Favourite authors should write and terrible ones should read

Founder of Bangalore lit fest talks about her best kept book secrets

BENGALURU: Shinie Antony, author and founder of Bangalore Lit Fest shares with City Express her favourite books and nooks to read
Your favourite book of all time and why? Could you quote a passage?
The Girl Who Couldn’t Love is my favourite book right now, because it’s my latest novel.
‘It is always night outside when a man calls it a day deep inside you.’

Your favourite fictional character and why?
Cinderella’s glass slipper. How did it not turn back to rat or rubble at midnight?

Few lines you got from a book, which you would never forget?
‘God slumbers in a back alley
With a gin bottle in His hand.
Come on, God, get up and fight
Like a man.’
(by Langston Hughes)

Five top books released in 2017, according to you.
KR Meera’s The Poison of Love
Madhavi S Mahadevan’s The Kaunteyas
Preeti Shenoy’s A Hundred Little Flames
Tony V Francis’ The Autograph Seeker
Anuja Chandramouli’s The Burning Queen

One book you would want a first edition of and why?
Any Charles Dickens’ book. Just to keep.

Which author would you like to have tea with and what would you talk about?
Yuval Noah Harari. We will chat about some sapiens we know.

One advice you would give to your favourite author, and one you would give to terrible writers.
Write, to the former. Read, to the latter.

Which books would you take with you on a solo holiday?
Wodehouse.

Your one guilty-pleasure read?
Biology textbooks.

One fictional character you go to when you need a friend?
Eeyore the donkey.

What is one quality of a book you wish people would have?
Smart dialogues.

One book you wish was never written, and why?
Beloved by Toni Morrison. It breaks my heart to read it.

What is one thing you cannot tolerate when you are reading?
Doorbells.

Your favourite reading nook?
Balconies.

Do you remember to keep bookmarks?
The book automatically opens on the page where I was last.

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