BEST AUTHOR BEST : WILL OLDHAM

'' I LIKE to read first thing in the morning in the attic, on a built-in-daybed, so the book's words are the first things to replace the night's dreams.'' The singer has written the foreword to a reissued western.

.-  Are there any classic novels that you recently read for the first time?

'' Cassandra at the Wedding,'' by Dorothy Baker.  Unbelievable.

.-  How have your reading tastes changed over time?

I'll bet my tastes have got more rarefied. I always celebrate the discovery of a book or record that I think someone else actually would appreciate, because too often I find that there's nobody to talk with about my best reads.

.-  Do you have a favorite memoir by a musician?

Undeniably. Art Pepper's '' Straight Life.''

My friend T.R. Johnson first showed me the book about a quarter of a century ago. I got a copy and kept it in sight for 20 years, knowing / hoping it was gonna be as good as T.R. promised. It's better.

.-  What book, if any, most influenced your decision to become a songwriter?

I was born to make up songs and sing them. A couple of books aided me in sorting through some of the mess in my head : the first novels of workers-in-song Nick Cave [ '' And the Ass Saw the Angel '' ] and Jimmy Buffett [ '' Where is Joe Merchant? '' ]

Each heavily referenced the writer's  songbooks, and functioned as primers for exploring the basic idea that a song is this itty-bitty thing hinting at entire worlds of magic and emotion.

.-  How did you come across Charle Neider's  1956 novel, '' The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones '' ?

Through the work of Sam Peckinpah. '' Authentic Death '' was the basis for Peckinpah's '' Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.''

Rudy Wurlitzer wrote a beautiful screenplay, but the structure is clearly Neider's.

.-  How did you come to write the foreword?

I got asked.

.-  Tell someone who knows nothing about it why they should read it.

Neider does some minimally experimental and maximally effective explorations in style, which can gently massage the momentum of the reader's psyche into wildly and necessary new directions.

The Publishing continues to Part [2].

The World Students Society thanks The New York Times.