Writer, editor and publisher Kittiphol Saragganonda sums up the glorious role of a book nerd. With an encyclopaedic knowledge of literature, Kittiphol breathes books and lives in the shuffle of their pages, and that's an enviable existence, especially since he runs the store Books and Belongings. Recently he was instrumental in crowdsourcing the complete Thai translation of Moby-Dick, while his 1001 Editions puts out translations of philosophical literature and novels.
Kittiphol regularly holds book talks (the latest one was titled "Unreadable Books", at which panellists discussed in-depth works that people complain are unreadable). His interest naturally extends to philosophy and art, and he produces a YouTube programme called Satta, which invites thinkers and writers to talk about subjects ranging from literature to cinema to modern philosophy. We have his reading list here.
What are you reading now?
We'll To The Woods No More, a novel by Edouard Dujardin. James Joyce said he was introduced to the interior-monologue technique through this book. But frankly, I think Joyce overrated it. The book is a simple love story, nothing compared to Joyce's own stories The Dead or Two Gallants. What's most interesting about the Dujardin's book is why Joyce gave it so much credit.
Is there a book you keep returning to? Why?
That book is Marcel Proust's In Search Of Lost Time, and a book of essays by Michel de Montaigne. Both writers have the same power to draw me in. Perhaps it's the way they "searched" for something. Proust is searching not just for the "time" in the title; he's also searching for truth -- the subjective truth in the mind of a writer. De Montaigne, however, wrote to search for knowledge. What's different is that while Proust was attracted to melancholy and death, de Montaigne detested them.
What was the last book that made you laugh?
Sombrero Fallout by Richard Brautigan. It's about a writer of comedy whose heart is broken by a Japanese woman. The book opens [memorably] with a sombrero dropped to the floor. The book can make you laugh like crazy, but it's also sad and lonely. I wouldn't be surprised if we found out that Haruki Murakami borrowed something from Brautigan.
What was the last book that made you cry?
That must be a long time ago! Bartleby, The Scrivener, by Herman Melville -- this isn't a book most people would cry over. Another book that made me tear up is Samuel Beckett's Mercier And Camier. Again, I don't know why, but the book left me with extreme sadness, just like when I was a teenager and read Norwegian Wood by Murakami.
As editor/writer, what are the books that inspire you in your line of work?
The Anatomy Of Melancholy by Robert Burton. The book still has many things that amaze me every time I pick it up. It's not just a book that tries to understand melancholy, as the title suggests, but a manual for writing that is full of style and ideas. Burton is a voracious reader, and the book works like a hypertext that links to several other books. In one paragraph, he throws in references to three or four more books or authors. To some, his style is high-flown, but to his fans, there's much more than that. The book has given me a quote that's stuck in head forever: qui ubique est, nusquam est -- he that is everywhere is nowhere.
You just held a discussion on Unreadable Books? What is the most unreadable book for you?
Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle. I've tried several times but with no success, and I don't know what the real problem is. I always stop in the middle. The book [written to imitate a commentary on the thoughts of a philosopher] constructs the identity of a writer and an editor, and it resembles what Kierkegaard did in Either/Or, only that this one is even more difficult to penetrate.
Paper or e-books?
Whatever is convenient. I like paper books more, however.
