Meet Makenna, we loved reading her books and loved spotting her babaà jumpers inspiration in them. Makenna Goodman is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, Helen of Nowhere and The Shame (both a joy). She is also a gardener and an editor. Thank you for sharing with us Makenna.
How do you organize your books?
I have books in every room of my house, and there really isn’t a lot of organization to it. Cookbooks are in the kitchen. We’ve got this amazing butler’s pantry with glass doors, and some books are hidden behind lots of other treasures, small art pieces, little bells. Mainly they’re arranged by size: I have a little oak bookshelf in my living room with all my tiniest books: the poetry, the plays, the smaller trim books. Then in my office I have all the art books on the mantle of a non-working fireplace. Upstairs is mostly philosophy, for whatever reason, and everything else that is migrating from the bedside.
What are you going to read next?
I’m traveling to the UK and have an event at Charleston House, so I’m about to start reading a biography of Vanessa Bell, whose work I love. Also Patrick Cottrell’s novel Afternoon Hours of a Hermit and Rebecca Perry’s novel May We Feed the King.
The last book that made you laugh?
Sea, Poison by Caren Beilin.
Describe your ideal reading environment. Show us!
In bed. With a hot cup of tea, and a dog at my feet. My bedroom windows look out onto the tops of lilacs and a crabapple tree, so an afternoon when I can see them in bloom and hear the birds chirping. But also it has to be raining otherwise I wouldn’t be inside. A rainy afternoon, where the house is clean, the birds are singing, and there’s nothing to do but read.
You have 12 uninterrupted hours to read right now, what do you reach for?
I guess I would read Proust, as I’ve only ever just started In Search of Lost Time. Or maybe I would re-read The Mists of Avalon (a retelling of King Arthur’s court from the perspective of the women) which I remember thinking was like chocolate cake when I was young. Probably I’d read that in a hammock under a crabapple tree in full bloom, watching the light shift.
Show us a stack of books you have laying around!
Here’s a photo of the books by my bedside, which is constantly evolving. And here I am with the reading pillow my sister in law made for me, as a hat. (And my favorite babaa sweater, as a scarf.)
You walk into a bookstore…what section do you go to first? How come?
I love small bookstores that are really curated and aren’t just appealing to a wide audience, that blend the genres and have unpredictable categories. I like to feel as if I’m entering into a thought form. TYPE bookstore in Toronto has a shelf called “plotless fiction”, which is so great. There’s a bookstore in Vermont called Antidote Books I love that has so few books, all beautifully made and designed, a lot of work in translation, and such a point of view. They make great coffee too and have a comfortable couch.
How have your reading tastes changed over time?
I am not finding myself gravitating to the novel as a form right now. There’s something there, some locked door, maybe it’s a lack of patience. I’m reading a lot of poetry. I’m less interested these days in nihilistic existential literature or philosophy. I want to read something that feels uplifting and centered without feeling pedantic, something transportive that is also youthful, innocent somehow, while holding within its multitudes. I have been reading children’s novels to my ten year old daughter. Recently we read the Moomin novels by Tove Jansson, who I adore, and a book about a library of secrets by Kekla Magoon. I’m reading these as a mother, which is so much different than reading as a writer. My son is thirteen and he has read all the Moomin comic strips. I’ve had the most rooted discussions with him, centered on the Moomin comics over the years. I guess going back to your previous question, I can judge a bookstore by whether or not they have Tove Jansson’s books. She’s a real genius. She was a sweater-wearing adventurer, too!