Shelf Reflection is a monthly series where we explore the bookshelves and reading habits of our featured First Book Club authors.
This month’s reflection is from award-winning journalist Gary Nunn, whose debut book The Psychic Tests (Pantera Press) is a moving investigation into the colourful world of psychic-mediums and sceptic activists. Read Ellen Cregan’s review, and stay tuned for more on the KYD podcast later in the month!
Some of Gary’s book collection. Image: Supplied
What are you currently reading?
I’m currently reading Alain de Botton’s Religion for Atheists. I’m reading it because he approaches religion in the same way I approach belief in psychics: asking whether or not it’s true is the most boring question to ask because, as a sceptic, that closes down so many other interesting and meaningful conversations really quickly. An agnostic approach into mystical worlds allows us to draw lessons about what it is to be human.
I’ve long been a fan of Alain de Botton’s work. He’s ludicrously eloquent. I remember watching him tour The News: A User’s Manual live at the Sydney Opera House a few years ago, although that currently feels like it was several generations ago! I think he’s one of the best communicators around because he makes philosophy accessible to those without a PhD in it.
What kind of reader are you?
I’m a slow and ponderous reader. I like to absorb what I’m reading rather than scan it quickly. I’ll pause in between reading every few pages to let it percolate.
I often get frustrated with myself and wish the cogs of my brain would turn faster so I can read more.
As a features journalist, I often have at least one book on the go for work. For example, I recently read Sarah Dingle’s Brave New Humans because I’m writing a feature for The Guardian on donor conceived people and the fertility industry. Currently I’m reading Caught in the Act, the memoir of drag queen Courtney Act aka Shane Jenek because I’m interviewing them upon its release. It’s a privilege to be sent books ahead of their release date!
Then, alongside my ‘reading-for-work’ book, I’ll have my other books on the go. Believe it or not, my next eleven books are queued. Yes, eleven!
I’m a slow and ponderous reader. I often get frustrated with myself and wish the cogs of my brain would turn faster so I can read more.
I have a reading pattern established whereby I read one non-fiction book, then one fiction book. Alternating like that keeps me engaged; I love diversity in all things, including my reading habits.
Fiction is my favourite to read though: for the escapism and the reflection of life’s bigger topics. I think it comes from being immersed in news and features all day long, seven days a week: I relish the break from facts and truth!
I alternate between contemporary fiction (my favourite genre) and a classic I haven’t yet read. Recently I read Rebecca for the first time, having given up on it at a different time when I wasn’t quite in the mood for it. I like to have an impetus too, a why now? to spur me on. With Rebecca, a new film adaptation had recently been made, so I wanted to read the book then watch it and compare the two.
I rarely give up on books, but I do sometimes. Even some classics. They may be objectively great books, but if I don’t vibe with them, I move on rather than torture myself. Lolita was the last classic I gave up on. Hated it!
When it comes to contemporary fiction, I’m a sucker for word-of-mouth buzzy, zeitgeist books. I devoured Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine; same for Sally Rooney’s Normal People before the TV series came out. I adored both. For the same desperate-to-be-in-on-the-zeitgeist reason, the next books I’m reading are Girl, Woman, Other and Where the Crawdads Sing.
My favourite contemporary fiction has been Us by David Nicholls and A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon. They both reflect the very British dysfunctional family drama that makes for gently poignant and often funny writing. I love writers that can do that: make you laugh one minute and quietly weep the next. It’s rare, though, that there’s a book I cannot put down. In the last five or six years, only two books have achieved that: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood and A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. Both have been described as ‘misery porn’, so there’s clearly a darker side to my reading tastes!
In between that fiction/non-fiction alternating pendulum, I also read a book in the Adrian Mole Diaries series. There are eight altogether and I’m halfway through the series. I’ve never before read them and they’re pure joy. Many British people read them at school and grew up with them. I’m so glad I didn’t; discovering them has been delicious.
What does your book collection look like?
Everything is on my Kindle except for a few hard copy books which have been gifted to me or sent to me for review by publishers.
The worst possible gift to buy me is a book. There are two reasons for this. First, I never read hard copy print books, if I can help it. I only read on my Kindle. It’s lighter, compact, I can adjust the font and look up a word I don’t know instantly. If someone buys me a print book, I download it on on my Kindle and regift it. Second, I always have so many books queued, you’re better off just taking me out to dinner and recommending it to me there instead!
What’s one book you found critical to the writing of your own book?
I’m afraid I’m going to cheat here. I can’t just pick one!
As my debut book is narrative non-fiction, I’ve been reading lots of that lately: Rick Morton, Jon Ronson, John Safran. Jon Ronson is someone who I particularly look up to in terms of style. He’s like the Louis Theroux of the book world, isn’t he? The Canberra Times picked up on this. They called me ‘Jon Ronson but without the faux naivete (!)’ I liked that. I’m not sure he would, though! Sorry, Jon!
As my book adopts an agnostic tone and speaks to believer and sceptic equally, I read books from both sides: believer and sceptic.
My book is part memoir, part gonzo, part investigative journalism so I follow people who write like me. Ginger Gorman’s Troll Hunting was an inspiration, as was the work of Rosie Waterland—especially her podcast, Mum Tells me my Memoir is a Lie. I loved the bits where she read out from her memoir—it really brought her book to life. I think I’d like to do that with a podcast and my work. She inspires me because of the place her writing comes from: she so clearly writes for her readership, and not to impress her peers.
I’ve long loved Caitlin Moran and have read almost all her books, but How to be a Woman is the best—it’s laugh out loud funny. It’s also a refreshing working class voice in the book world. The memoir bits of her book certainly influenced my work—the boldness, the openness, the willingness to find humour in dark places. And Rick Morton inspired me to be vulnerable, following his book on that very topic.
Then I immersed myself in the subject matter: In My Past Life I was Cleopatra by Amal Awad; Psychic Blues: Confessions of a Conflicted Medium by Mark Edwards; Flim Flam by James Randi.
As my book is the first book of its kind to adopt an agnostic tone and speak to believer and sceptic equally, I read books from both sides: believer and sceptic.
What book/s are you constantly recommending other people read?
I tailor my recommendations according to the person asking, but in short:
Memoir: Caitlin Moran, How To Be A Woman
Narrative Non-fiction: Jon Ronson, The Psychopath Test (my book, The Psychic Tests, is a deliberate pun on this)
Misery porn: Margaret Atwood, The Testaments
Non-fiction: Cheryl Strayed, Tiny Beautiful Things
Contemporary fiction: David Nicholls, Us
Classics: The collected short stories of Katherine Mansfield
If you had to pick one book to live in for the rest of your life, which would it be?
I’m going to cheat again here! The collected works of Jane Austen. All six of them.
I did an English degree and Jane Austen was my dissertation subject, after a particularly passionate English teacher had encouraged my love of her writing at secondary school. Most students groaned when we’d open the book and start reading her as a class. I’d remember exactly what page we were on, and shoot my hand up like a pine tree to be the first to read aloud then comment on the narrative, characters and satire. What a nerd!
The Psychic Tests is available now from Booktopia or your local independent bookseller.
