Suzanne Berne (The Ghost at the Table) discusses the advantage of ambiguity for book groups ... In this month's 1-On-One!

Is it possible to be a good writer without being a good reader?

I don't believe so, especially since reading is how most writers first come to writing--through falling in love with a book and wanting to create something like that themselves.

What advice do you have for reading group members when it comes to selecting books for discussion?

Try to find books that have some ambiguity to them, where the plots aren't easily tied up and readers can have different ideas about what happens and why. Plots that have a moral question involved, a question or issue that also isn't easily resolved, are particularly good for discussion, I think.

If you were stuck on a deserted island and could only bring one book with you to read, what would it be and why?

War and Peace. Because it's so long and intricate and because Tolstoy is such an astonishing delineator of human character. I think that book would provide quite a bit of company for a long time.

Have you ever read anything you're too embarrassed to admit (except in this interview)?

I spent a whole summer when I was about 12 reading one Barbara Cartland romance after another. I bought them at the drugstore, sometimes several at a time, the way other children bought comic books. I'm actually not embarrassed to admit reading Barbara Cartland romances because the plots were always so propulsive--not a bad thing for a novelist to learn how to do.

Favorite book when you were a child?

I loved Louisa May Alcott's book Eight Cousins. I don't know if it was my absolute favorite, but it was the first book I recall discovering on my own and devouring.

Book that changed your life?

Eudora Welty's The Golden Apples, which I read for the first time in high school. I hadn't known that written could language could be so rich, so melodic, so full of nuance and allusion.