The Writers Who Read series continues this week with Adrienne Celt.
Who are you?
Adrienne Celt, author of the novel The Daughters, which will be published by W.W. Norton/Liveright on August 3rd. (Elevator pitch: An opera singer, a family curse, motherhood & daughterhood, a deal with the devil, Polish misandrist fairytales.) I also draw a webcomic called Love Among the Lampreys.
What are three beloved books you first read before the age of 12?
– Half Magic, by Edward Eager
– The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
– The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
What is one book you are always recommending to friends and family (and maybe the local barista) as an adult?
Submergence by J.M. Ledgard
What is your book kryptonite–those unique elements in a book, beyond just great writing and three-dimensional characters, that make you unable to resist reading?
Oh, this is a great and tricky question. (Tricky, because I think these elements change for me sometimes.) I’m going to say clever wordplay, a character I can empathize with (of course, but it’s important), something on the border of reality and magic (this can tip over into actual magic, but it doesn’t have to), scientific guiding metaphors, ghosts, and a character who I start off despising and come to see as highly moral and loving under a gruff exterior. (A recent example of this: Mireille’s mother-in-law Lorraine in Roxane Gay’s novel An Untamed State.) I also like anything that’s just plain scary – but it has to be a bit “uncanny scary,” not just “despicable humanity” scary.
What is your ideal time and place to read?
On the couch with a window open, late morning/early afternoon in spring, a little physically tired from some previous exertion, cup of tea.
Which books have had the biggest influence on your writing?
This is really hard for me to say, because I don’t read any one book or type of book and try to imitate it – in fact, I try to do the opposite. But I think work that I really love influences me through inspiration, as does any work I have given a lot of thought to. So here’s a completely non-comprehensive list of stuff that comes to mind as nebulously “influential”: Pale Fire and Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov, Bough Down by Karen Green, Wittgenstein’s Mistress by David Markson, everything Marilynne Robinson has ever written, Haruki Murakami’s collection of short stories The Elephant Vanishes, The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino, Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively, Wild Dogs by Helen Humphreys, The Seas by Samantha Hunt, Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender, just about anything by Andrea Barrett or Peter Carey.
How do you balance reading and writing in your life?
This feels like it happens pretty naturally to me. I read hungrily, all the time; I write, hungrily, whenever I can. Sometimes I guess I get some creeping guilt that I should be writing when I’m reading instead, but rarely – and that’s more an issue of having a day job than anything. I want to spend the time I have on “real work,” but of course reading is as essential to a writer as writing is, so I try not to beat myself up about that.
Choose your preferred book form: ebook, physical book, or audio book?
Physical book, for sure. eBooks have their place in my life though (especially on short trips, with limited bag space), and audiobooks are essential for long road trips, or walking the dog (though I also listen to a lot of podcasts).
Do you consciously plan your future reading–i.e., set book goals, keep a TBR list, participate in book challenges or book clubs? Why or why not?
Not usually, because now that I’m done with my MFA program I try to read whatever I feel like – I think my intuition is generally a good guide for what I need. When I was younger, my mom would get me these huge stacks of books from the library and I’d inhale them, and that’s still my basic strategy: get a big stack of books, start at the top, move to the bottom. That said, now that I occasionally review books and want to keep informed about what’s coming out (and what my friends are writing), I do sometimes plan a bit more (like, ok I know I need to read X Book soon & that’s similar to Y Book I already read, so I’ll read Z book in between them as a palate cleanser). Also, I am a bit of a slave to my library books. Gotta get through those before they’re due!
What are you reading now?
I am in the middle of Kate Atkinson’s A God in Ruins, and (despite loving it) am cheating on it with Kathryn Davis’s The Thin Place (partially because the Atkinson is often very brutal in its wartime scenes; partially because the Davis is a library book. And also very good!).
You can find out more about Adrienne on her website or Twitter.