Jean Hanff Korelitz Gave Spreadsheets a ‘Workout’ to Plan Her New Book

What books are on your night stand?

I have a virtual night stand on Libby, for audiobooks. Right now, inspired by your recent list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, there are two I (shamefully) have never read: “The Known World,” by Edward P. Jones, and “Veronica,” by Mary Gaitskill. Meanwhile, my non-virtual bookstack is mainly comprised of upcoming books in my Book the Writer series: “The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club,” by Helen Simonson; “Bear,” by Julia Phillips; “The Friday Afternoon Club,” by Griffin Dunne; and “Long Island Compromise,” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. I’m also dipping into a book called “Dime Novel Mormons,” about Mormon characters in popular fiction of the late 19th/early 20th century.

What book would people be surprised to find on your shelves?

“Myths and Legends of the Swahili,” by Jan Knappert. I’m sorry to say that I swiped it off a hotel bookshelf in Kenya when I was 11. The depiction of hell’s torments was skin-crawling and indelible. Imprisonment in individual casks of scorpions? Demons who beat you with your own hair?

What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet?

It pains me to say this, but “Middlemarch.” I’ll get to it! I will!

Have you ever gotten in trouble for reading a book?

I almost came to blows in a bar in Alice Springs, Australia, about Nevil Shute’s “A Town Like Alice,” one of my six favorite novels of all time. The bartender called it “a woman’s novel.” Excuse me? The only reason I was even in his stupid bar was “A Town Like Alice”!

As a young writer did you imagine or hope to be (for lack of a better word) popular?

All we want are readers. Ask any writer: Would you rather your book had a buyer or a reader? We’ll all choose the latter. Of course, it’s always nice to be able to pay the rent, but there are other ways to earn a living. We write books because we want them to be read. One benefit of having acquired more readers rather late in my career is that I truly appreciate them!

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What’s the last great book you read?

Marie Brenner’s “The Desperate Hours: One Hospital’s Fight to Save a City on the Pandemic’s Front Lines” takes you right to the heart of the terror so many of us were running from in 2020. Brenner’s great bravery in embedding herself with NewYork-Presbyterian is matched only by that of the doctors themselves.