“Dante to ‘Dead Man Walking’: One Reader’s Journey Through the Christian Classics,” by Raymond A. Schroth.  When and where do you like to read?  I like to read anywhere. I never go to a doctor or dentist without a book in my bag. At home I used to love to read in bed but fall asleep too easily. So my favorite spot is a roomy wing chair with a footstool in the family room. If I’m working on my own book, I’ll be reading background material in my third-floor office at home in Saddle River.  What was the last truly great book you read?  After many years, I just reread “Pride and Prejudice” and understand why it is, and always will be, a classic.  Are you a fiction or a nonfiction person? What’s your favorite literary genre? Any guilty pleasures?  Fiction or nonfiction: honestly, both. I love to read historical biographies, and of course I cut my teeth on suspense, starting with “The Bobbsey Twins and Baby May,” in which an infant is left on the doorstep. The baby sitter had been in a daze because a can of tomato soup had fallen on her head, and she keeps trying to steal the baby back. After that it was the “Nancy Drew” series, and I was hooked.  You once worked as a stewardess, and presumably you have traveled quite a bit. Any observations about what people read on airplanes and how that’s changed over the years? What do you like to read on the plane?  When I was a flight stewardess with Pan American a thousand years ago, everyone was carrying a book. Now everyone seems to be carrying a computer or looking at the television. A few years ago, I got on the plane and smiled to see a woman deeply engrossed in one of my books. I settled myself and a few minutes later glanced back. She was in a dead sleep. On a plane, I like to catch up with what my suspense writer friends are up to and grab their latest on the way to the plane.  If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?  The Constitution, with emphasis on the First Amendment.  What is your ideal reading experience? Do you prefer a book that makes you laugh, or makes you cry? One that teaches you something, or one that distracts you?  I want to be emotionally involved with the characters, to laugh or cry with them, to yearn for things to turn out right for them. I don’t think there is any book that can’t teach you something, even if it is how not to tell a story.  What were your favorite books as a child? Did you have a favorite character or hero?  “The Good Earth,” “A Girl of the Limberlost,” “The Secret Garden,” “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” Favorite character was Jane Eyre after I saw the first movie and before I read the book.  Disappointing, overrated, just not good: What book did you feel you were supposed to like, and didn’t?  Honestly not fair to answer. If I start a book that I’m supposed to like and don’t like, I put it down. Maybe if I gave it a longer shot I might have loved it. We’ll never know.  If you could meet any writer, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you want to know? Have you ever written to an author?  For years I admired Morris West from afar. Then I met him briefly at a cocktail party. His agent, a personal friend of mine, called the next morning: “Mary, where did you go? After the cocktails, Morris said, ‘Let’s collect Mary Clark and go to dinner.’ ” I wanted to kill myself. I had slipped away to a teacher’s retirement dinner. But later, on a publicity trip to Australia, I visited him and his family at home. Years later he asked me for a blurb for his new book. I was thrilled.  What are your reading habits? Are you a fast or slow reader? Do you take notes? Do you read print, or electronic?  I’m a fast reader. I only take notes if it’s for research purposes. I love the convenience of electronic, especially when I’m traveling, but love best the feel and smell of a print book.  What book made you want to become a writer?  I was writing from the time I could put words in a sentence. My one gift has been to be a storyteller.  Which of the books you’ve written is your favorite?  That would be like asking me which of my children is my favorite.  What’s your favorite movie based on one of your books?  What’s the best suspense novel you’ve ever read?  “The Woman in White,” by Wilkie Collins. Runner-up, “Rebecca,” by Daphne du Maurier.  What do you plan to read next?  The latest P. D. James. She’s a marvelous writer and at age 91 gives me hope for my own future of continuing to be a storyteller.
The author of âThe Lost Yearsâ and many other novels was once thrilled to spot a fellow air passenger reading one of her books. Moments later, the reader was fast asleep.