WHAT BOOK: Is Matthew Blakstad recommending to everyone?
Sockpuppet by Matthew Blakstad is published by Hodder & Stoughton at £17.99
… are you reading now?
Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller. It manages to be equal parts compassionate and bleak. I’m only part way through but I’m recommending it to everyone I meet.
… would you take to a desert island?
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. This 1992 cyberpunk classic not only predicted much about today’s globalised tech culture, it’s a gripping, rollicking ride of a story packed with ideas.
… first gave you the reading bug?
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. When I read it at school it gripped and disturbed me, even though much of its depth passed me by. The more I return to it, the more of life I find there, somehow wrapped into a slim 140-page package.
… left you cold?
10:04 by Ben Lerner. It’s just a self-referential meander through a few weeks in the author’s life. I expect I’m missing something, but if a book doesn’t grip me, no amount of profundity can save it.
Sockpuppet by Matthew Blakstad is published by Hodder & Stoughton at £17.99.