Book lover: Lesley Lokko

Lesley Lokko. Photo / Supplied

The book I love most is ... A Sport of Nature by Nadine Gordimer, the South African Nobel laureate. I read it in one go at the age of 18 and have read and re-read it possibly a hundred times since. Each time (I kid you not), I discover something new.

The book I'm reading right now is ... It's a bit of a cheat since I've always got three or four novels on the (rather slow) go but I'm reading The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obrecht (very promising), The Song Before It Is Sung by Justin Cartwright (just divine) and Alligator by Lisa Moore (stunning).

The book I'd like to read next is ... The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman, partly because I've just bought it and it's nice and thick.

The book that changed me is ... July's People, also by Nadine Gordimer. The very first sentence in it reads: "You like to have some cup of tea?", spoken by a black servant. It was the very first time I'd seen African-accented English in print. I'm from Ghana, West Africa, and that was the accent I'd heard most of my life - it made me want to become a writer.

The book I wish I'd never read is ... Freedom, by Jonathan Frantzen - although I can't actually claim to have read it, as such - I couldn't get beyond the first few pages. This was disappointing as everyone (and I mean everyone) raved about it.

* Lesley Lokko is the best-selling author of A Private Affair ($34.99, Orion)