Book lover: Wallace Chapman

Wallace Chapman. Photo / Supplied

The book I love most is ... Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. In this tribute to his native California, Steinbeck takes a derelict part of town - an old sardine cannery precinct - and populates it with characters worthy of a Charles Dickens story. It's just a simple tale about a down-on-its-luck street and the people who live there, all wrapped up in trademark Steinbeck wit.

The book I'm reading right now is ... A City Possessed by Lynley Hood. An astonishing piece of citizen journalism, and as Mark Henaghan, Otago University's dean of law, says, "scholarship of the highest academic standard". Hood makes the case that Peter Ellis was (and is) innocent of the charges of child abuse laid against him, comparing what happened to Ellis to the community hysteria that gave rise to the witch trials in the 16th and 17th centuries. Hood slams a hard serve to virtually every major power centre in NZ, including the court system, the police, and well-known sex abuse "experts". No wonder the Government declined a commission of enquiry.

The book that changed me is ... Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky. "Arguably the most important intellectual alive" says the New York Times. This American professor's strength isn't that he brings any new ideas or concepts to the fore, but rather his unique ability in amassing and making sense of a truly vast array of information. The footnotes are so large they come as a stand-alone book. An epic work.

The book I wish I'd never read is ... The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. As Clay Davis from The Wire says: "Shheeeeeeeiiiiiiiiit!"

Wallace Chapman is the host of TVNZ 7's political programme Back Benches.