Nick Earls
Q
& A with Brisbane based author Nick Earls
Q. As a child, which book was your favorite?
A. Anything by Dr Seuss. Maybe Green Eggs and Ham.
Q. What books from your childhood do you still possess?
A. A couple of Biggles books – I think the first novel I read all the way through by myself was Biggles in the South Seas. I also have a really grizzly Victorian book of cautionary tales called Struwelpeter. And I might still have my copy of Alan Garner’s The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, which I loved when I was about nine. I did have my collection of a couple of thousand Commando war comics, but they were under the house and water got into them during some flash flooding. I discovered this about two years later, by which time they were a mixture of mould and pulp. So they’re gone now.
Q. As a child, who influenced you reading aloud?
A. All the adults I was close to told stories and read books to us, particularly my parents. I was lucky – being read to and then reading was always part of my life.
Q. What do you believe are the benefits gained from reading aloud to children?
A. It’s all upside. It’s a great way to bond with a child and share something with them. It also introduces them to new concepts and language, and storytelling. The most obvious thing, perhaps, is that it’s the first step to them developing their own reading habit, and being able to read comes with a huge range of advantages throughout life.
Q. Name a book you secretly love, but never admit you read?
A. Good question. The atlas. I find geography far more interesting than I’m usually prepared to admit. I can spend far too long looking at very obscure places and wondering how I might get there one day. There are people around me who regard my passion for a good atlas as somewhat nerdy.
Q. What book would you choose to read aloud to children?
A. There are so many that are great. Most of the kids I know already have their favourites and bring them over to me as soon as I walk in the door. After this weekend with my niece, I expect I’ll be able to recite most of Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy. A couple of others that really stand out: Matt Dray’s Dougal the Garbage Dump Bear and Jackie French’s Diary of a Wombat.
Q. What is your favourite movie made from a book you have read?
A. I thought No Country for Old Men worked really well.
Q. Who is your favourite book character?
A. Maybe Frank Bascombe from Richard Ford’s trilogy (The Sportswriter, Independence Day and The Lay of the Land). He’s imperfect and weathered by life, but there’s no character more human.
Q. Where is your special place to read?
A. On the balcony of my parents’ unit at the Sunshine Coast, looking out across the Pumicestone Passage and over Bribie Island to the Pacific. Also on my own back deck, particularly on a sunny winter day during the week when everyone else is working (if only it could happen all the time ...)
Q. What book are you reading now?
A. I was overseas recently and bought a crime novel called The Calling, by a first-time writer called Inger Ash Wolfe. I don’t think it’s out here yet. She can really write though, so people should watch out for it.
