What Book…
Writer and filmmaker, Woody Allen
… are you reading now?
In The Garden Of Beasts by Erik Larson. I’m always fascinated by books on the Third Reich.
I’m sure I’ve read practically all the books on the lead up to the Second World War and its war criminals. I’ve read biographies of Hitler and Stalin, as well as the memoir by Albert Speer, Hitler’s Armaments Minister and right-hand man.
I’ve also read a lot of fiction on the matter and, of course, Elie Wiesel’s books and Hannah Arendt on the Eichmann trial.
Years ago someone did a study on which books sold the most. It concluded that books on cats, Nazis and golf were the biggest bestsellers commercially. So, some brilliant author came up with a book that had the title Golfing For Cats, with a big swastika on the cover. I almost bought it.
The book I’m reading now, I read years ago. It’s so riveting that it’s compelling to read again.
… would you take to a desert island?
I would want all the collections I could get – or any single collection – of the writings of S. J. Perelman. There’s no funnier writer who ever lived and I continually read him for inspiration.
I often regard my own writing as a dull homage to him. Whenever I take a flight, I’m never without a copy of the Perelman collection.
Early pleasure was found in J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye
If the plane hits turbulence and looks like we’re in trouble, while other people may pull out a Bible, I go right to my copy of Perelman and it gets me through my panic.
… first gave you the reading bug?
I don’t have the reading bug; I enjoy writing. I only read to be able to compete in the world and keep up my end of the conversation with the women I started dating, who were literate and, invariably, quite intellectual. Few books gave me pleasure; most were homework.
The exceptions, other than Perelman (which I mentioned), were The Catcher In The Rye by J. D. Salinger and A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin.
…left you cold?
Books that are often taught for whole semesters by college professors – James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake and Ulysses (to a lesser degree but still not much fun for me), and any number of modern novels that don’t have a nice, simple story about human beings that I care about.
What’s With Baum? By Woody Allen (Swift Press, £18.99) is available now from the Mail Bookshop
