Måndagsmöte: Sonya Sones

Sonya Sones har skrivit de finfina böckerna ”Vad mina vänner inte vet” och ”Vad min flickvän inte vet”. Johanna L har läst och om jag tolkar henne rätt gör hon tummen upp, men inte vågen. Jag är lite mer positiv, även om det genren som jag gillar mest. Sones har sysslat med lite av varje faktiskt och har ett förflutet i bland annat filmbranschen. För drygt en vecka sedan var hon i Sverige. Lyckliga ni som tog chansen att lyssna på henne då. Jag skickade ett mail och fick följande svar:

First of all: your books about Sophie and Robin were the first verse novels I read. I really enjoyed them – no wrong! I loved them. How do I go on from there?

I am so delighted to hear that you loved them! My publisher tells me that these are the first two verse novels to be published in Swedish.

Where do you go from here? I have written two other verse novels, ”Stop Pretending” and ”One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies”. So I guess it’s time to write to Bonnier Carlsen and ask them to publish those as well! :)

If you can’t wait till then, though, and you don’t mind reading books in English, there is a big list of verse novels on my website (www.sonyasones.com) under the heading “GREAT BOOKS.” You have to scroll down past the regular books first, but then you will see them. There are enough listed there to keep you busy for a very long time.

Since you used to work as a film editor, which movie based on a book, is your favorite? Do you even like to see movies based on books? In that case, what do you prefer: to see the movie, then read the book or read the book and then see the movie?

I prefer to read the book before I see the movie, so that I can visualize the whole story for myself. Seeing the movie is often a pretty big disappointment, so I don’t go to a lot of films based on books. But I guess my recent favorites were the Harry Potter films. I think they did an excellent job of recreating that whole world that J. K. Rowling invented, and it wasn’t far off from what I had seen in my head while I was reading them.

What do you read at the moment? What genre do you prefer? Is there a genre that you hate?

I am reading a book called ”The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, a lovely historical novel written in letters. I like all genres, as long as they can make me laugh or cry, or hopefully do both! I don’t hate paranormal books, but they don’t interest me as much as some other genres do. Do you forgive me for this?

How do you treat your books? Are you careful, do you write in them, do you make “dog ears”?

I am very careful with my books. When I begin a new book, I remove the paper cover and store it away until I am finished, so I don’t have to worry about tearing it.

Do you read more than one book at the time, how many pages do you read in a book before you give up (if it’s a bad book)?

I am usually reading two books at a time—one on paper and the other on audio. I listen to the audio books when I am riding my bike or washing the dishes or slicing potatoes. I read the other book while I am eating lunch and before I go to bed at night, or sometimes while I am soaking in the bathtub in the evening.

I am usually to read fifty pages of a book before I will give up on it.

Have you always been a reader?

Yes! When I was a little girl, every summer, my friends went to their country homes or to camp, but my family couldn’t afford such luxuries. So I traveled to the library down the street from my house and let books take me to all the places I wished I could go. When I hit my teens, I began reading the diaries of Anaïs Nin, and became an avid journal writer—sometimes writing three or four entries a day. Then I turned sixteen, and discovered the poetry of Richard Brautigan. Brautigan made poetry look so easy that I sat down and began writing reams of it myself. Of course, it was all deeply personal stuff, intended for my eyes only, but it sure felt great when it gushed out of me onto those clean white pages.

What book would you recommend to

Martin Scorsese:

I would recommend a children’s book called “Goodnight Moon”, because it might help to calm him down a little bit before bedtime.

Woody Allen:

I would recommend any book by Isaac Bashevis Singer, because they are all so powerful, yet so funny. But have hunch Woody has already read them, because his character in Annie Hall is named Alv Singer, which I always suspected was a tribute to the writer.

Larry David:

I would suggest “Portnoy’s Complaint”, because Portnoy complains even more than Larry David does.

But if you meant which of my books would I recommend to these gentlemen, I’d choose ”Stop Pretending” for Scorsese, bcause it’s quite dark in places, like many of his films. I’d choose ”What My Friends Don’t Know” for Woody, because it’s about a loser, and in his films he often plays that role. And I’d select ”One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies” for Larry David, because it takes place in Hollywood, in the crazy world that Larry calls home.

Foto: Tove Kullenberg