BEST AUTHOR BEST : DAVID MAMET

 

The playwright and filmmaker, whose new memoir is '' Everywhere an Oink Oink,'' recommends a book about Hollywood by the former Paramount head Bob Evans : '' But one must read between the lies.''

.-  What's the last great book you read?

A journey in the Seaboard Slave States,'' by Frederick Law Olmsted. Also note : '' The Life of George Brummell, Esq., Commonly called Beau Brummell,'' by Captain Jesse, and '' A Diary in America,'' by Frederick Marryat. Enjoy.

.-  What's your favorite book no one else has heard of ?

'' The Wallet of Kai Lung,'' by Ernest Bramah.

.-  Which novels or novelists do you admire for their dialogue?

George V. Higgins.

.-  Which books best capture Hollywood and the challenge of making movies?

The best book about Hollywood is my '' Everywhere an Oink Oink : An Embittered, Dyspeptic and Accurate Report of Forty Years in Hollywood.''

Here please find its like :

* A Girl Like I,'' by Anita Loos. She was the first of the great Hollywood screenwriters, and in it from the days of the silents. Her ''Lorelei'' stories became ''Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.''

.-  See also '' The Honeycomb,'' an autobiography of Adela Rogers St. Johns.

She started in Journalism before writing for silents, and wrote many of the great ''women's'' pictures of early sound.

.-  Bob Evans, once head of Paramount, wrote '' The Kid Stays in the Picture,'' which is laugh a minute, but one must read between the lies [sic].

.-  Another must read is Ivor Montagu's '' With Einstein in Hollywood.'' He and Sergei wandered in, in the 1930s.They were flogging a screenplay for ''  An American Tragedy'' and a gold rush drama, '' Sutter's Gold.'' They had a few drinks, had their lunch handed to them and went home.

.-  What book would you most like to see turned into a movie that hasn't already been adapted?

The only book not adapted to the screen is the phone book. I tried, but only got as far as the title : '' Funny Names, No Plot.''

.-  What's the last book you read that made you laugh?

'' The Berenstain Bears Get Cancer.''

.-  The last book that made you cry?

'' Bambi.''

.-  The last book that made you furious?

'' The Wealth of Nations.''

.-  Has a book ever brought you closer to another person, or come between you?

My wife once threw a book at me.

The World Students Society thanks  The New York Times.