Charlie Lovett is an American novelist and playwright. An avid book collector, he incorporates the world of rare books into his bestselling novels The Bookman's Tale, First Impressions, and The Lost Book of the Grail (Text).
ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
Lewis Carroll
Charlie Lovett: writes books about rare books.
I first encountered this in a set of old LP recordings read by the British actor Cyril Ritchard. He taught me the magic of reading aloud and when, as a young man, I decided to try my hand at book collecting I thought Alice would make a good focus. Since then I have filled my home with thousands of books and other items related to Lewis Carroll.
THE HOBBIT
J.R.R. Tolkien
My parents bought me a copy of The Hobbit when I was a schoolboy and for that reason I refused to read it. One night I heard part of the BBC dramatisation on the radio and immediately pulled the book from my shelf. For most of my teenage years, I began my summer holidays by reading The Hobbit (eventually followed by The Lord of the Rings). Each reading would bring new insight.
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP
John Irving
I read The World According to Garp as a 19-year-old, when I went backpacking around Europe. It was the first contemporary novel I had read for fun and I will forever associate it with that summer of independence. I loved Irving's characters, his frankness, and the way he wove short stories and chapters of books "written" by Garp into his narrative. It opened my eyes not only to the world of contemporary fiction, but also to new modes of storytelling.
POSSESSION
A.S. Byatt
This was a novel recommended to me by a book collector friend and the first book I ever read that I consider a literary mystery (that is, a mystery about literature). It's also a masterpiece that introduced me to the idea of literary "ventriloquism" – a technique I used in some of my work. Though I have not consciously followed in Byatt's footsteps, I can see her influence in my own writing and I love coming back to this novel every decade or so.