We Are What We Read

Lately, in the world of journalism, we are seeing that we truly are the news that we consume. It probably defines our politics, our social strata and our economic place in the world.

But the same is true, in a much more profound way, with respect to the books we read. Many of us love books for just being books. But they also have the power to change us. On one level what we read reflects who we are. As we read more, it also constantly redefines or refines us, and maybe even shapes the future choice of books we seek out.

So imagine if you kept a record of everything you’ve read. If you could chart your life by seeing the books you’ve enjoyed.

This is what the editor of The New York Times Book Review, Pamela Paul has done with My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues.

My conversation with Pamela Paul:

By the Book

How many of you have been asked recently to name your favorite or most influential books? It’s a process that has been all the rage on social media. And while such lists have been around for a long time, perhaps what inspired this current flare up is New York Times Book Review Editor Pamela Paul’s weekly Q & A with authors and journalists in the BY THE BOOK feature in Sunday’s New York Times.

The feature is an all access pass into the private world of authors, as they reflect on their work habits, reading preferences, inspirations, and recommendations.

Now she brings together sixty-five of these exchanges, in their uncut and original form in By the Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life from The New York Times Book Review.

My conversation with Pamela Paul: