What are you reading right now?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey.

Tell us a bit about it:

The novel that the famous movie was based on. A very funny and sad book.

What is your favourite book of all time?

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.

Tell us a bit about it:

A novel about a Sicilian aristocratic family during the 19th century and the creation of modern Italy.

What book do you remember most from your childhood?

The Minpins by Roald Dahl.

Tell us a bit about it:

A boy gets lost in the forest and helps tiny people to kill a monster. There were beautiful illustrations of the forest and the boy rides on the back of a swan at one point. There were a lot of angry swans in Galway where I grew up and I thought it was cool that he managed to befriend one.

Which of your books is battered from using over and over again?

Darina Allen's old Christmas book.

Tell us a bit about it:

An old paperback with a green cover and now unfashionable photographs of 80s food. Most people in my family use the copy at my father's house around Christmas time.

What is your favourite book by an international writer?

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.

Tell us a bit about it:

See above!

Which book do you feel depicts your own or another culture most vividly?

An Béal Bocht (translated) by Flann O'Brien.

Tell us a bit about it:

A depressing life in a Gaeltacht village - it makes fun of idealised Irish culture in a way that I feel is very Irish.

Was there a book that really changed your mind about something?

Nickled and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.

Tell us a bit about it:

An undercover journalist tries to survive life as a member of the working poor in America in 1996. I wasn't so keen on moving to America after reading it.