His Dark Materials trilogy definitely a favourite!
Dr Gardam: There were few if any books at home. I came from a family of coal miners who went straight down the 'pit' on leaving school at 14. Mr Lang, my English teacher at secondary school, introduced me to a paperback book club and I fell in love with reading. The book that made the greatest impression on me from my first year of reading (when I was in year 9) is One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Ms Padelford: I remember reading The Catcher in the Rye as a teenager – it was a very divisive book in my circle of friends. Some people really identified with Holden Caulfield and other found him excessively whiney.
Mr O'Keeffe: Anything from the library that had a yellow sticker in the back warning that the book’s content was of an ‘adult nature’ and may not be suitable for younger readers. This included the likes of Leslie Thomas (of The Virgin Soldiers fame) and many others whose names now escape me. When I picked a book off the shelves I turned first to the stamping page at the back to see if it had one of the magic yellow stickers ; this ‘reading from the back’ approach was, I think, responsible for many of my subsequent academic failings.
I have memories of reading the Beat Poets and anything vaguely countercultural (I was that kind of kid) and I also went through a phase of reading novels by Barry Hines and John Braine about angry young men living in gritty northern coalmining towns desperate to escape the confines of their class. For a teenage public schoolboy living in Surrey this was proof of the power of literature to take us to other worlds. Then there was Kingsley Amis, thrillers by Alastair MacLean and Frederick Forsyth. Also Tolkien and Agatha Christie.
What are you planning to read this summer?
Rev Blackstone: No fixed plans. But more of the Philokalia and writing by Ben Shahn.
Dr Perkins: Definitely some more Neal Stephenson (author of Anathem and the Baroque Cycle) – probably Zodiac or Snow Crash. Plus one of my favourite ‘new weird’ writers Charles Stross – he writes lots of great extrapolative sci-fi (see Accelerando) but also a series about Lovecraftian monsters from other dimension. Anyone who accidentally summons the beings by using advanced maths and computer algorithms has to be press ganged into a secret part of the UK government, a public sector department whose job is to keep them at bay, and which is therefore staffed by mostly reluctant end-of-the-world avoiders working for the civil service ... The latest book is much anticipated!
Mr Boss: I’ll be getting ready for my PhD, so lots on Marxism, human needs and democratisation.
Dr Gardam: I’ll be re-reading John le Carré's Smiley novels in anticipation of A Legacy of Spies which will be published in September.
Ms Padelford: I’ve just started rereading The White Album by Joan Didion – a really sumptuous collection of essays.
Mr O'Keeffe: The latest Montalbano. P G Wodehouse. Graham Greene. Maybe a ‘Big Russian’ (though more likely to be anything that catches my eye in library/charity shops that looks less challenging.
What/who is your all-time favourite book/writer?
Rev Blackstone: Tolstoy
Dr Perkins: Book: 1984 by George Orwell – no book has affected my thinking and subsequent reading (and even politics) more. I did read this while at school (NOT for GCSE!) and it set me off reading further dystopian future and political sci fi…something that I continue to enjoy. Writer, probably Iain Banks (and Iain M Banks for those that know the difference). Yes yes yes, I’m a sci-fi geek but he has a catalogue of non sci-fi which is terrific.
Mr Boss: I’ve always loved Iain M Banks and his culture novels, especially Excession
Dr Gardam: David Cornwell
[David Cornwell, aka John le Carré
]
Ms Padelford: Although I don’t like all of his novels, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen will always be one of my favourite books.
Mr O'Keeffe: It’s neck-and-neck between The Great Gatsby and Great Expectations. Both, as their titles suggest, are great. Middlemarch, though, is gaining ground as they near the finishing post and could possibly make it a three-way tie. Never bet against George Eliot in a horse race.
Who’s your favourite fictional character?
Rev Blackstone: the pavement artist in Rohinton Mistry’s Such a Long Journey
Dr Perkins: Too difficult…maybe 'Half-Cocked Jack', the King of the Vagabonds from Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle…or Bob Howard from the Laundry Files series by Charles Stross…
Mr Boss: At a push probably Mr Norrell from Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (you have picked up that I am keen on my sci-fi/fantasy/magic realism…)
[Mr Norrell from Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susannah Clarke: original illustration by Portia Rosenberg]
Dr Gardam: George Smiley
Ms Padelford: Hercule Poirot!
Do you have a favourite word/favourite line from a book?
Rev Blackstone: no
Dr Perkins: “see you on the road” – from Market Forces by Richard Morgan. You have to read the book to understand the context…
Mr Boss: Teaching political theory means I spend most days playing around with quotes! Hard to pick a favourite, but as this is the SPS Book Blog I’ll go for Isaiah Berlin: 'Freedom for the wolves has often meant death to the sheep.'
Dr Gardam: Too many I’m afraid.
Ms Padelford: 'doubleplusungood' from 1984
Mr O'Keeffe: ‘What’s aught but as ‘tis valued?’ (Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida) closely followed by ‘Nobody knows anything’, from William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade.
If you had to recommend one book that everyone should read, what would it be?
Rev Blackstone: The book of life.
Dr Perkins: 1984. Ok, that’s too easy…The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood - I read this not too long after the paperback came out, more dark near future sci-fi (yes, it IS sci-fi) and if you’re interested in politics read it!
Mr Boss: Probably Gerry Cohen’s Why Not Socialism? – a short and compelling case for a more equal, more compassionate society.
Dr Gardam: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Ms Padelford: I’d encourage anyone with an interest in science to read The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee. It’s a really well-written and fascinating account of how our understanding of genetics and genomics have evolved over the last three thousand years.
Mr O'Keeffe: Not Now, Bernard
Many thanks to Rev Blackstone, Dr Perkins, Mr Boss, Dr Gardam, Ms Padelford and Mr O'Keeffe for taking the time to reply to our questions: we wish them all the best with life beyond SPS. Have a great summer, and happy reading!!!
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