The name's Deaver, Jeffery Deaver: How 007 kick started Jeffery Deaver's reading...and writing career

The Next Civil War: Dispatches From The American Future, by Stephen Marche. It articulately and troublingly describes the titular event, which need not be a revisiting of the 1860s horror; there are a number of ways nations can fracture into division and debilitating conflict.

Actually, this is one of several well-done books on my shelf about the present state of my country.

So I’ll add Twilight Of Democracy: The Seductive Lure Of Authoritarianism, by Anne Applebaum. Written five years ago, but talk about prescient . . .

How To Build A Successful A.I. Data Farm On A Desert Island by… Wait. No. Do over. The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare.

An island inhabitant would never grow bored with the vast landscape of characters and stories the Bard created. Drama, history, humour, and, damn it, he did the whole thing in verse. Maybe I could learn something from Prospero’s magic to help me escape.

Two answers: One, the entire contents of the Glen Ellyn Public Library in Illinois. I’ll explain. I was a nerd as a boy (in the true sense, not like now, when nerds are billionaires). With no talent for sports – or interest therein – I sought and found solace in the library. Books saved me from adolescent demons.

The second answer: From Russia With Love, by Ian Fleming. Having read that (then the rest of the series as they came out), it was off to the reading races for me. Writing too.

I was 12 at the time, and a day or two after finishing it, I sat down and wrote my first novel (OK, short story, though it comprised three whole chapters). My tale was, wait for it, about a spy.

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. I’ll concede its breathtaking prose and conceptual brilliance.

Yet trying to follow the plot(s) was like grabbing eels in a tank (I’m speaking figuratively; I’ve never tried). Too experimental and self-indulgent.

But then, I’ll pick Beethoven over John Cage any day. The novel was, of course, put on some best books of the year lists and widely praised. So there you go.