William Gibson Read William Burroughs at 13, Was Late to Meet Samuel Delany

The New York Times's By the Book section features a few recollections and recommendations from science fiction author William Gibson. In two of his interview responses, Gibson mentions authors familiar to readers of these pages. "The ideal reading experience, for me," explains Gibson, "is wholly induced by the text, with a complete lack of interruption." More: 

My most memorable adult experience of this remains my initial reading of Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian,” which I began in the cab, in Vancouver, on my way to the airport, in 1991 or so, for my first visit to Berlin. I remember nothing of the journey, between my door in Vancouver and the hotel room in which I finished the book. Just the Judge and I, here to there. Leaving him (as much as any receptive reader ever can) I stepped to the window, blinking out at this city, whenever and wherever it was. I was late getting to the Kunsthalle, to greet Samuel Delany and Wim Wenders, though I was able to later.

What’s your favorite book no one else has heard of?

Having just remembered my first taste of Berlin, I immediately think of Anna Funder’s superb “Stasiland: Stories From Behind the Berlin Wall.” Still as acutely creepy a look into what life was actually like there as I’ve been able to find.

What book should everybody read before the age of 21?

If I were able to prescribe a single work as required reading, it would probably be Umberto Eco’s essay “Ur-Fascism,” bound as a pamphlet for pocket carry, and sympathetically translated into every language on earth. Barring that, I really don’t know. I’m always slightly amazed when someone tells me they first read “Neuromancer” at 12, but then I first read “Naked Lunch” at 13, discovering William Burroughs and Edgar Rice Burroughs in the same year.

Continue reading at the New York Times.