Ruth Ozeki, the US author, film-maker, and Zen Buddhist priest, won the 2022 Women's Prize for Fiction for The Book of Form and Emptiness. In an interview, she reflects on her reading journey, from early childhood to the present.
Early Reading Memories
Ozeki recalls pretending to read before she could form memories, around age three or four. Her first book was Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd, though she focused mostly on pictures.
Favorite Book Growing Up
Her favorite book was Charlotte's Web by EB White. She initially remembered it as a story about a girl named Fern saving her pig Wilbur, but later realized it's about Charlotte, a spider who uses words to save Wilbur. This book taught her the power of language to save lives, and she sees all her books as attempts to recreate it.
Teenage Influences
As a teenager, Ozeki read voraciously. The Catcher in the Rye taught her a disaffected attitude and how to spot a phoney, skills crucial for adolescent survival.
Writers Who Changed Her Mind
She cites One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, which she read in 1975 during a trek in Nepal. The experience introduced her to magic realism before she knew the term.
Books That Inspired Her to Write
Ozeki was influenced by books about smart girls or spiders who were writers, such as Harriet the Spy, Little Women, and Jane Eyre. She argues that first-person stories by misfit female narrators are about being a writer.
Author She Came Back To
She prefers not to revisit Kurt Vonnegut, fearing his humor might not hold up. She learned from him the difference between irony and cynicism and the value of earnest irreverence.
Authors She Rereads
Ozeki rereads poets like Emily Dickinson, Adrienne Rich, and Elizabeth Bishop. She often gives away their books and buys new ones. Geography III by Bishop, especially the poem "One Art," helps her cope with loss.
Book She Could Never Read Again
She couldn't reread Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M Pirsig, finding the narrator's pomposity irritating as an adult.
Book Discovered Later in Life
Ozeki discovered a 13-volume set of Tales of Chekhov translated by Constance Garnett. She began reading short stories to teach fiction writing and is still working through the 201 stories.
Current Reading
She is reading Sublimation by Isabel J Kim, a debut novel about immigrant identity, and The Typewriter Revolution: A Typist's Companion for the 21st Century.
Comfort Read
Her comfort read is Lydia Davis's Collected Stories, valued for their brevity and precise sentences.
Ozeki's book The Typing Lady is published by Canongate. To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com.
