What book(s) are you reading?
Blue Pastures, by Mary Oliver; Rita Angus: An Artist's Life, by Jill Trevelyan; and Gith , by Chris Else.
What's good about them?
The Mary Oliver offers sane and insightful guidance to poets and naturalists.
The Rita Angus biography is illuminating about an extraordinary woman who in many ways went against the grain of her times; Gith is a new direction for Chris Else: it's a thriller, and it's fascinating to see a writer whose work I know well take such a different turn.
When do you read?
During any gap in conversation.
Do you ever abandon a book you don't like? Why?
Yes, because life is too short to waste time on bad art.
What book do you think everyone should read and why?
I can't resist recommending Kate de Goldi's The Ten PM Question, which I'm proofreading for work. It's for ages 12 to 112, and gives a marvellously rich picture of a young boy coming to self-awareness in the middle of a rambunctious, bewildering family.
Is there a book you've been meaning to get around to?
I've been meaning to reread Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass all year.
How do you choose what you are going to read next?
Freak compulsions; research demands of whatever I'm writing; recommendations from colleagues and friends; dazzling reviews by critics I respect.
What is your most recently published book or do have one coming out soon?
Spark (2008) published by Steele Roberts.
