We hope you’re reading along with the Cityline Book Club and enjoying Born Weird by Andrew Kaufman! Our Cityline team is really enjoying this quirky novel and have totally fallen in love with the Weird family. To help our book club get some additional insight into Kaufman as a writer, we asked him 10 questions about his writing habits and favourite books.

1. What was your favourite book as a child?

I wish I could say something noble and brilliant like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but the truth is I was obsessed with an American writer named Daniel Pinkwater. I loved all his books but my favourites were Lizard Music and Alan Mendelsohn: The Boy From Mars.

2. What’s your current favourite book?

Once again I wish I could say Gravity’s Rainbow or Infinite Jest, but my favourite book remains Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.

3. Was there a moment when you first knew you wanted to be a writer?

I can’t remember wanting to be anything else. I know that sounds pretentious and fake, but it’s honestly true.

4. What is your favourite music to write to?

I almost always have music playing while I write, but what that music is changes all the time. It’s usually whatever will help me generate the mood that I’m trying to get on the page. So I have a lot of records, from a lot of genres: pop, classical, dub, indie rock, whatever fits. Although, I have to admit that a disproportionately high number of ’80s new wave records get played…

5. What author do you wish you could write like?

Easy: J.D. Salinger.

6. Where is your favourite place to write?

I keep an office. It’s important for me to have a door to close, a room to leave. Otherwise the line between writing and real life gets blurry.

7. What time of day do you do your best writing?

I can get more done between 9 and 11 than I can between 11 and 6.

8. What was your last great read?

I’m in the middle of a major detective fiction kick. So I’ve just finished The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler and The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson and loved them both.

9. What is the last book you gave as a gift?

Concrete Toronto by Michael McClelland and Graeme Stewart. Read it and I promise that you will never drive down Bloor Street the same way again.

10. What do you do when you’re not writing?

I have two kids, seven and five. They’re amazing, but as anyone who has young kids knows, there isn’t much of my day or energy left by the time they get to bed. Honestly, the vast majority of my evenings are spent reading or watching TV. And my weekends are filled with soccer games and gymnastic classes.

Are you enjoying Born Weird so far? Share your thoughts in the comments – we can’t wait to discuss it with you. Stay tuned for a video interview with Kaufman about the novel, coming up right here in the Cityline Book Club next week!