While he was growing up, Geoff Herbach "wanted to play for the Green Bay Packers or join the Three Stooges." That explains the sports comedy mash-up that characterizes Stupid Fast, his first YA novel, and its companion novels, including I'm with Stupid (Sourcebooks, May 7). When he's not writing, Herbach teaches writing at Minnesota State, Mankato.
On your nightstand now:
2010 Best American Short Stories. I've been using this collection for teaching, so I feel like I'm constantly reading it. Bluefish by Pat Schmatz. This is a YA novel I finished a while back. There are two points of view, one of which is in letter form. I keep reading those letters. I think I feel like writing letters. I've got the new George Saunders going on my iPad.
Favorite book when you were a child:
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien. Yeah, I was one of those kids.
Your top five authors:
Hmmm. This is not a stable list, but right now I'll say: George Saunders, Jennifer Egan, John Green, Junot Diaz, Sherman Alexie.
Book you've faked reading
A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy. I was very busy drinking beer that semester, but wrote the essay exam anyway (unsuccessfully).
Book you bought for the cover
King Dork by Frank Portman. That was lucky, because I don't know if I'd be writing YA without having seen it and read it--there were a few books that caused my interest.
Book that changed your life:
I read Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut in eighth grade. That sort of changed everything. Before that, I'd gone through a couple of years of not reading. After puberty, my fantasy bug died and nothing seemed interesting, until Billy Pilgrim.
Favorite line from a book:
"Just before I doze off, I counsel myself grandiosely: F--k concepts. Don't be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible. Stay open, forever, so open it hurts, and then open up some more, until the day you die, world without end, amen." --George Saunders from "The New Mecca" in Brain Dead Megaphone
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
I'd like to be 19 reading Franny and Zooey by Salinger again.