Nick DiMartino, a college bookseller for many years, author and more (see first question below), will begin to review books for Shelf Awareness occasionally. Here in a kind of introduction, he answers questions that we put to people in the industry from time to time:
Who you are:
I've been an out-of-control reader all my life. I was forced to move
bed and books to the family basement in my teens when my book
collection got out of hand. I've been a bookseller at University Book
Store in Seattle since 1970, the buyer for the little branch in the HUB
on the University of Washington campus. I was an active playwright in
the '70s and '80s, with four musicals and more than 20 plays in full
production. I have three novels in print--contemporary holiday
thrillers set in Seattle--written in the classic Victorian tradition of
Christmas ghost stories. For seven years I've promoted the best new
novel or memoir I could find each month as Nick's Pick and currently
host two friendly, member-seeking book clubs for University Book Store.
Two months ago I created a blog for my reviews of the best current
international fiction, NovelWorld.Squarespace.com.
On your nightstand now:
Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare. I've slowed down to savor
each chapter. I've read a lot of books about war seen through a kid's
eyes, but NONE like this little masterpiece from Albania, so
wonderfully funny and goofy and sad. I know everyone in this vertical
little mountain village made of stone.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Rinkitink in Oz by L. Frank Baum. Given to me by a cousin in a
box of old children's books, this was the seed of my book addiction:
the adventures of Prince Inga and his tubby, funny friend, King
Rinkitink, riding his grumpy goat. They'll be with me till the day I die.
Your top five prose fiction authors:
Marcel Proust, Anton Chekhov, Iris Murdoch, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Joseph Conrad
Book you've "faked" reading:
When Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains was chosen as the
University of Washington Common Book last year, I gave lip service to it as though I'd read
it for months. Then I was asked to interview Kidder on stage. I quickly
read the book. To my amazement and delight, I found it superb beyond my
wildest expectations.
Book you are an "evangelist" for:
When someone has a flight or beach vacation and wants a book that's easy, satisfying,
funny and sexy, a book that has it all, I always ask, "You've read The Book of Joe,
haven't you?" Jonathan Tropper's modern comic masterpiece is a quality
page-turner, pure reading pleasure, with complex characters and
wonderful plot surprises, from its walloping first sentence to its
triple-decker, straight-to-the-heart ending.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet. The old Bantam Modern
Classic cover was incredibly steamy. For a closeted Catholic boy, it
was irresistible. Confession: I was too scared and embarrassed to buy
the book, so I secretly tore off the cover and stole it from Washington
Book Store. I will burn in hell for this. Finally curiosity drove me to
be brave enough to return and buy it. The book turned out to be one of
the literary highlights of my life.
Book that changed your life:
The Plague by Albert Camus. I read it three times in the first
quarter of my freshman year, and it made me face morality in a world
without God. I think in my own way I've been trying to be Dr. Rieux
ever since.
Favorite line from a book:
"Love must never supersede the truth."--Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honourable Defeat
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust. I've read it all
the way through twice. I've barely touched the surface. It's a
life-transforming experience. Your ideas about what memory is and how
much you can ever know another person change forever.
Most upsetting novel:
The Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum. After the boy Tip has searched
through the entire book for the kidnapped Princess Ozma, the witch
Mombi finally reveals that she's disguised the Princess as . . . the boy
Tip! He's not really a boy at all. The hero has to be changed back into
a princess. Terrifying moral of the story to an eight-year-old reader:
that could happen to you.
Favorite new writer:
Rory Stewart (The Places In Between, The Prince of the Marshes).
Brave, even-handed, passionate, eloquent, engaged with the world,
helping to rebuild Kabul, he's my personal hero. He writes like an
angel and behaves like an honest and good man.