Liza Dalby is an anthropologist, specializing in Japanese culture. She has moved from nonfiction books (Geisha and Kimono: Fashioning Culture) to historical fiction (The Tale of Murasaki) to her latest collection of short essays, East Wind Melts the Ice (University of California Press, $24.95, 9780520250536/0520250532). Since putting up a website of cultural background for The Tale of Murasaki, she has become interested in creating visual imagery to accompany her books. The essays in East Wind Melt the Ice all have audiovisual counterparts that can be found on www.lizadalby.com. Here Liza answers questions we occasionally put to people in the industry:On your nightstand now:
Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David R. Montgomery, Miyazawa Kenji Selections by Hiroaki Sato, The Naming of Names by Anna Pavord, Haiku wo Yomu to Iu Koto (The Thing About Reading Haiku) by Yumiko Katayama, Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. I don't usually have so many books going at once.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Pussy Willow by Margaret Wise Brown.
Your top five authors:
Vladimir Nabokov, John McPhee, Salman Rushdie, Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Diane Ackerman.
Book you've "faked" reading:
Mrs. Dalloway. Simply have never been able to wade through Virginia Woolf, although I try again every few years. It seems so crass to dislike Virginia Woolf.
Book you are an "evangelist" for:
The Secret of Scent by Luca Turin. Life of the nose, and for the first time I feel that I understand chemistry.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Funny Ways of Staying Alive by Willis Barnstone. The spine is violet with a dab of lime green. Bought for the cover, read for the content. Quirky, delicious, and true.
Book that changed your life:
The Tale of Genji. As a teenager, this was my first taste of Japan.
Favorite line from a book:
"How the proud and mighty doth fade away--like a dream of a spring night." Tales of the Heike. Sounds better in Japanese.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Pnin