BEST AUTHOR BEST : MEGHAN DAUM

The essayist wrote her new collection, '' The Catastrophic Hour, '' before suffering her own catastrophe by way of the Los Angeles fires :

'' So many writers lost their homes and possessions.''

.-  What kind of a reader were you as a child?

In elementary school I was very competitive and was always neck and neck with some other overachieving girl for '' most books read.''

At some point it expanded into magazines, Seventeen magazine then Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and Esquire.

At around 15, I discovered Film Comment in the town library and checked out every issue I could get my hands on, after which I would fill out request cards for VHS tapes of movies I read about.

.-  What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet?

I would tell you but I am too embarrassed.

.-  What's the best book you've ever received as a gift?

There have been so many. The most recent book was a copy of the Billy Graham Training Center Bible from a group of church volunteers who helped my neighbors and me sift through the ashes of what used to be our houses before the L.A. wildfires.

I haven't read it yet, but they were some of the kindest and most physically resilient people I've ever met. And hats off to them for getting so many secular Angelenos to hold hands and pray.

.-  You wrote a column on memoirs for the Book Review. That was work. Do you still read them, for pleasure?

I have a lot of memoir authors on my podcast and I almost always enjoy reading their books, so I count that as pleasure. I'm always delighted to interview a celebrity whose memoir is genuinely well written.

Moon Unit Zappa and Maria Bamford come to mind. Hadley Freeman's memoir about anorexia.

'' Good Girls,'' was astonishingly good.

I consider my interview with the economist Glenn Loury about his memoir, '' Late Admissions,'' to be one of the best I've done.

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

Tim Kreider's essay collections. '' We Learn Nothing '' and "I Wrote This Book Because I Love You,'' are masterpieces of the form, start to finish.

I wouldn't say no one has heard of them, since many of the pieces he has written for the Times opinion page have gone viral. 

But Tim should be on every serious reader's shelf.

The Publishing continues. The World Students Society thanks The New York Times.