2012 Feb 13 Bookshelf: Seth Grossman, Co-owner, Home Plate Bar-B-Que
I am a photographer so all of the books I really love the most are my photographers’ monographs that are personally signed to me. (Those are all back home in New York, though.) And of course my dog-eared copy of Slightly Out of Focus, the biography of war photographer Robert Capa.
The bookshelf I’d most like a peek at is Jim Boyce’s. He probably uses his books as coasters for his wine.
Subway reading? I try to avoid the subways around here, and even if I did venture in there is no room to read. I’d just end up missing my stop.
The book I hid before you came around? I am not that organized, come on.
My favorite books from childhood are The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and Mark Twain’s Following the Equator. Explains my love of travel and adventure.
The book that changed my life was Diane Arbus: A Biography by Patricia Bosworth. Arbus was such an amazing character who killed herself way too early. She did it around the time I was born, so I always wanted to be the reincarnation of her, even though she was in so much pain.
Character I’ve had a crush on? There is a short story in Twice 22: The Golden Apples of the Sun & A Medicine for Melancholy by Ray Bradbury, called “All Summer in a Day.” I always related to the little girl in the book; she was charming,
The last book I bought was Kissinger’s On China when I was back in the States, but to be honest it was for a friend.
Books I wish I had written are those crappy Twilight books. Whoever wrote those must be rollin’ in it.
The book I wish I hadn’t read is anything by Dan Brown. I accidentally picked up his book Digital Fortress at an airport and did not even make it a chapter in before tossing it out.
I was really hoping they would make Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer into a film, and they did – but now I regret my desire. I wish they had asked Wes Anderson to make it, instead of Tom Hanks.
My favorite quote from a book is: “This war is like an actress who is getting old. It is less and less photogenic and more and more dangerous.” – Robert Capa
Click here to see the February issue of the Beijinger in full.
Photo courtesy of Seth Grossman.
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