My life in books: ‘Ireland has so many wonderful bookshops’
John Connell: 'John Steinbeck’s 'Cannery Row' ... is a simple happy joyous work and one that made me fall in love with the written word.' Picture: Eamonn Doyle
John Connell is a writer and farmer based in Longford. His previous books include and he is also co-director of the Granard Booktown Festival.
by Haruki Murakami; I have been reading his non-fiction and this one about the Tokyo terrorist attacks sounded very interesting.
by Morgan Housel which was recommended by a friend. by Gavin Newsom; I am very interested in politics and Newsom may well be a candidate in the next US presidential election.
by Thomas Merton — I have listened to this on audiobook a few times and find it a very powerful story about a young man’s search for peace and the finding of his faith.
I reread Dan Brown’s at Christmas and wanted to read another of his works but had to put down which didn’t stick.
John Steinbeck’s , a beautiful short novel about a bunch of hobos in California. I have loved this book since reading it for the first time in college. It’s a simple happy joyous work and one that made me fall in love with the written word.
I recently read by environmentalist Bill McKibben about the enormous potential of solar power to change our energy environment and get us off fossil fuel dependency. It made me happy that works like this exist to point the way in the climate crisis.
by Omar El Akkad. This powerful work about the state of our world and the unfolding conflicts in the Middle East was so powerful and sad.
Michael Pollan’s , a short book that made me think about the politics of food and what we eat in a very important way. After I read it I gave it immediately to my wife to read. The politics of food is something that has become very important to us.
I loved Edna O Brien’s memoir . It gave me an insight into the life of a writer and what happens in the day to day and lifetime of such a figure.
My own book on the environment which I am currently researching.
by Richard Flanagan, which won the Booker a number of years ago. It is a powerful novel about the Second World War and one I have put young writers onto due to its epic scale and power.
A few summers ago I read the by Thomas Harris. What a powerful and brilliant book and the film was so faithful.
My local bookshop Newsround in Co Longford orders in most of my books for me. Ireland has so many wonderful bookshops.
Our library is roughly arranged around themes. Most of my library is non-fiction so it’s books on food, politics, and memoir grouped together.
I like a good black coffee from our coffee machine and I sit down on the sitting room sofa and read.
Henry David Thoreau from his autobiographical work Walden. It’s a memoir of his life in the woods of New England. Henry has been a character I constantly return to.
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