Daily Bookshot: Paris Turns Purple

Paris Turns Purple, originally uploaded by Robert Burdock.

It’s always a special time in my reading life when Canongate Books get around to publishing a new edition of the too-good-for-words Paris Review Interviews (Picador in the US); not least because I get to find out the latest colour that’s been decided on for the cover. This time around it looks like the powers that be have been listening to a little too much of 80s pop mogul Prince, because as you can see, Vol. 4 has gone not a little purple.

But of course my passion for the The Paris Review Interviews runs a lot deeper than the colour of the cover. There’s something about the thoroughness and detail of the interviews that the Paris Review produces, that gives such a profound and voyeuristic insight into the writers of past and present. In fact they’re to a depth which could only be trumped by physically hiding out in the garden bushes of the literary greats, which isn’t recommended (Lothian & Borders Police weren’t too happy to find me camped out a couple of years ago in JK Rowling’s rhododendron bushes )

To date The Paris Review have conducted well over 300 interviews for their magazine (there’s an index of them HERE, where you can read extracts of all of them, plus the occassional complete interview), with 48 of the most select being reproduced in the first three volumes of the The Paris Review Interviews. This latest volume, No.4, adds another sixteen, and what a sixteen it is. Jack Kerouac, E.B. White, P.G. Wodehouse and Paul Auster are all in here, along with my absolute favourite, Haruki Marukami. And in this volume there’s an introduction by none other than Salman Rushdie. So as always is the case with The Paris Review Interviews, quite a literary treat awaits.

Unfortunately with Vol. 4 however, comes the sad news that this will be final volume published in the series….nooooo!! So no more ‘bundles’ of concentrated literary interviewing goodness to be had (and alas no hope of a cover draped in my favourite colour, orange). It’s said that all good things must come to an end, but there are some things which are just too good to bring to a close.

Sad and downhearted I may be about this news, but thankfully the Paris Review Magazine rolls on, so there’s still the opportunity of grabbing an interview fix via those. And one can only hope, that some time in the not too distant future, The Paris Review will see fit to resume with these delicious volumes. In the meantime I’m off for a sit down again in Ms. Rowling’s rhododendron bushes .

Canongate Books | 05 November 2009 | £14.99 | PAPERBACK | 448 PP | ISBN: 9781847674494

* For readers in the US, further details on The Paris Review Interviews can be found on the Picador website, or via the Paris Review website.

So I know I’m not the only one who has a passion for these Paris Review Interview volumes and in the spirit of Cadbury’s Creme Eggs and their ‘how do you eat yours’ tagline, I wanted to ask my fellow readers how you like to read your Paris Review Interviews? I’m the slow and contemplating type, and I like to ‘sup’ on an interview one at a time, usually in the comfort of a warm, steamy bath. Hehe..how sensuous is that? Hopefully you’re Paris Review Interview reading is as gratifying as mine. Let me know below.