Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week – our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry people about books! I don’t have a completely true fact about books to share with you this week, because I just read a book that says that sharing facts about books is actually destroying the online book fact industry. Check back next week, by which time I may have another book ready that debunks these claims. This week it’s the developer behind Sluggish Morss, Dujanah, and the upcoming Judero, Jack King-Spooner! Cheers Jac! Do you mind if we have a nose for your bookshelf?
What are you currently reading?
I usually have a few books on the go at a time and right now I have more than usual. I really love fairy tales and how they can be interpreted. I like it when stories that have been passed down for hundreds of years contain familiar archetypes, like the Good King or the third child affected. There is a lot to be gained from that. Lang’s Fairy Books, Ella Young’s Celtic Wonder Tales, Hughes’ How The Whale Became are all on hand with Post-Its marking good bits. For something more substantial, I read my father’s book Peterkin, a moody semi-fantasy story about how the first dog came to be domesticated. I also read the Bible.
What did you last read?
Besides all the folk tales and fairy tales, I recently read Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (for the boy), Norm Macdonald’s Based On A True Story and The Woman In Me by Britney Spears. The first two are brilliant.
What are you paying attention to now?
I have to read Bob Mortimer’s book, I can’t wait. And Prince Harry’s Spare, but I think the best parts were ruined for me by GMTV. And this truly remarkable book by Neil Grossman about how a post-materialist social order can solve the challenges of modern life, all done through fictional conversations with Plato and Socrates.
What quote or scene from a book has stuck with you?
I don’t think I have a very good memory for much of anything, I don’t have a mind’s eye and have always been useless at remembering lines. Maybe Robert Burns’ poetry, because where I grew up we always recited it and I’ve always liked it. As for a scene… maybe Aslan singing away the darkness in Narnia (Magician’s Nephew) or the ending of Winnie The Pooh where we leave them in an enchanted place… that absolutely kills me even just thinking about it think. I think both scenes are so beautiful. Such delicate language, one wrong word and it wouldn’t “work”. I’ve grown to love Narnia more than Middle-Earth and Winnie the Pooh (not Disney) means the world to me.
What book are you bugging friends to read?
Probably White Noise by Don Delillo. Or Limmy’s books. Or Crime and Punishment if they haven’t read it.
What book would you like to see someone adapt into a game?
There’s an unfilmed script by John Water for a Pink Flamingoes sequel that I think is supposed to be a game, but someone else probably said that. David Lynch has also written a script for an Eraserhead sequel of sorts called Ronnie Rocket, which could be a game. What about Aesop’s fables? I’m tempted to say something very distasteful. So the book should be a bit aphoristic and have a strong sense of place… The story doesn’t matter because you might as well read the book… Do it, it should be done to gamify… it It must be Wind in the Willows.
An eclectic collection for your pile of shame, although Jack joins this column’s pile of shame along with all the other guys who failed to mention every book ever written. Will we somehow find someone for next week who recognizes this most secret goal? The loyal plank heads among you may have noticed that I changed the fifth question, as per my wish. Maybe I’ll change some other questions too, just to keep you guessing. Or maybe I won’t, but doesn’t the possibility that I might fill you with an exciting uncertainty about what the future might bring? Book now!