The book I love most is… The Joy of Cooking by the Rombauers. I first bought it when I moved to Canada in 1974 and it taught me to cook. In my flat in Vancouver, I would make fabulous meals just for myself, and if they turned out OK I called my always hungry friends around.
The book I’d like to read next is… Anything by Lional Shriver. I thought We Need to Talk About Kevin was breath-taking. When asked what her writing rituals are she said, none - I just do the damn job. I feel the same way about writing - it’s easy - you just sit at the laptop till your finger’s bleed.
The book that changed me is… Dostoevsky’s Crime & Punishment because I realised you can write really gossipy, complicated text and have it be intellectual and moralistic at the same time. I was in school when I read it and thought - wow, this is what writing is really about - axe- murders, sleaziness, betrayal, virtue and retribution.
The Kama Sutra. My girlfriends and I read it aloud together on my bed in my flat across the road from the nurse’s home and screamed so much we almost bled. I wish I’d never read it because sex with New Zealand boys was slightly under-whelming after that.
This column was published in the Herald on Sunday, July 25, 2010.
Footnote:
Peta's latest title, just published by Penguin Books is Culinary Adventures in Marrakech. The Bookman is currently reading it and will be reviewing on the blog shortly.
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