Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits of Aotearoa writers, and guests. This week: musician Shayne Carter.
The book I wish I’d written
I’ve never wished I’d written someone else’s book – or song. People should be left alone to rule. One book I would highlight though is The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson which is a bad ass, hard boiled, noir up the wazoo tale of a psychopathic sheriff written in the 50s. The language is so spare and intense. Zero frills, zero frippery. The economy in this book makes simplicity legit.
Everyone should read
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene. I’m supposed to write at least three sentences about these. There you go.
The book I want to be buried with
Could possibly go the way of Charles Valentine Alkan, the genius French musician and writer of impossibly virtuosic keyboard works. He was buried with books when a bookcase fell on top of him causing fatal injuries. To make it more macabre, when this happened, he was halfway through translating the bible into French. Something to do across those languid Parisian nights, I guess. The piano works he wrote before the accident are absolutely blazing.
The first book I remember reading by myself
Probably a Dick Francis belter because as a child I was obsessed with horse racing and fantasised about being a stable hand and shifting hay. The only AI prompt I’ve ever written was “Shark Wins Grand National Steeplechase” which resulted in a very realistic rendering with the shark halfway over a fence.
There are no sharks in Dick Francis novels except for the crooked bookies, although apparently his wife wrote a lot of his material so maybe the shark was Dick Francis.
The book that haunts me
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert was a beautiful book but I found the fate of Emma Bovary sad and unfair and it upset me for several days. She was just a person looking for a better life.
Encounter with an author
Have had several encounters with authors. The impression I’m left with is that they’re nerds like musicians, but not as well dressed. Also – noted while wandering around book festivals – very harsh critics! Writers – so opinionated!
Greatest New Zealand book
The Janet Frame autobiographies all the way baby. So singular and … thoughtful. Her poetic forensics. I love how interested she is and how she dresses nondescript streets and buildings I’m familiar with, with atmosphere and magic.
The book I never admit I’ve read
Everything A Teenage Boy Should Know written by a Christian doctor to guide young boys through puberty. My parents bought the book from a door-to-door salesman because obviously they thought it might help. They told me to ignore the chapter about masturbation – how it was bad and gave you warts and stuff – which was quite liberal of my parents.
Utopia or dystopia
Dozed off during both Dune movies and kept sleeping despite all the banging. That sleep was utopian. Guess it’s utopia then.
Fiction or nonfiction
Leant into nonfiction for a long time because it’s interesting why people end up doing great or despicable things. It’s usually because of something that happened at school. I like biography by witness – a favourite example being the Muhammad Ali biography by Thomas Hauser – where every event has multiple viewpoints and the reader is left to make up their own mind.
Another nonfiction book I would recommend, even though it’s bleak as, is Into That Darkness by Gitta Sereny where she interviews the commandant of the Treblinka extermination camp. It’s one of the great examples of grown-up journalism where she just lets him talk and bury himself. It’s kind of a forerunner to the Prince Andrew interview, or the one Anika Moa did with David Seymour. Also a big fan of Sea Biscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand which is brilliantly put together and feels like time travel. The closing sentence is so modest and plain and incredibly moving.
The book I wish would be adapted for film or TV
The Spike Milligan Letters. Spike Milligan sits at a desk writing, guffawing away. Laughs extra hard as he scribbles his third sentence.
What I’m reading right now
Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan. I hadn’t read anything of his until I came across a piece he’d written for the London Review of Books about the Republican Party Convention in 2024. His description of Don Jr – “a colossus of nothing” – is perfect.
Shayne Carter will appear at Great Sounds Great on Saturday, September 6 in Wellington.
