The paradox of the English country house is that its state of permanent decline, the fact that its heyday is always behind it, is part of the seduction, just as it is part of the seduction of books in general.
The main advantage of being a reviewer is that you read a lot. A lot of books get sent to you, and you have an amazing vantage point from which to observe what’s going on in contemporary fiction – not only genre stuff, the whole spectrum.
His crush went from exciting to depressing, as if he’d gone from the first blush of infatuation to the terminal nostalgia of a former lover without even the temporary relief of an actual relationship in between.
Supposedly I’ve got traces of an English accent, though I can’t hear it. I must have inherited it from my mother, who’s English, and then I think it was exacerbated by the fact that I live with an Australian.
I’m happy to report that ‘The New Press’ is still in business to this day. But not thanks to me. I was a really bad publishing intern.
I’ve stayed in houses that were in the country, and in England, but I’m still not sure that I’ve stayed in an English country house.
It’s a terrible thing for a book, when you feel like you’re supposed to like it.
My book group has one rule: no books for adults. We read young adult fiction only.
Oddly, the meanings of books are defined for me much more by their beginnings and middles than they are by their endings.
The novel is a highly corrupt medium, after all – in the end the vast majority of them simply aren’t that great, and are destined to be forgotten.
When I was 35 I realized that I was still thinking a lot about what it would be like to go to Narnia. To really go – not just in a daydream, or in a children’s book, but what it would actually feel like, physically, psychologically, every other way. The idea was haunting me.
And I’m not as young as I once was. At my age, I don’t have time to be bored.
I went to college at Harvard, then did three years of graduate school at Yale. At both places I studied comparative literature. People find it odd that I went to both Harvard and Yale, and I guess it is odd, but that’s just what people did where I grew up.
Escapism has value, even if I don’t know what its value is, exactly. Maybe it’s just part of some healthy way that we deal with the world.
I think every fantasy reader secretly believes they know how magic works.
I studied the cello for a long time, from when I was little up through college.
I recognize that on paper, you can’t really tell that I’m a fan or a nerd.
A novel with a bad middle is a bad book. A bad ending is something I’ve just gotten in the habit of forgiving.
Becoming an author changes your attitude too. Once you see where books come from, and how they’re made, they never seem quite as sacred again.
Being a writer can be isolating. It’s good to be among readers and booksellers.