Book lover: Sam Shore

Sam Shore. Photo / Supplied

Sam Shore is a playwright whose critically acclaimed work The Idea Of America will be performed by Good Company from November 10 at Auckland's TAPAC Theatre.

The book I love most is ... The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. I have always admired imagination, and the imagination here is astounding. But behind all the elves and hobbits is something profoundly human.

The book I'm reading right now is ... An Ordinary Man - An Autobiography by Paul Rusesabagina, who inspired the film Hotel Rwanda. I'm not usually one to read autobiographies. For some reason I always get it in my head that they'll be dull. This was recommended to me, though. It's harrowing in every way the film was, but it gives you a more inside view of what it was like growing up in Rwanda as a farmer's son and how things slowly snowballed from petty hate into genocide. Rusesabagina's writing is beautiful and I get the sense of a gentle and loving man. The book is so incredible because it's humanity at its very best, talking about humanity at its very worst.

The book I'd like to read next is ... The Dark Tower VII by Stephen King. I've read the previous six and this is the last in the series. They're amazing with incredible characters and such a unique blend of genres I haven't yet felt bored.

The book that changed me is ... Holding the Man by Timothy Conigrave. I was working on a Conigrave play in Melbourne when this was given to me and, once again, it is autobiographical. Following someone's life from a young boy through to when they die of Aids is quite profound. This book speaks with such honesty it's at times disarming. I have never been so touched. It's a love story in many ways but leaves the heart a little bruised and I feel privileged to have read it.

The book I wish I'd never read is ... The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. There was a lot of hype around the first book Eragon, so I thought what the heck, I'll give it a go. It left a bitter taste in my mouth but I read the second as I don't like to give up. This series is a mishmash of all the great fantasy books ever written, mixed up in a poisonous pot of hammy characterisation, structural plagiarism and dragon turds. I would rather be clubbed to death by the third book than have to read it.

* Tickets for The Idea Of America are on sale through TAPAC's box office: (09) 845 0295 or tapac.org.nz