BEST AUTHOR BEST : JASON MOTT [2]

.-  If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?

I'll keep it simple and say '' The Nicomachean Ethics,'' by Aristotle.

.-  Describe your ideal reading experience.

At home in the couch somewhere around 6 or 7 in the evening. Dead of winter. We didn't get much snow where I live, so I'll settle for a light rain. Just a quiet, soft, chilly winter's day.

.-  A writer like you is on a European book tour in '' People Like Us.'' Share the best story from your own.

Every writer has that one author that means a world to them. That author whose work they simply love and made them want to become a writer.

You never actually get to meet them, though.  Then, one day, you're an author of your own and, when you're publishing something, in many ways you're just casting it out into the void.

You rarely get to meet readers and even more rarely do you meet someone that your book had a really powerful impact on. Well, I got to meet that person in Paris.

It was pretty special and I'm grateful for whatever threads of fate allowed for it to happen.

.-  Do you think any canonical books are widely misunderstood?

I won't say '' Lord of the Flies '' is misunderstood, but I will say it is relegated to '' simpler '' reading because so many people remember reading it in high school and,  subsequently, they think of it as a book for teens. But it's not.

In my opinion, it's one of the most complex studies of human nature and the tendencies of societal forces ever written.

.-  You're a big Nicolas Cage fan. What role in a literary adaptation would you love to see him play?

An adaptation of Cormac McCarthy '' Blood Meridian '' with him playing The Judge.

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

Can I give you two? '' The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break, '' by Steven Sherrill, and '' Monsters,'' by Barry Windsor-Smith.

I came across the first in college. It's a story about the Minotaur from Greek mythology living and working at a roadside restaurant in the modern South.

It's all heartbreaking and beautiful and magical all at once.

'' Monsters '' is a graphic novel written and drawn by Windsor-Smith, the living artist I admire most.

"' I've followed his art, stories and career for decades and '' Monsters'' is his magnum opus. I hope I get to meet him someday.

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

Alan Moore, Hunter S Thompson and Marcus Aurelius.

The World Students Society thanks The New York Times.