BEST AUTHOR BEST : WILL OLDHAM [2]

.-  What's the most interesting thing you read from a book recently?

That Paul Gauguin saw the traveling extravaganza overseen by Buffalo Bill Cody in Paris in 1889 and was so inspired that he bought himself a 10-gallon hat and wore it as his trademark headgear for years [ Learned from '' Wild Thing,'' by Sue Prideaux.]

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

'' Demon Copperhead.''

.-  WHAT'S your favorite book no one else has heard of?

I have a thing for accounts of lives lived in Hawaii. Some of my very favorite books are '' Waimea Summer '' by John Dominis Holt : '' The Red Wind,'' by Ian MacMillian; '' Life Is for a Long Time,'' by Li Ling AI, and '' Paddling My Own Canoe,'' by Audrey Sutherland.

.-  Describe your ideal reading experience.

I like to read first thing every morning in the attic, on a built-in daybed, so that the book's words are the first things to replace the night's dreams.

There's a stackable turntable a few feet away, and I usually read for the length of two LPs, one side each. Music without words. Coffee is part of the ritual.

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

'' Waterlog,'' by Richard Deakin. It is essentially a long-form nonfiction prose poem about swimming everything swimmable in Britain, inspired by John Cheever's story ''  The Swimmer.''

Other recent books that astound me are the Kentucky writer Richard Tyler's biographies of  Abraham Lincoln [ Railsplitter ], John James Audubon [ Rare Bird ] and Cassius M. Clay [ '' Bull's Hell '' ] all in sonnet form.

.-  You're organising a literary party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?

Hugh Nissenson, Selim Nassib and Barbara  Kingsolver. We can call Nisenson a Jewish writer, Nassib an Arab writer and Kingsolver a writer from the same basic culture as mine.

I have lived in the words of all three and am desperate to hear a discussion of the nightmare of our present time by sane and thoughtful humanist artists.

The World Students Society thanks. The New York Times.