Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits of Aotearoa writers, and guests. This week: Odessa Owens, senior tutor, Whitireia Graduate Diploma in Publishing.
The book I wish I’d written
I recently inhaled the novel Sandwich by Catherine Newman and fell in love. She writes like I wish I could, somehow elevating the everyday joys and despairs of being a human in the world into something incredible. In lieu of writing like that, I’d settle for being her bestie.
The book everyone should read
Imagining Decolonisation (BWB Texts) because it gives the reader a generous entry point into the (now more necessary than ever) conversation. It’s also short, so there’s kinda no excuse.
The book I want to be buried with
My tiny book collection! A strange mix of books I’ve collected or been given that have only their diminutive size in common. No one will ever love those wee pukapuka as much as I do.
The first book I remember reading by myself
Good Charlotte by Carol Beach York, which I dropped in the sea (devastation) and had fished out for me by a man walking on the same pier (euphoria!). I still own that wrinkly copy. It also instilled in me the lifelong desire, which I’ve yet to satisfy, to have blue hair.
The book I wish I’d never read
War and Peace – because it was a duty-read (to make me feel more learned) and it stole months from my reading life that I’ll never get back.
The book that haunts me
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton because I read it in three days during a rainy tramping trip and went into a kind of fugue state. It was also very heavy to carry, prompting my partner to coin the term “brick lit”.
Fiction or Nonfiction
Fiction all the way. Except when it comes to The Chicago Manual of Style, which I adore because it answers almost all my publishing questions.
It’s a crime against language to…
Having read an untold number of kid’s books in recent years, I can’t understand why gender is still so trad, even in contemporary publishing. Why are the majority of animals in books male? Why aren’t there more non-binary characters? Why do boy characters have to wear blue? My kid recently said to me, “I know that alien’s a girl because she’s got long eyelashes.” Gah.
The book that made me cry
Rants in the Dark by Emily Writes, which may have been partly because I hadn’t had more than two hours’ consecutive sleep for six months. It made me cry and it saved my life.
The book that made me laugh
Mick Herron’s Slough House series of books, in addition to being brilliant, witty and plotty, all reliably make me laugh out loud.
The most underrated book
Danyl McLaughlan’s Unspeakable Secrets of the Aro Valley. The blurb, unimprovably, describes it as a “classic kiwi comic mystery erotic horror adventure novel”. I love its unloveable protagonist and the fact it forever altered how I view my own hood.
Greatest New Zealand writer
Patricia Grace. I’ve read and reread so many of her children’s and adult books – she’s amazing.
Best thing about reading
Being immersed in another world. I love having a book so good that half of my brain continues to chew away at it as I meander through my real (but somehow less real) life.
Best place to read
The bath, of course, but there are sometimes casualties. I try not to borrow books from friends who like to keep their books pristine.
What are you reading right now
Two very different pukapuka: All Fours by Miranda July, which is a total ride and has almost convinced me to implode my own life, and Time Rogue by Denika Mead (a recent Whitireia Publishing graduate) – an intriguing, twisty, fast-paced fantasy.
Odessa Owens is the senior tutor of the Whitireia Graduate Diploma in Publishing (the only full-time training course for publishing in Aotearoa). For more information about the course, including the scholarships available, see the website here.