Mary Ruefle is the author of many books, most recently “The Book,” and her 2019 publication “Dunce,” which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The recipient of numerous honors, including a Guggenheim fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and a Whiting Award, Ruefle lives in Vermont and serves as the state’s poet laureate. Here, she responds to the Book Pages Q&A about her reading life.
Q. Is there a book or books you always recommend to other readers?
I never recommend a book to someone unless I know them well, because I want a perfect match to be made. So I might recommend different books to different people. That said, I recommend that everyone read a Holocaust memoir once a year, if only to never forget “man’s inhumanity to man”— and look around, it’s ongoing.
Q. What are you reading now?
I am reading Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart,” first published in 1959. I love it. I want to read more African literature.
Q. How do you decide what to read next?
It’s very intuitive, my eye falls on a book and that’s that. But I like to read books set in warm weather in the winter and books set in cold weather in the summer. When I travel I never bring along a book that has anything to do with where I am going, I bring along the opposite; say, if I were going to Japan I might bring Isak Dinesen, never a Japanese novel, and I adore Japanese novels!
Q. Is there a book you’re nervous to read?
I cannot imagine such a thing—why would a book make me nervous? If I don’t love a book I stop reading it. Not out of nervousness, it’s more like “I don’t have time for this”— ha! I guess that makes me nervous, not having enough time left on earth to read everything I want to read.
Q. Can you recall a book that felt like it was written with you in mind (or conversely, one that most definitely wasn’t)?
Every book I’ve ever loved has been written with me in mind! That is how one feels when they read a book they love.
Q. What’s something – a fact, a bit of dialogue or something else – that has stayed with you from a recent reading?
The truth is we mostly forget everything we’ve read but what we remember is the love, loving the experience of reading those books. Try it yourself, sit down and write out all that you remember of a book you love (don’t peek!) and you will be surprised at how much you have forgotten and all you get wrong, but that doesn’t diminish the love you feel.
Q. Is there a genre or type of book you read the most – and what would you like to read more of?
I read poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. I don’t read thrillers or mysteries but I probably should. I think most people should probably read more poetry but who am I kidding?
Q. Do you have a favorite book or books?
I am inordinately fond of “The Wind In The Willows.” And Kij Johnson has written a wonderful contemporary sequel, I didn’t think it would be possible but she did it! I love early 20th century Japanese fiction and I love all the classic books of Arctic exploration and life among the Indigenous people of the Arctic Circle.
Q. Which books do you plan, or hope, to read next?
Many! I have a hundred unread books on the floor of my study and I hope to read them all; I won’t, but the hope helps.
Q. What’s a memorable book experience – good or bad – you’re willing to share?
There have been many. I remember reading Virginia Woolf’s “The Waves” sitting facing the sea. And very long novels, like Knausgaard’s, in the winter while facing the fire.
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