What I’m reading — Kiran Dass
The WORD Christchurch festival programme is out! While you wait for the festival itself, find out what WORD Programme Lead Kiran Dass has been reading, the book events she’s found most memorable, and a few other bookish things besides.
What’s on your reading pile right now?
I don’t have just one reading pile. I have multiple towering TBR piles in different parts of the house, and frankly, they’re bewildering. But I’ve come to terms with the fact I will never stop this madness and that TBR books provide a sense of comfort for me.
Imagine running out of things to read? They are sort of arranged by incoming date. On my bedside table for current reading is Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein, Audition by Pip Adam, The Words for Her by Thomasin Sleigh. And I have just started reading the forthcoming Anne Enright novel The Wren, The Wren which was immediately bumped up the pile as she’s one of my favourite writers. From page one it made me laugh and got me hooked. An Inventory of Losses by Judith Schalansky constantly lives on my bedside table and is something I dip into every now and then.
The last book I read and reviewed was Lioness the new novel by Emily Perkins. She’s always been one of my favourite New Zealand writers.
In an alternate universe with no books (the worst timeline), what would you be doing instead?
This is a terrifying consideration. I am assuming we still have music, writing and storytelling in all its many other forms? I would be writing, most likely about music which is my other love.
What do you think about people who peek at the last page of a novel before they're anywhere near the end?
Is this something that people do? Maybe it’s some kind of compulsive impulse. I’m not sure if it is a useful thing to do, there would be no context! I’m not one to judge how people read though. When someone is unsure about a book I just tell them to read the first ten or so pages to see if they want to stick with it or not.
What's the best book related event you've ever attended or programmed for that matter?
Way too many to itemise from over the past 18 years of my book-related professional life! Is a time machine available? There are so many excellent writers and thinkers I’m looking forward to hearing at WORD this year that I know if I could travel to the future to answer this question the answer would include them. Anything that mixes music/sound, writing and books is my kind of event. I had fun chairing a Q&A for the launch of Canadian writer Matt Goody’s book Needles & Plastic: Flying Nun Records, 1981-1988 last year. Seeing Tayi Tibble read at the Poetry Bash at the Vancouver Writers Festival was a proud moment. She completely changed the energy and temperature of the room, everybody was enthralled.
After Airini Beautrais won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction in 2021, I saw her read and have some of her poems set to music by Elizabeth de Vegt at a spectacular spot on Durie Hill, overlooking the majestic Whanganui awa with interjections from ruru at dusk. That was special. At this year’s Auckland Writers Festival I loved The Art of Noticing masterclass with Jenny Odell, author of How to Do Nothing. It just hit many of my nerdy, esoteric sweet spots including a Pauline Oliveros Deep Listening exercise.
One of my favourite writers Sinead Gleeson in conversation with Kim Hill at Verb Wellington was an excellent session. Also attending the book launches of my clever friends who have written books over the years has been memorable.
At WORD last year I participated in a session Words, Wine & Sound which looked at the way words, wine and sound can intersect. That was fun and interesting, not to mention that it combined three of my greatest loves!
Kiran’s reading list includes:
An Inventory of Losses by Judith Schalansky
Audition by Pip Adam
How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell
Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein
Lioness by Emily Perkins
The Words for Her by Thomasin Sleigh
The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright
The WORD programme is announced on Tuesday 18 July. Keep an eye on the WORD website here.