Book lover: Alexander McCall Smith

Alexander McCall Smith. Photo / Supplied

Alexander McCall Smith, author of more than 60 books.

The book I love most is ... WH Auden's Collected Shorter Poems. Auden was one of the great humane voices of 20th-century literature. This collection includes the magnificent In Memory of Sigmund Freud and the gravely beautiful Lullaby.

The book I'm reading now is ... An Alchemy of Mind by Diane Ackerman.

The book I'd like to read next is ... The Moral Lives of Animals by Dale Peterson. The author introduces the idea that animals have morality.

The book that changed me is ... Again WH Auden's Collected Shorter Poems. I remember when I picked it off the shelf of the library. It very profoundly affected my outlook on so many things. Now I press it into the hands of anybody who asks me what to read.

The book I wish I'd never read is ... I can't think of one!