Tag: Books
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The Truest Thing I Know
How do you write what people actually want to read? I don’t try to write what people want to read. That might sound strange. After all, if you are going to write something and put it out into the world, you hope that somebody will want to read it. I certainly do. It is satisfying…
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Muttley
If you could pick any fictional animal to be your lifelong companion,what would it be? If I could choose any fictional animal as a lifelong companion, I’m not sure I’d go for a dragon, a Pokémon, or some majestic creature from a fantasy world. I think I’d choose Muttley. Muttley is the scruffy cartoon dog…
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The Shipping News
If you had to switch lives with a fictional character for a week,who would you choose? I was asked an unusual question by an international student this week. They had identified Canada and Australia as two popular study destinations. Then came the personal question: If you could live anywhere, would you choose Australia or Canada?…
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Hannibal Lecter
Have you ever liked a villain more than the hero? Who and why? I found The Silence of the Lambs fascinating. Fascinating, and frightening. I’m not normally drawn to psychological thrillers, but Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins are brilliant in it. There is something about Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter that is difficult to look away from.…
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Voss
What’s the longest book you’ve ever read? I read Patrick White’s Voss many years ago. At around 450 pages, it is not especially long. But Patrick White is not light reading. His writing is dense, demanding and full of things to think about. I loved it. Every spare minute I could find, I was reading…
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The Unconsoled
Have you ever regretted reading a book — which one and why? I read Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled when it first came out. I’m not entirely sure why I picked it up, except that everyone seemed to be reading Ishiguro at the time. The Remains of the Day had appeared a few years earlier and…
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When Courage Becomes Contagious
What’s the most annoying trope in books or movies? I must admit that I am conflicted. When I was younger, I enjoyed the Dirty Harry movies. Harry Callahan is the lone, morally certain cop who sees what the system cannot or will not see. Bureaucrats, courts, procedures and superiors get in the way. Harry acts.…
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Five Apps, One Common Thread
What are your favourite 5 apps on your phone? These are the five apps that get the biggest workout on my phone: Kindle, AntennaPod, Australian Newspapers, BBC Sport and YT Music. Looking at the list, I realise they have something in common. They are not primarily endless feeds engineered to keep me there. They all…
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The Book That Beat Me
What’s a book you never finished but still think about? Many years ago I took The Brothers Karamazov on holidays because I thought this was what holidays were for. I imagined lazy afternoons with Dostoyevsky. A chair somewhere quiet. Maybe a cup of coffee. Enough uninterrupted time to wrestle with God and freedom and suffering…
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Happy Feet
Which fictional world would be the most fun to vacation in? If I could vacation in any fictional world, I think I’d choose Happy Feet. Partly because it would be fun. Antarctica, but with dancing penguins. Vast sheets of ice, deep blue water, enormous skies, music everywhere. There would be something wonderfully ridiculous about sliding…
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The Dancing Man
If you could go back and witness any historical event,which one would you pick? If I could go back and witness any historical event, I think I’d like to be standing in George Street in Sydney on 15 August 1945. There are bigger moments. More important places. More famous people. But I think I’d rather…
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Lunch with the Cat in the Hat
If you could have dinner with any fictional character who would it be? If I could have lunch with any fictional character, I would choose the Cat in the Hat. He would arrive without being invited. “You were thinking of me,” he would say, stepping through the door with his striped hat brushing the frame.…
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Writing That Fills Me
What’s one habit that has improved your life the most? When I first started writing as a hobby many years ago, I set aside one morning each week. It was a discipline, and for a while it worked. Eventually, though, it was crowded out. I stopped writing for myself during the years when I was…
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Ira’s Version
What is a book you think deserves a sequel? Some books do not need a sequel. They need another perspective. I wrote recently about how much I enjoyed Anne Tyler’s Breathing Lessons https://theafterword.blog/2026/05/16/a-single-day/. It is a novel about one ordinary day in the life of a middle-aged married couple, Maggie and Ira Moran, as they…
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More or Less
What do you love now, that you hated when you were younger? When I was younger, more seemed better. I loved to read, and building a library was something I valued. Book by book, shelf by shelf, I watched the collection grow. There was satisfaction in it. A growing library felt like a sign of…
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Watership Down
What is a piece of media (book, movie, song)that changed how you see the world? I loved Watership Down when it came out in 1978. I saw the film first, and was so affected by it that I went on to read the book. That is very rare for me. Usually, if I have seen…
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The Wisdom of Unfinished Endings
If you could change the ending of any book, which one would it be? I must admit that I baulk at the question. The reason is simple. I respect art too much. A book is not a product for my satisfaction. It is the work of another person’s imagination. So whether I like the ending…
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Watching M.A.S.H. for the First Time Again
What’s a book, movie, or TV show that youwish you could experience again for the first time? I was late to the party when it came to M.A.S.H. It was not a show we ever watched at home. Then I went to college, and suddenly it became part of the daily rhythm. Straight after dinner,…
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How Do You Build Loyal Subscribers?
How do you build loyal subscribers? I’m not sure you do. The question sounds like something from marketing. How do you build loyal subscribers? How do you grow an audience? How do you keep people coming back? I understand the question. Anyone who writes and shares their writing knows the quiet hope that someone will…
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Lord of the Flies
What is the first book you ever finished and still remember to this day? I was sixteen when I read Lord of the Flies. It is the first book I remember finishing. It was set reading at school. Not the first book I started. The first one I remember getting to the end of. What…
