Any independent bookstore that has managed to survive is the best place to do a reading.
I think it's always good to read local authors or relevant books. In Egypt, I studied hieroglyphics and read everything about the mummies.
When a town doesn't have a book store, it is like something is missing, and unfortunately, fewer and fewer have them.
I'm never interested in writing a kind of neutral, universal novel that could be set anywhere. To me, the novel is a local thing.
There is a wealth of readership for regional language literature in India that is not given importance. We must give respect to our own languages.
I remember that feeling when I was a young reader: finding books that were set in Sydney with Australian characters was incredibly exciting.
I think, to give our bookshelf a little credit, our area of the library and the bookstore has attracted stronger writers as it's started to thrive.
While growing up, I always had to depend on foreign authors for page-turners. I think of myself as a commercial writer, and my job is simple to entertain you.
I don't think the isolation of the American writer is a tradition; it's more that, geographically, he just is isolated, unless he happens to live in New York City. But I don't suppose there's a small town around the country that doesn't have a writer.
I've never seen an 'English' books section in, well, an English bookshop, but in Scotland, most bookshops have a set of shelves dedicated to Scottish authors.
