Cassie McCullagh
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Well, I asked him about the books that had shaped him, and I should add that I spoke to him before the recent death of V.S.
Naipaul, who comes up in the conversation.
Khalid, let's take a step back from the work that you're doing now, because what I want to ask you about is the role of books and reading in your life.
How have they shaped you?
Can you remember particular books that really had a huge impact on you as a kid?
Like who?
And what had you lost?
Had you lost a book?
Had you lost a story?
Did you get it back?
So I'd asked you to collect together the imagined bookshelf that had made you.
How hard was that for you, Khalid?
Can you remember why you chose to read it at the age of 11?
Why in particular?
Why does he read Russian literature?
I wouldn't have guessed from your name a Russian connection.
Can you explain that?
Sorry, where was that?
What a complicated colonial bookshelf that becomes.
That postcolonial lens can be such a powerful reading experience.