![]() A couple of books that really helped (which are epigrammed in the novel) were “American Chinatown: A People’s History of Five Neighborhoods,” by Bonnie Tsui, as well as “San Francisco Chinatown,” by Philip Choy. What do you read when you’re working on a book? And what kind of reading do you avoid while writing?įor this latest book, I did research for the first time. An ethnic enclave, say, or hedge funders living in Greenwich, or the population of Cell Block E, / or physicists in Los Alamos. I love books that are existential, asking who am I? How did I get here? That can happen anywhere: a suburban home, an alien planet, a dusty border town.Īlso, I don’t know if it’s a genre in the sense of being a section at the bookstore, but I am drawn to books and stories in which you get to enter a world that would otherwise be closed to outsiders. I love stories that have stories in them. I love books that are unclassifiable in terms of genre. Are there any genres that you especially enjoy reading, and any you avoid? Going down that rabbit hole, pulse racing (it happens!) and then I look up at the clock realizing school is almost out, the house will be full again soon, hoping time will just stop for a minute or an hour, so I can get in a few more pages.Īll of your books have played with genre expectations even as they explore genre itself as a theme. ![]() Being shown how to see reality through a different lens. Being introduced to concepts or frameworks or blind spots. Or finding out I know nothing about something I thought I knew about. For nonfiction, that chewy goodness of learning about something I know nothing about. Jumbles up the world or language or makes me see everything in a new way. If it’s fiction, and someone I haven’t read, a voice that excites me and scares me and makes me feel admiration and awe and envy all at the same time. Crack open a new book (novel, story collection, nonfiction), or a long magazine article. ![]() Sandwich, chips, bottle of cold beer or a can of La Croix, ideally peach-pear. Midday, kids at school, wife out running errands. It’s totally blowing my mind.ĭescribe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how). “Watchmen.” And I’m almost done with Season 1 of the HBO show. “The Nickel Boys,” by Colson Whitehead “The Topeka School,” by Ben Lerner “How to Do Nothing,” by Jenny Odell and “Nothing to See Here,” by Kevin Wilson (which I already finished, but keep going back to for individual sentences that crack me up). “If they ever realized how happy it makes me,” says Yu, whose new novel is “Interior Chinatown,” “they might start feeling like they’re being duped.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |