Iain Reid is the Canadian author of two critically acclaimed memoirs, One Bird's Choice and The Truth About Luck (named by Canada's Globe and Mail as one of the best books of 2013). His new thriller, I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Text Publishing), follows a young couple who take an unexpected detour on a road trip. Reid recently received the 2015 RBC Taylor Emerging Author award. He lives in Kingston, Ontario.
One Man's Meat
E.B. White
Iain Reid, author of new thriller, I'm Thinking of Ending Things.
I found this book on one of the shelves at the farmhouse where I grew up. I knew White from Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, books I'd loved as a child, but it wasn't until I read his essays that I started to fully appreciate White's skill. Although most were written 50 years or so before I was born, it was thrilling to read (in such beautiful prose) about a small farm that seemed similar to my own.
Under the Net
Iris Murdoch
I read Under the Net, Murdoch's first novel, after my brother gave it as a gift on my 21st birthday. I knew it was about a struggling young writer in London, and for some reason I kept putting it off. For the first few weeks of 21, other books felt more urgent. Once I started, though, I felt silly for having not read it immediately. There are few writers as funny and as smart as Murdoch.
The Loser
Thomas Bernhard
Funny, weird, and unsettling. I bought this special book for $2 at a secondhand bookshop and devoured it while living in Toronto, a couple of years after graduating university. I was, and remain, amazed at how often the book makes me laugh, considering the content. I enjoy returning to it once a year or so, as I always find something else that I appreciate. Intricate in the very best way.
The Notebook Trilogy
Ágota Kristóf
A trilogy of transfixing, disturbing novels by the Hungarian author, and unlike anything I've read. I read the entire trilogy over a long weekend while staying at a friend's remote cabin in the woods. I was there alone and had planned on taking hikes and doing some chores around the cabin. I did none of that. Once I started reading I couldn't stop except to sleep, which I did restlessly.