John Baker’s Blog

1. Why do you blog?
Some of the best conversations on literature are taking place on the blogs and they provide a healthy alternative to Richard and Judy, book groups that read only prize nominated works and all the other mainstream flibbertigibbets who equate good writing with money and treat books as accessories. Lemmings. For me, blogging is a way to think out loud, ruminate over ideas I can later return to and plug works I like.

2. Which author and/or book has most influenced you?
I’m a big fan of the Beats (the triumvirate of Keroauc, Ginsberg,
Burroughs) and also Charles Bukowski. Those are guys I haven’t grown tired of and have formed my taste in literature; I go back to them again and again. For a different flavour, my favourite living writer is Dan Rhodes.

3. Which three blogs do you most visit?
Maud Newton.
Onepotmeal.
3AM.

4. Why do you read fiction?
I like the way you’ve slipped an easy one in there. Time and time again I hear people say they don’t read fiction, as if it’s a dirty word. Nothing wrong with a few tall tales, I say. Telling stories is one of the greatest qualities we mammals have. Apologies if this sounds trite but a good book can be a wonderful thing and, to warp something Jean-Paul Sartre said, if you’re lonely when your alone with a book you are in bad company. I read fiction because it’s a lot less scarier than writing, more cheerier than the news and the guy nearly always gets the girl.

5. What makes you laugh?
Buster Keaton and, as a result of his antics, people who fall over.

Susan Tomaselli blogs at Dogmatika, which can be found here: www.dogmatika.com

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