8 S UNDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2021
What books are on your night stand?
The 1,500-plus that are on my Kindle.
What’s the last great book you read?
Saeed Jones’s “How We Fight for Our
Lives.”
Describe your ideal reading experience
(when, where, what, how).
In my old family house in Flagstaff, Ariz.,
alone, with heavy snow falling outside,
the old floor furnace crackling and the
makings of roast-beef sandwiches in the
refrigerator.
What do you read when you’re working
on a book? And what kind of reading do
you avoid while writing?
It depends where I am in the process. (I
tend to have long processes.) Early on
and through the middle, I read anything
and lots of it. In the final few months to a
year, though, I can’t risk reading any-
thing I can’t put down to work, so I tend
to read good, but less gripping books —
or, if gripping, short ones. (Just recently,
reading Vol. 1 of the Inspector Maigret
Omnibus by Georges Simenon and David
Ebershoff’s “The 19th Wife.” Also “The
Big Blue Jobbie,” by Yvonne Vincent. Yes,
I do read more than one book at once,
unless it’s reallygripping.)
Early on, though, I like to read fiction
with a strong poetic feel, because the
sense of beautiful language is catching
(see “How We Fight for Our Lives,” noted
above). Not necessarily literary fiction,
as such, but authors who routinely play
with language — I reread all of Reginald
Hill’s Dalziel and Pascoe novels while
writing the most recent book.
Now that said book is finished, though,
I have a deal with one of my favorite
booksellers, to read “Swann’s Way” to-
gether. We haven’t started yet, but we’ve
both been rather busy.
Do you count any books as guilty pleas-
ures?
Well, now, there’s a fraught term. I’ve
generally felt mildly miffed when people
refer to my books as guilty pleasures,
feeling that the implication is that the
reader considers them in the same light
as cotton candy: delicious and fun to
consume, but ultimately fluff. However. I
mentioned this briefly somewhere online,
and someone replied, “Oh, no! When I
say that, I just mean that your books are
so addictive I can’t stop reading them,
and end up neglecting all my responsibil-
ities. That’swhat I feel guilty about!”
Which I suppose just goes to show that
one oughtn’t to leap to conclusions about
what people mean, at least not without
further conversation. On the other hand,
perhaps she was just trying to spare my
feelings.
What moves you most in a work of litera-
ture?
Honesty. Emotional honesty, in particular.
Granted, an author is (more or less by
definition) not only taking liberties with
reality, he/she/they are deliberately
manipulating the feelings and thoughts of
the reader. Still, emotion that doesn’t ring
true will kill a book for me.
Do you prefer books that reach you emo-
tionally, or intellectually?
I kind of think a goodbook should do
both. Even the lightest of escape fiction
needs to have an intrinsic sense of struc-
ture, self-awareness and intelligence. On
the other hand, I totally consider laughter
to be an important emotion.
What’s the last book you recommended
to a member of your family?
“The Shape of Ancient Thought: Compar-
ative Studies in Greek and Indian Philos-
ophies.” Also “Horton Hears a Who!”
(Not to the same family member, I should
add.)
What books are you embarrassed not to
have read yet?
Um. I don’t really consider books as
social accessories. I don’t care in the
slightest what people might think of what
I do or don’t read.
What do you plan to read next?
Well, to be honest — “Go Tell the Bees
That I Am Gone.” “You read your own
books?” someone said to me in amaze-
ment recently, when I remarked that I
was looking forward to getting my author
copy of the book so I could read it. “Of
course,” I replied. “It wasn’t a book when
it left me; it was this huge cloud of
sparkly fragments that I’ve been juggling
inside my head for the last few years.
Being able to read it straight through (I
don’t write with an outline and I don’t
write in a straightline) is always a
thrill.” 0
Diana Gabaldon
The author of the Outlander series, which continues with ‘Go Tell the
Bees That I Am Gone,’ feels no sense of obligation or shame in her
reading life: ‘I don’t really consider books as social accessories.’
An expanded version of this interview is
available at nytimes.com/books.
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