KEY POINTS:
The book I love most is...
I have a real soft spot for American writers from the 50s and 60s. On the Road by Jack Kerouac, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson and Post Office by Charles Bukowski. All live, battered and dog-eared, on my bookshelves. My favourite right now is Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. A must-read for any actor or anyone who has ever felt a bit too sorry for themselves, it's one of the most perfect and delicate pieces of writing I've ever read.
The book I'm reading now is...
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon. A present from my good friend Sarah Thompson (who played Tracey Morrison on the Street).
It's an American novel from the mid 1960s. There's something I find fascinating about the literature of that time, how out of utter chaos incredible revelations can pierce the surface.
The book I'd like to read next is...
I'm also a huge Shakespeare nut (I know, what a geek!) so I've been dying to read Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being by Ted Hughes.
It's his theory of a particular defining theme in Shakespeare's narrative poems and plays. Sort of like a formula that Shakespeare seemed to perfect to a staggering degree by the time he wrote The Tempest.
But most likely I'll read Catch 22 by Joseph Heller because I feel ashamed that I haven't read it yet.
- Detours, HoS
