BEST AUTHOR BEST : MARK LEYNER [1]

 

'' A Shimmering, Serrated Monster ! : The Mark Leyner Reader '' is no final chapter : ''I'm like one of those deranged soldiers they find on some remote island still fighting a war that's ended decades ago.''

.-  Describe your ideal reading experience.

It's very early in the morning, preferably before sunrise, before I can get mangled in the farm machinery of the day. My preference is always poetry or some intensely belletristic prose.

I've also been known to bring books to the gym, which is egregiously bad taste, and which you do at your own peril. If you're reading Schopenhauer's '' The World as Will and Representation '' between sets, someone's going to drop a dumbell on your head. You're asking for it.

.-  What's the last great book you read?

'' Little Dorrit.'' Not only did I think it was great, but I discovered a whole substratum of '' Dark Dickens '' in there, a whole phantasmagoria like something out of Lautreamont or Burroughs.

What books are on your night stand?

Including on my Kindles: Iris Murdoch’s “The Sea, the Sea”; the Upanishads; “Gérard de Nerval: Selected Writings”; “Super-Cannes,” by J.G. Ballard; “Pakistan’s ISI: A Concise History of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate,” by Julian Richards; “The Vory: Russia’s Super Mafia,” by Mark Galeotti.

.-  Do you count any books as guilty pleasures?

You're talking to someone who genuinely enjoys watching '' The Golden Bachelorette,'' '' Naked and Afraid,'' street fights on YouTube, random clips on Pornhub, etc., so I'm not sure '' guilty pleasures '' is a thing for me.

I do like reading material that I don't understand in the least, that's complete gibberish to me -articles about theoretical physics, about string theory, quantum gravity, amplituhedrons. Maybe that qualifies.

.-  Why a '' Mark Leyner Reader '' now?

If I am following a paranoid line of reasoning [ as I am apt, to do], I'd say it's a trick, a sort of veiled send-off. As exceedingly, shamelessly, over-the-top proud of it as I am, it can feel a little bit as if someone's throwing me a retirement party.

So if '' The Mark Leyner reader '' is indeed a ploy to get me to stop writing, nice try, but I'm not done yet. In fact, I'm Just getting started.

.-  What role did you have in the selections?

Absolutely none. That was all the editor Rick Kisonak's doing. If anyone has a problem with what he chose, and wants to go kick his ass, I'm happy to provide directions to his house.

The Publishing continues to Part [2].

The World Students Society thanks The New York Times.