On your nightstand now:
Jennifer Cody Epstein's The Painter from Shanghai, Jack O'Connell's The Resurrectionist, Ethan Canin's America America, Augusten Burroughs' A Wolf at the Table and too many others to count.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Alice in Wonderland. That, and the copy of Tropic of Cancer I discovered hidden in a drawer in my mother's bureau when I was about 13. Fascinating stuff . . .
Your top five authors:
Jane Austen, Flannery O'Connor, Andre Dubus (Sr.), Kazuo Ishiguro, Michael Cunningham.
Book you've faked reading:
Ulysses. I've attempted it half a dozen times and never could get through it and don't ever plan to try again. What's more, I think all the people who consider it the best book of the 20th century are just plain nuts. What a relief to finally get that off my chest.
Book you are an evangelist for:
Tales from the Town of Widows by James Cañón. A feast for anyone who relishes beautiful, intelligent writing infused with humor and humanity.
Book you've bought for the cover (and the title):
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.
Book that changed your life:
Charlotte's Web. To this day, I still find it difficult to kill spiders.
Favorite line from a book:
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Lord of the Rings. I feel a surge of pure envy whenever I see a young person reading it.
Books I wish I'd written:
Ann Patchett's Bel Canto, Michael Cunningham's The Hours, Nicole Krauss' The History of Love and the Harry Potter series.