Has there been a book that was hard to get through, but worth it in the end?
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville. The author continually gets sidetracked down labyrinthian tunnels on a huge variety of subjects. On the plus side you learn about things that were important in the day but have long since disappeared.
What is one book that everyone should read and why?
At the risk of stating the obvious, the Bible. If you’ve never read it, you don’t actually know what’s in it. If you do read it, you get to take away something each time.
Do you agree that you should never judge a book by its cover?
This saying is so old it needs updating to ‘You should never judge a book by its movie.’ A book engages your imagination, and we all have different imaginations, so a cover, or a movie, restricts what you can imagine. Just sit down and read the book.
Who is your favourite author?
William Gibson. His novels ‘Mona Lisa Overdrive’, ‘Neuromancer’, and ‘Idoru’ show his view of a society that is saturated with ever evolving tech and AI that force our societies to change beyond our control, and how humans still manage to adapt.
Do you have a preferred genre and if yes, why?
What some people might call the ‘Hard Boiled Detective’ novels. Think Walter Mosley, Robert Crais, Elmore James or Australia’s own Peter Corris… The protagonist is typically a man who is flawed but trying his best in very difficult circumstances to right wrongs and make the world a better place, even if it is just on his block in a dirty city. Life can be like that.
Which book have you just finished or are currently reading?
It’s not actually a novel, but a book of images from Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama. His style of photography is much the same as mine.
