Book lover: Jessica Smith

Jessica Smith. Photo / Supplied

Jessica Smith is executive director of Silo and working on their last show for the year, BREL (Nov 1-24).

The book I love most is ... The Little Prince, by Antoine De Saint-Exupery. This is the best story about not taking things at face value, and matters of consequence. All grown-ups should read this parable, especially those in positions of power.

The book I'm reading now is ... The Devil's Cup, by Stewart Lee Allan, a wild and revelatory account of modern history filtered through the lens of the humble coffee bean. I like that the very earliest coffee houses were meeting places for many of the world's greatest minds and artistic geniuses.

The book I'd like to read next is ... Emily Perkins' Novel About My Wife.

My favourite bookshop is ... I cannot walk past Unity in Auckland without going in and buying something. And the people who work there are awesome.

The book that changed me is ... A few have had a big impact but I wouldn't say they've changed me, perhaps helped me to better understand some things. An extraordinary teacher, Ms Shea, read a book to my Form 1 class that I will never forget - Witi Ihimaera's collection of short stories, Pounamu Pounamu. I joined our kapa haka group afterwards.

The book I wish I'd never read is ... No regrets - the bad ones have shed light on what I do and don't like.