Lev Grossman’s birthplace also happens to be the birthplace of liberty. He didn’t love living in Lexington, Mass., where the first battle of the Revolution was fought, he said, “but that’s just because children are venal.” Below, Grossman, now based in Brooklyn, discusses more of his favorites.
Q. What do you wake up to?
A. As a modern, gadget-owning citizen, it’s the alarm on my iPhone – church bells.
Q. What music have you listened to today?
A. The Decembrists and MC Frontalot.
Q. What is your favorite word?
A. Little. Every time I write something, that’s the word that has to be edited out. I’m always saying “a little this” or “a little that.” I guess I don’t want to get caught making an argument of any kind.
Q. What comforts you?
A. Cooking…. My girlfriend and I have a promise – no takeout. It’s been two years. We’ve made some bad meals, but we haven’t had any takeout.
Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A. A cartoonist. I can’t draw, it turns out.
Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. Vodka Negroni. I was interviewing Martin Amis, and he ordered it… I strive to rip off Martin Amis whenever possible. But they taste horrible. As he said, “It’s not a bullshit drink.” He was right.
Q. What is your greatest extravagance?
A. I’m very bad about spending money, I just never do it. Everything I own is old and tattered, except this suit.
Q. If you could only make one more journey, where would you go?
A. My father did this, oddly enough. His health is declining, and he went to Petra, in Syria. I would definitely not go to Petra. Maybe Venice.
Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?
A. A swordsman, or swords-fighter…. A swashbuckler.
Q. If you were about to be executed, what would you want for your final meal?
A. I’ve thought about this a million times. I’d have a pizza, it’s my favorite food, even if it’s boring. I’d eat as much as I could.
Q. What is your favorite holiday and why?
A. New Year’s Eve. I’m sort of nonreligious, so I shy away from the religious holidays…. New Year’s is secular, there’s lots of drinking, and no presents.
Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. We went on vacation in Maine – my parents rented a farm. There was a barn, and a rope that hung from the ceiling. You could swing from it. I was seven, it was perfect.
Q. What is your most prized material possession?
A. A friend gave me a first edition of The Magician’s Nephew, one of the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis.
Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most like to have a beer with?
A. I should go with someone dead, right? How cool would that be, bringing them back to life?…. I would say James Joyce, but he would be obnoxious. So would Hemingway or F. Scott Fitzgerald…. Probably Virginia Woolf.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.