My favorite childhood book
As a small child I can remember reading and rereading Dr. Seuss.
When I was about 10, I readEmil and the Detectivesmany times.
Then I discovered Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, and Ive been reading Mark Twain ever since.
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I fell in love with John Steinbeck.
It was a blockbuster, and Scott was the newest literary star.
I cant say I felt cemented, but the book certainly motivated me to finishA Time to Kill.
But at least Ive tried.
Ill give almost any book 100 pages, especially a classic, before I fling it across the room.
The books Ive read over and over again
There are three, actually.
I mentionedThe Grapes of Wrath.
And Ive read William StyronsSophies Choiceat least five times in the past 25 years.
A book Ive pretended to have read
The Sound and the Fury.
Ive pretended twice, once in high school (see response to question No.
- and once after being challenged by a Faulkner scholar at Ole Miss.
A movie adaptation I loved
Three Days of the Condor.
I saw the movie when it came out 40 years ago and loved it.
Its one of those rare times when the adaptation improves on the novel.
The best adaptation of one of my own novels
The Rainmaker.
Francis Ford Coppola wrote and directed the movie, and he was determined to stick to the novel.
The time I bought my own book
Once I was out of town and headed to a fund-raiser.
I had promised a few books for door prizes.
My latest novel had just been published, and Doubledays marketing plan was hitting on all cylinders.
Actually, I was relieved and laughed all the way to my car.
Do I ever read my own books after they come out?
The stuff just seems old and stale to me by then.
