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Read All Over - Rowan Coupland

Read All Over celebrates the bookworm in all of us, showcasing readers in Vancouver and the books they love most.

I grew up in England to Canadian and British parents, mooched around a bit, studied literature at university then joined all kinds of bands and disappeared off on travels by boat and foot and hitching and so on. Ended up staying at the Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris before disappearing again. Now in Vancouver and can be found in the philosophy and mythology and poetry sections of the city’s various libraries.

-Rowan Coupland

Read All Over celebrates the bookworm in all of us, showcasing readers in Vancouver and the books they love most.

What books have changed your life?

Probably T.S. Eliot’s Selected Poems (faber & faber), which was my first encounter with a poetry I could love. Then Harry Partch’s Genesis of a Music, which is a very eloquent introduction to how music can be let out of its box, by a former hobo and outsider musician.

Rowan at Shakespeare and Co.  Photo Courtesy of Rowan Coupland.

Where is your favourite place to crack open a book in Vancouver?

Stanley Park, maybe by Beaver Lake. When it’s not raining.

What writer would you love to see read their work?

Walt Whitman!

What is the most cherished item in your library?

Probably a hundred and something year-old copy of Shakespeare’s The Tempest with an inscription by the original owner: ‘if you wish my name to see, turn to page 93.’

The one book you always recommend is...

The Waves By Virginia Woolf -nothing in the entire novel is said, but everything is said. Friends grow up and die like moths and waves. It's beautiful.

How do you like your books served up best--audio books, graphic novels, used paperbacks, library loaner, e-reader...

Used paperbacks, maybe with inscriptions from the original reader.

What books make you feel like a kid again?

Tintin-The Prisoners of the Sun