BEST AUTHOR BEST : JOHN DARNIELLE

The musician and novelist sets out reading goals [ '' only books in translation '' ] but enjoys '' transgressing when something juicy turns up.''

In '' This Year, '' he annotates the literary lyrics to 365 of his songs.

.-  Describe your ideal writing experience.

Midmorning; either on my back porch or on an airplane, a book in translation by an author I hadn't heard of but whose book is knocking me over; within an earshot of my wife, who is very patient with my need to read the parts I like out loud.

.-  What books might people be surprised to find on your shelves?

Maybe this copy of '' A Grammar of Middle Welsh,'' which was given to me by a friend who thought, rightly, that I Would be pleased to have a book like it on my shelf.

.-  Who are your favorite musician writers?

Charles Mingus only wrote the one book, and what we have of it went through heavy editing, but even one page tells you he could have just written prose and his name would still be remembered.

.-  Is there a songwriter you wish would annotate his or her lyrics, the way you have in '' This Year '' ?

Meshell Nidegecello. Daniel Higgs. Ghostface from Wu-Tang Clan is one of the best writers alive. His stuff is so lyrically dense that you could do it like an illuminated manuscript.

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

Paola Drigo's novel '' Maria Zef '' is flat-out incredible. Everybody should read it.

.-  You confess that several of your songs are inspired by Matthew Arnold's '' Dover Beach.'' Is it actually a poem you like?

Oh, God, yes, I cite it almost habitually. I have a complete Matthew Arnold I got in Edinburgh [ one of the best second-hand books cities in the world].

'' Dover Beach '' is remarkable even within his own corpus; it's so modern and forward-looking.

But I think it's one of those poems whose truth is so communicable, so graspable, and still so available to personal application - he's asking about constructing meaning in the absence of God, or, more fairly, in the absence of Faith in God.

And he's locating that in love of another. Takes my breath away.

The Post and Publishing continues to Part [ 2 ].

The World Students Society thanks. The New York Times.