|
|
| photo: Ester Nader | |
Trevor Naylor is sales and marketing director of the American University in Cairo Press and Bookstores (there are six of them). His new book, Egypt Inside Out (AUC Press, January 21, 2020), explores Egypt off the beaten path. Naylor was previously global sales and marketing director for Thames and Hudson in London, where he also ran an independent bookstore. His writing combines his enthusiasm for Egypt, living and traveling there for more than 30 years, and his skills as a veteran publisher and bookseller. He is also the author of Cairo Inside Out, now in paperback.
On your nightstand now:
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith. Galbraith's series of thrillers entertains on multiple levels and, set in a part of London where I once worked, makes me slightly nostalgic.
The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures by Louis Theroux. Illustrating the hidden side of the U.S. not visible when I visit as a tourist, Theroux has a disarming charm both in his writing and on his TV series, which captivated both me and my children.
Favourite book when you were a child:
Dracula by Bram Stoker. I read this when I was about 12 years old and loved it, as I lived not far from Whitby. I would read and then dangerously walk the Dracula Trail.
Your top five authors:
Ray Bradbury. Norman Mailer. George Orwell. Naguib Mahfouz. Tom Wolfe.
Book you've faked reading:
Good question. Does that include books I've never finished? Unfortunately, that would include anything by Salman Rushdie.
Book you're an evangelist for:
At the moment I am urging everyone to read Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. The characters are excellent: quirky and believable, and the structure of the book sustains it to the final pages. If I were ever to write that "first novel," this is the book I would use as my roadmap.
Book you've bought for the cover:
ShÅgun by James Clavell. It turned out to be one of my favourite books ever.
Book you hid from your parents:
Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence. For obvious reasons, it would have been too complicated to explain.
Book that changed your life:
Western Europe on a Shoestring by Tony Wheeler, the co-founder of Lonely Planet. I was managing a travel bookshop at the time, and this book told me it was time to get out myself. I've now visited over 90 countries, and travel is a huge part of my life and writing.
Favorite line from a book:
"I think little of people who will deny their history because it doesn't present the picture they would like." --George MacDonald, Flashman
Five books you'll never part with:
Beyond the Blue Horizon: On the Track of Imperial Airways by Alexander Frater, an amazing book of travel writing, also The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer and The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich.
Book you most want to read again for the first time
The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden. This book cemented my fascination with Africa.
Why we read and why we have the urge to write:
Because there is no medium which both gives and takes creatively from us in such equal measure. It is the ultimate love/hate relationship that we have with books and the written word.