Taylor Jenkins Reid: ‘Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy are unbeatable’
My earliest reading memory When I was around nine, my dad said I was old enough to take on the responsibility of reading bedtime stories to my younger brother. And so, one night at a time, I read him all of The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary and then Bunnicula, by James and Deborah Howe, a book about a vegetarian vampire rabbit that we both loved. I was so incredibly proud to be the one telling him the story. I felt so grown up.
My favourite book growing up Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball. I picked it up when I was about 12, after years of watching I Love Lucy reruns as a kid. I read it voraciously, devouring everything I could about her. She set me on a path of falling in love with classic Hollywood.
The book that changed me as a teenager High Fidelity by Nick Hornby opened up a whole world of literature for me that I was just discovering in the mid-90s.
The writer who changed my mind I thought I didn’t like sci-fi until I discovered Octavia Butler. Kindred defies genre, but it taught me that I’ll go anywhere in a story if I trust the writer.
The book that made me want to be a writer The World According to Garp by John Irving taught me the power of the voice of a novel. After finishing it, I was walking home from a train station, and I could hear Garp’s voice narrating my walk. I love all forms of storytelling, but only a novel can live in your head like that.The book I came back to I read Alice Walker’s The Color Purple in high school, but it wasn’t until I returned to it almost two decades later that it truly shook me. Some of my favourite books are ones I put down the first time around. The story has to find you at the right time.
The book I reread I’ve read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice so many times, but I am also ravenous for any adaptation or retelling. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, as archetypes, are absolutely unbeatable.
The book I discovered later in life The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. I only picked it up a few years ago and was angry that I’d waited so long. On every page, I marvelled at the restraint. To tell such a rich story, with such complexity, and observe it through the eyes of a character that doesn’t emote much on the surface … I loved it.
The book I am currently reading A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by the incomparable Tia Williams. No one can level a one-liner like her. One of the funniest, warmest, coolest writers working today.
My comfort read Whenever I want to read a book I know will be good, I go to Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Her genres are ever changing, her ability to take on a wild story each time is incredible. You never know what she’s going to do, but you know it will be a page-turner. I cannot wait for her next book, The Seventh Veil of Salome. Fifties Hollywood, two starlets, the role of a lifetime … what more could you want?
• Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Daisy Jones and the Six (Hutchinson), will be the international author of the day at the London Book Fair on 12 March.