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Read All Over - Sean Orr

Read All Over celebrates the bookworm in all of us, showcasing readers in Vancouver and the books they love most. Sean Orr is a writer and is sorry he ever gave off the impression that he was either a reader of books, or someone who likes books.

Sean Orr is a writer and is sorry he ever gave off the impression that he was either a reader of books, or someone who likes books. Sean Orr also does shit like guided walking tours, electronic music, and photography. Sean Orr prefers it if you call him by both first name and last name.

- Sean Orr

Read All Over celebrates the bookworm in all of us, showcasing readers in Vancouver and the books they love most.

What book makes you feel like a kid again?

Well, I have my original albeit hand-me-down copy of Where the Wild Things are, and that book itself is about being a kid, but I might rather say an atlas because I just used to stare at them.

The one book you always recommend is...

The Dispossessed by Ursula LeGuin, if only because it's a science fiction book that has allusions to feminism, socialism, eugenics, history etc. and can be a good book for someone who, like me, was raised by TV, and found anything remotely academic to appear heavy handed and didactic.

What books have changed your life?

Power and Terror by Noam Chomsky. It was a super easy to read little pamphlet that allowed me to clearly extricate the contradictions inherent in the reaction to 9/11. I had always a bent for this kind of rhetorical exercise, but rarely felt compelled to immerse myself. The attitudes that followed the terrorist attack served as an impetus to reassert myself politically. Also, I was reading Notes From Underground when I was in my first year of an eventual 6 year stint of sobriety. I would also include Rilke's Letter to a Young Poet, because it encouraged me to be a writer. I'm a writer now.

This is where I usually read. I am currently reading Sexus by Henry Miller.

How do you like your books served up best - audio books, graphic novels, used paperbacks, library loaner, e-reader…

Other people's copies.

Your life story is published tomorrow. What's the title?

Still Gone.

Where is your favorite place to crack open a good book in Vancouver?

The image I get from this question is someone walking out of a bookstore with a brand new, fresh-smelling, shiny hardcover and waiting to open it in some special place like The Law Courts or something and I don't think I have ever done that. I seriously don't think I've ever purchased a book for myself. Is that bad? Is that like downloading music for free? Because I do that too. That being said, I'm probably coming off like a pretentious hipster so I'll just say Third Beach. Third Beach is my favourite place to crack open a good book in Vancouver. Final answer.