My life in books: Lecturer Katriona looking forward to bookshop week

Katriona O’Sullivan: 'I love a good old Patricia Scanlan book for comfort; the 'City Girl' series was so good'

Katriona O'Sullivan says more fiction needs to be written which tells working-class stories of triumph and terror. File picture: Bríd O'Donovan.

Katriona O’Sullivan is a lecturer in psychology at Maynooth University and author of the award-winning memoir Poor. 

Her latest book, Hungry: A Biography of my Body, published by Hachette Books Ireland, is out now. She is an ambassador for Independent Bookshop Week, which runs from June 13 to June 20.

Books on your bedside table

Common People by Kit de Waal, Stations by Louise Kennedy, Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, and Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr Seuss.

Book for cheering up/escape/comfort

Any Roald Dahl book. I love a good old Patricia Scanlan book for comfort; the City Girl series was so good. I love Liz Nugent’s books for escapism too.

Book you didn’t finish

Yesteryear — I find it hard being in the head of a horrible protagonist who I can’t find compassion for. I probably will finish it, I need to know the ending.

Book that made you want to be a writer

Educated by Tara Westover and Lemn Sissay’s My Name is Why made me want to write my memoir. Recently, Are You Somebody? by Nuala O’Faolain.

Book that made you happy

All books make me happy but I loved Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin, and All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker. The Correspondent was a phenomenon that made me feel warm. Trespasses by Louise Kennedy made me happy (in the end).

Book that made you sad

The Correspondent made me cry, but it didn’t make me sad.

Book that changed your mind

Caitriona Lally’s recent memoir Home Economics made me think differently about manual jobs and writing; before reading it I had thought no-one really wanted to be a cleaner. What About Men? by Caitlin Moran which really made me think differently about the effect of feminism on young men.

Book that taught you something valuable

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee taught me about justice. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk taught me about my own trauma.

Book that needs to be written

More fiction which tells working-class stories of triumph and terror. I would love to read about the boys in the manosphere from a sympathetic standpoint.

Book everyone should read

The Body Keeps the Score taught me about the lifelong effects of trauma and really allowed me to understand myself and other people. 

This should be compulsory — in a world where one in three women will experience sexual assault and one in four Irish adults will have experienced sexual trauma in childhood we need to understand how this effects the body and the brain, permanently.

Book-to-film adaptation that trumps all others

To Kill a Mockingbird and Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh.

To Kill a Mockingbird because it held the story perfectly and didn’t miss any important parts — the acting was wonderful. It may have been my age watching it too as I was 11 years old and I had begun to really see injustice in the world. 

Trainspotting because of how fast-paced it was and how it matched Welsh’s frenetic style. As someone who lived in addiction this represented the madness so well, it did not glorify or vilify, it just stuck with the facts.

Bookshop of choice

Maynooth Bookshop is by far my favourite bookshop, because I know the whole team so well, especially Cian who runs it, and is passionate about bookselling and supporting authors. 

I recently popped into the gorgeous Little Acorns bookshop in Derry, where the owner Jenni is so warm and kind. She has a special chair for authors to sign so I added my name to it.

Book character that has stayed with you

I loved the book Juno Loves Legs by Karl Geary — Juno was someone I wanted to meet again. I loved Sophie from The BFG by Roald Dahl too, the tenacity of her and the hope, she was a hero for me when I was a kid.