We all want to know what our favourite authors read. There is this sense of camaraderie in knowing that they also love reading authors we love to read and dislike reading authors we don’t think much of. I think it stems from a place of familiarity and comfort.
Manu Joseph, author of the just launched Miss Laila, Armed and Dangerous, talks about books he loves, genres he reads and those he avoids.
What books are currently on your night stand?
Manu Joseph: It is paranormal that you must ask this. For many years I didn’t know there was such a thing as a nightstand, then I did not know what it did in the daytime, then I had no say over what must be over it but very recently I got one that is entirely my own. I can do whatever I please with it but there is only a chessboard on it. But I understand the spirit of your question. I am reading three books simultaneously – Seveneves by Neal Stephenson (Total masala), Ivory Thorne by Manu Pillai (history) and Why Should You Doubt Me Now? By Mary Breasted (novel).
What was the last good book that you read?
Joseph: Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field, which I read in August. The title does not reflect the quality of the book, which is a deeply felt and immensely enjoyable biography of two beautiful minds and inevitably of their eras.
What genres do you love reading and which are the ones that you avoid?
Joseph: I have no faith in being loyal to genres. In fact, forget genres, no individual book is evenly good. Many great books, in fact, can be mediocre in parts. So we can imagine how unreliable the idea of a genre can be. But all things considered, I enjoy science non-fiction. It is only while reading science non-fiction that I do not argue with the book. I just shut up and enjoy it because I am a layperson. The only genre that I am abstaining from, though not entirely, is what is called ‘literary fiction’, which I think is a name given to the artistic novel.
If you had to give every Indian a book to read at this time, which one would it be and why?
Joseph: Assuming you are paying for it, I will give Satya Sai Baba and the Gold Control Act By B Premanand. I was thirteen when I discovered it and it was the smallest book I had ever seen. The book was about how one man sued Sai Baba for producing gold objects from thin air because producing such unaccountable gold, especially form thin air, violated the Indian gold control act. I was introduced to the concept of rationalism and I wished to be a rationalist after that.
Which books according to you explain the current situation in India most appropriately?
Joseph: Without a doubt, Harry Potter. Some days, “ten points to Gryffindor” and some days, “ten points to Slytherin.”
What books people would be surprised to find on your shelf?
Joseph: I have a fantastic book of forgotten Sanskrit love poems translated into English.
Which is one of your favourite books that most people haven’t heard of?
Joseph: The nice old man and the pretty girl By Italo Svevo.
How do you organise your books?
Joseph: Kindle.
You are organising a literary party. Which 5 living authors would you invite and why?
Joseph: JM Coetzee, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Pankaj Mishra, Zadie Smith and Mohammed Hanif. First, Coetzee will hit on Zadie Smith. As that is going on Taleb will tell Mishra that ‘political science’ is bullshit, and that he is unqualified to write about economics, or anything else for that matter unless he learns probability and tail risks. Mishra, feeling molested, will look around and perceive me as a very good human being in comparison. And we will finally become friends. Ms Smith, meanwhile will put Taleb in place, and Taleb would retaliate, and Smith will escalate her jibes. Hanif will write about this later.
Whom would you want to write your life story?
Joseph: Mohammed Hanif if the book is going to be published when I am alive. Coetzee, when I am dead.
What books are you going to read next?
Joseph: Girls are coming out of the woods By Tishani Doshi, and Swing Time by Zadie Smith.
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