Geoff Dyer on Reading & Comfort | Author Interview
- For author Geoff Dyer, reading has been a lifelong journey of finding.
- Dyer fondly recalls Alistair MacLean's "The Guns of Navarone" as his gateway into addictive thrillers.
- In his 20s, Dyer experienced meaningful intellectual shifts through the works of Marx and Nietzsche.
Geoff Dyer’s lifelong love of reading began with Beatrix Potter and evolved through Alistair MacLean thrillers,ultimately leading to a profound thankfulness for Elizabeth Taylor’s novels. This interview explores the author’s formative literary experiences,including the impact of Jane Austen during his youth and the intellectual shifts he experienced through Marx and Nietzsche. Dyer revisits Don DeLillo’s “The Names” most frequently, while finding Tessa Hadley’s “Clever Girl” deceptively insightful. News Directory 3 provides in-depth coverage of authors and their literary influences. Learn how reading has provided both solace and intellectual stimulation. Discover what’s next in Dyer’s memoir, “Homework,” and explore the comfort of reading.
Geoff Dyer on Books: MacLean, Taylor, and the Solace of reading
Updated June 06, 2025
For author Geoff Dyer, reading has been a lifelong journey of finding. From early encounters with Beatrix Potter to later-in-life appreciation for elizabeth Taylor, books have provided both solace and intellectual stimulation.
Dyer fondly recalls Alistair MacLean’s “The Guns of Navarone” as his gateway into addictive thrillers. He visualized every scene while reading MacLean’s work. Jane Austen’s “Emma” marked a turning point during his teenage years, solidifying reading as a cherished habit.
In his 20s, Dyer experienced meaningful intellectual shifts through the works of Marx and Nietzsche. However, he found Freud unconvincing.
When asked about the book that made him want to be a writer, Dyer said that he never particularly wanted to be one; being a writer was one of many possibilities simmering away and this is the one that happened to come to the boil.
Don DeLillo’s “the Names” stands out as his moast reread book, a high point in postwar literature. In contrast, he couldn’t revisit Malcolm Lowry’s “Under the volcano,” finding it disappointing upon a second attempt.
Discovering the works of Elizabeth Taylor later in life proved transformative. he said that if he had to choose one it would be “A Game of Hide and Seek” but her 12 novels and the hefty volume of short stories lit up my mid-60s.
Currently, Dyer is reading Rosamond Lehmann’s “The Weather in the Streets.”
Tessa Hadley’s “Clever Girl” is Dyer’s comfort read, though he admits it’s not comforting at all as even though it truly seems to contain an easy-to-understand guide to writing fiction it turns out to be impractical to extract the necessary skills from the pages in which they are so abundantly and discreetly revealed.
What’s next
Dyer’s memoir, “Homework,” offers further insights into his literary influences and personal experiences.