Throughout his career, the humorist Joe Queenan has gleefully skewered pop culture, Baby Boomers, sports fans and much else. In his 2009 memoir “Closing Time,†Mr. Queenan wrote about growing up poor in Philadelphia and suffering at the hands of his violent father. In his latest, “One for the Books,†he recounts a lifetime of reading the classics, the trashy and everything in between. He also makes an impassioned case for the printed book's superiority over its digital competitor. In a recent e-mail interview, Mr. Queenan discussed the future of books, his problem with book clubs, reading 80 books at a time and more. Below are edited excerpts from the conversation:
You write that it's as if certain unread books are “stalking me,
 taunting meâ€: “You're not fooling anybody, pally. If you haven't read ‘Ulysses,' you're still a pathetic rube off the streets of Philadelphia. 
And you always will be.†After a lifetime of serious reading, how deeply
 do you still feel conscious of not coming from a typical
 bookish background?
Not at all. I never think about it. The “Ulysses†stuff is just a joke. One thing, though: When I was a callow youth devouring books while mired in an unsatisfactory economic class, I thought this would stand me in good stead once I started hanging out with the bourgeoisie. I figured people would be really impressed that I had read “Silas Marner†and “Mourning Becomes Electra.†Then I finally got invited into the Mansion on the Hill and discovered that the residents were all illiterate slobs.
One of your book's biggest themes is the supe riority of books to
 e-readers. Are you optimistic about the future of books on paper? And do 
you consider this book more of an early eulogy or a rallying cry?
The book is elegiac. Books, I think, are dead. You cannot fight the zeitgeist and you cannot fight corporations. The genius of corporations is that they force you to make decisions about how you will live your life and then beguile you into thinking that it was all your choice. Compact discs are not superior to vinyl. E-readers are not superior to books. Lite beer is not the great leap forward. A society that replaces seven-tier wedding cakes with lo-fat cupcakes is a society that deserves to be put to the sword. But you can't fight City Hall. I also believe that everything that happens to you as you grow older makes it easier to die, because the world you once lived in, and presumably loved, is gone. As I have said before, when Keith Richards goes, I'm going too. Same deal with books.
You say you're reading up to 32 books at a time. What are the mechanics 
of that? Has the number of books you read simultaneously grown over time? 
Is there a ceiling, or could you be reading a hundred books at some
 point?
I might read 50 pages of a Maigret novel, then switch to Flaubert, then switch to one of those beautiful little Taschen books about Courbet or Odilon Redon, then switch to Sherlock Holmes, then switch to John Keegan, then switch to “The English Patient.†Last week I read Margot Livesey's gorgeous “The Flight of Gemma Hardy†in two days, then went back to the book about the Spanish Civil War that I have been working on for years. There is literally no limit to how many books you can read simultaneously, provided you have a good memory. I once got up to around 80. Now I have it back down to a manageable 24.
No. The whole thing is a form of socially sanctioned insanity. It is a way of trying to control a universe that cannot be controlled.
You say that, “a genuinely terrible book is a sheer delight.†What's the 
worst book you've ever read? (Let's exclude the most predictably bad,
 like those you cite written by O. J. Simpson and Geraldo Rivera.)
“Atlas Shrugged†is moronic beyond belief, though it just narrowly edges out “The Fountainhead.†Rand is a fascist and a creep, either of which could be forgiven. But she also cannot write. As Oscar Wilde once said, the only truly unforgivable crime is lack of sophistication. I think Wilde said that. He said everything else.
About a slightl y different category, you write, “reading a bad book by a
 good writer is compelling in a way that reading a good book by a
 mediocrity never is.†What's the worst book by a good writer that you've
 read?
“The Old Man and the Sea†is pathetic, infantile, hokey, almost self-parody. Everything great in Hemingway had curdled into schtick. That said, I just finished re-reading “The Sun Also Rises†for the 15 billionth time.
Dorothy Handelman Joe QueenanHave your experiences in book clubs been universally terrible? How might 
you design an ideal book club, or do you think it's impossible?
I was only in one boo k club a long, long time ago. It scarred me for life. People would talk about things like “foreshadowing.†It was like being in high school. An ideal book club would consist exclusively of writers. Those guys know how to pick good books. They're in that line of trade. If I could be in a book club with Thomas McGuane, Jane Smiley, Julian Barnes and Jane Gardam, I'd sign up today.
You haven't shopped many times at the Strand bookstore in New York,
 which surprised me. As a place to browse and a place for older and odder 
titles, I find it invaluable. What keeps you away?
No charm. I feel like I'm trapped in a Jose Saramago novel where a customer named Borges keeps turning up and asking for a copy of “Don Quixote.†Too much of a good thing is a bad thing.
In itemizing your library, you say you own “perhaps 30 books I keep
 around as a joke.†Do you buy these y ourself or are they given to you as
 gag gifts? What makes a book a joke rather than just a bad book?
They mostly turned up over the transom at jobs I used to work at. “Hoosier Home Remedies†is my favorite. That is the best title for a book ever. I am not saying that the book itself is a joke - the remedies are excellent - but I only keep it around for laughs. I have held on to “Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, and Morality†because Steve Allen gave it to me, and because it holds out hope that I may one day be given “Jay Leno on the Bible, Religion, and Morality†or “Ellen on Leibniz.†Of such dreams is a full life made.
Bad books are not so much funny as ridiculous. “1945″ by Newt Gingrich and some industrious history professor is insanely bad. Still, if Gingrich had gotten himself elected president he wouldn't have had time to get these books co-written for him. The republic would have benefited greatly.
You've written a great deal about movies, often scathingly. Let's get
 sunny: do you have any favorite movies that were adapted from books?
“L.A. Confidential†was a brilliant book and a brilliant movie. The same is true of “True Confessions.†“The Sweet Hereafter†is a great book and a great movie. So is “Black Robe.†“Brokeback Mountain†is a great movie based on a beautiful novella. You can say the same thing about “Emma,†“Sense and Sensibility,†“Great Expectations,†the most recent “Jane Eyre†and several versions of “Pride and Prejudice.†Not to mention “Ran.†As for The Iliad, well, they haven't gotten that one right yet. Still can't figure out what to do with the gods.
What's the next book you're planning to read?
It took me 34 years to finish “Middlemarch.†The first 31 years were the hardest. I started “Moby-Dick†about 20 years ago and never got past page 100. Captain Ahab, batter up. If I could get through “Middlemarch,†I can get through anything.
