Frequently Asked Questions
Can you recommend any authors?
I’ll probably forget a couple, but off the top of my head: Vladimir Nabokov, Jeffrey Eugendies, John Irving, Haruki Murakami, George Orwell, Nicole Krauss, Colum McCann, Wells Tower, Raymond Carver, Cormac McCarthy, Milan Kundera, Arundhati Roy, David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, J R R Tolkien, J K Rowling, Jonathan Safran Foer, Lousia May Alcott, Charlotte Bronte, Ray Bradbury, Roald Dahl, J M Coetzee, Carlos Ruiz Zafon (for Shadow of the Wind, not the atrocity that was The Angels’ Game), Michael Cunningham, Deb Olin Unferth, Sarah Manguso, Darin Strauss, Hermann Hesse, Truman Capote and Jon McGregor.
Can you recommend any poets?
Established poets I like include: E E Cummings, John Donne, John Milton, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Carol Ann Duffy, Seamus Heaney, W H Auden, Phillip Larkin, Don Paterson, Khalil Gibran, William Blake, Allen Ginsberg, John Keats, Pablo Neurda and Fernando Pessoa. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few, but you get the idea. Not fully established, but who I also love (and you can find by Googling) are Lisa Zaran and my close friend, Zoe Migicovsky.
What book should I read/do you recommend?
My reviews should give you a pretty decent idea of what I like, and if I said I enjoyed a book, obviously that means I’d recommend it. For a list of books I really love, check out this post and this one and this one.
Are there any romance books you can recommend?
Well, I’m not a romance reader, really; but books I’d happily recommend that have to do with love, sexual desire and romance but wouldn’t be called ‘romance books’ are: The Time Traveler’s Wife, By Nightfall, The Easter Parade, Love Letters of Great Men, Written on the Body, Looking for Alaska, Lolita, One Day, Love Poems by Carol Ann Duffy, The Sorrows of Young Werther.
Where can I find your past reviews?
They’re clearly linked at the top of my page, or through my “book review” tag.
How do you find time to read while studying?
This is something I’m asked often. I think the boring, but entirely true answer is you can do anything you want if you manage your time right. Swap “time to read” for any other activity, and see what the answer is. “Do you find time to go out, whilst studying?” “Do you find time to work out, whilst studying?” “Do you find time to watch films, whilst studying?” “Do you find time to travel, whilst studying?” If your answer is yes to anything you swap out for — and let’s face it, very few people just study and do nothing else — then you also have time to read. It’s all about time management. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not great at divvying up my time well. The reason books come out on top is because it’s something I’m not willing to let slide. But ask me if I feel like I have time to work out when I’m at uni, and I’ll make a million excuses. None of us are perfect. But if you want to read, it’s immensely easy to do it. One of the biggest tips: carry a book with you at all times, and read during the “dead” minutes of the day — on the bus, in a queue, between lectures, waiting for the bus, waiting for a friend to turn up, etc. Go to bed a half hour early with a book, and viola! Half an hour of reading.
So me, personally? Yes, I have time to read when I’m studying. I don’t read as much as when I’m on holiday, but I read often.
How do you have the ability to read a lot of books at the same time?
Well, I have to juggle university texts versus pleasure reading anyway. But for the most part it’s because they’re all different — I switch between essays, poetry, plays, novels and short stories. For instance, I find it more difficult to read two novels at the same time.
What attracts you to a book? Is there anything in particular you look for in choosing a book?
Well, at different stages of my life I went through different characteristics that I looked out for. At the moment I’m looking for fantastic writing and a unique style. It’s why I’m going through so much modern fiction and classical literature. Any book not written fantastically stylistically I have no interest in. I want to read a book and just marvel at how someone could construct a sentence so beautifully, I want to see life on the page but written in such a way that it makes everyday, mundane events fit inside a fairy tale.
I’ve also actually found that I’m far more interested in reading essays and lectures these days. I’m greatly enjoying it. It’s a great change of pace.
How many hours do you spend reading every week?
No bullshit? About an hour a day at least, usually, though normally not a successive hour, just minutes spread throughout the day. When I’m a bit free and I’m enjoying what I’m reading, usually about two hours a day. When I’m on the bus or train to places I get stretches of time to just read, so I ended up reading for three or four hours on days like that. When I’m properly free of all distraction, between three to four hours anyway.
I think the important thing for me, which I think I’ve mentioned before, is to always be reading. So as long as I’m in the middle of a book I’m fine. When I go for days without reading (which happens, definitely, especially as a student) or when I’m not in the mood, I get annoyed with myself. But if you’re a reader you shouldn’t force it anyway, sometimes we need a break (though I always find it hard to believe).
Also, as far as I’m concerned, even though I would love to be reading for four or five or six hours a day everyday, I also want to watch my shows, I want to go to the beach, I want to hang out with friends, I want to cook for my friends, I want to bake, I want to go out dancing, play bad guitar, I want to take long walks that lead nowhere, I want to go out of town for the day, I want to travel, I want to watch sport I’m passionate about (like Wimbledon, Premier League, and although it’s not an annual thing, the Football World Cup) — and I do all of that. Books accompany me everywhere, there is always one in my bag. But I also am happy to put them down and do the million other things that I’m interested in.
I’m visiting London and was wondering if you could recommend any bookshops in those areas?
My favourites in London are Slightly Foxed, most of the secondhand shops on Charring Cross (especially Any Amount of Books), the book fair under Waterloo bridge and charity shops, of course. I know friends who find books really cheaply at garage sales (for like 10p or 20p a book!) but I’ve never been lucky enough to know about them in time. I love London Review Bookshop, which although it’s not secondhand, is independent and hosts wonderful events. Cheap books can also be found at Fopp.
Where do you buy your books?
I buy my books from Amazon, The Book Depository, The Book People, Waterstone’s, Hatchard’s, Fopp’s, and various secondhand bookstores, including Slightly Foxed Books, Any Amount of Books, etc. I also buy books at charity shops. Basically anywhere books are sold I’ll buy them.
Do you have any other tumblrs?
Yes. I post my photography on A Burst of Colour and my essays/general thoughts on Discourse on Life.
What are some of the book tumblrs you follow?
I follow a few. My favourites are walkwhilereading, sashawantsmore, predatorywaspobserver, maybeandroid, feelinganddreaming, bodywithoutorgans, booksinthekitchen, booklover and planetickets.
Where do you live? Where are you from?
I live in Scotland and I’m from Bahrain.
Have you always wanted to study English Literature?
Yes, I did always know I wanted to study English Lit. I’ve been telling my parents that what I wanted to do since I was 9. It wasn’t until I was 17 and applying for universities that I decided that I wanted to do Psychology as well. I didn’t think a straight-up English Lit degree would be enough for me, and I was right. I’ll never be a critic. I love reading books and I love talking about them, I love writing fiction and essays and poetry, but I do not like have to dissect things I feel should be left alone, I don’t like how much I bullshit my way through essays.
I wouldn’t have done it any other way. I wouldn’t have done just Psychology, for instance. But despite knowing English Lit was what I wanted to do from a young age, equally important was realising that for me, it wasn’t enough.
Where can I find your books?
My first book is unavailable now, but my poetry collection, Behind The Mask: A Folded Heart can be purchased on Amazon.
Do you have any future plans to write a novel?
One of the repercussions of writing and publishing is that people always ask what you’re writing now, and what you’re publishing next. In interviews and when most people ask I normally give vague illusions to an upcoming work, which is what I was going to do now, but for some reason I changed my mind.
Honest answer: I’ve been writing less. For years I wrote poetry, lots and lots of it. I still do, but at a ridiculously slow rate. When my writing block first started, I used to get frustrated and incredibly upset every time I thought about it, but I don’t anymore. I’ve been coming around to the thought that maybe right now I need to keep doing what I’m doing, and not focus on the writing. Writing is in my blood, it is one of my biggest passions and I know I will come back to it. That said, I’ve been experimenting with short stories, and when a poem comes to me, I always write it down.
Will I write a novel? I don’t know. I can definitely see myself doing it, but unlike if you’d asked me this question a few years ago, I won’t answer in the definitive. You will see my writing in the future. It could be more poetry, it could be short stories, and if it’s what feels right, it could be a novel. For now, though, I’m perfectly content to spend my writing time reading and experiencing the world.
