Jason Pym asked M. Jonathan Jones:

The most important book(s) in your life? A book for a beginner and another for an expert in your professional field? If an alien visited earth, what one book would you give them? What book changed your life/how you view the world? A book for your (romantic) partner? What books are a refuge (=happy and calming)? Books on health and personal finance? 3 books by your favourite author? A book for each season? A

M. Jonathan Jones I'm going to answer three of these with one book: most important, changed my life, and a refuge would be The Hobbit. I read it when I was 7 and it was the first book I can ever remember reading that I thought was just about perfect (in true niggardly 'I can do better' style, I'd always reimagined bits of other books, and still do). I like the domestic rather than epic nature of the story, it rattles along through a fantastic landscape that is at once fresh and somehow familiar - or felt familiar to me - with great characters. It also cemented my love of languages and writing systems: I can still remember transliterating the runic script on the cover.

flag