Our author Q&A series continues, in celebration of the National Reading Campaign. You probably won’t surprised to hear that reading is good for you but, for those who want proof, you might be interested in What Reading Does for the Mind by Anne E. Cunningham and Keith E. Stanovich.
Rita Moir is the author of four award winning (or close to) books of creative non-fiction and plain old non-fiction: Survival Gear; Buffalo Jump; The Windshift Line; and The Third Crop: A personal and historical journey into the shoeboxes and photo albums of the Slocan Valley, 1800s to early 1940s. She lives in Vallican in the Slocan Valley in rural BC.
Q: What are you reading right now?
A: Unrepentant: The Story of an Era by Gary Lee Wright and Corky Evans; The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny, WarpWorld by Kristene Perron and Joshua Simpson, and (aloud) The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N. Murari.
Q: As a kid, why did you love reading?
A: The gold stars pasted into our columns.
Q: Are there any books that changed your life?
A: The Diviners and The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence; The Education of Everett Richardson: The Nova Scotia Fisherman’s Strike, 1970-71 by Silver Donald Cameron; The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum (Margaret’s Museum) by Sheldon Currie.
Q: Dog ear-er or non dog-ear-er?
A: Non.
Q: Your favourite fictional hero and/or villain?
A: Fictional heroes: Morag Gunn (The Diviners) and Hagar Shipley (The Stone Angel).
Villain: Voldemort.
Q: Anything else you want to say about reading?
A: Somewhere we still get to be thoughtful or quiet, to dream or mull or rage or laugh out loud, admire craft and artistry, and use our own senses and brains.
Thanks Rita! Voldemort definitely makes my favourite villain list, too.
Tomorrow we wrap up this week-long reading lovefest with author Michael Stewart. In the meantime, don’t forget to pop tweet what you’re reading at #whatdidyoureadtoday
