Caught reading!

Sophie Manner

Briefly:

What is your job? 
I am Director of Studies and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Chemistry.

When do you read?
On my commute, during workouts and before I go to sleep. On vacation!

How do you read?
I mainly listen to audiobooks. Listening to a book while I’m working out is an effective way of combining two activities that are important to me.

What do you read?
I absolutely love historical novels set in a Swedish context – they really speak to me. Some authors I enjoy are Katarina Wennstam, Ruth Kvarnström-Jones, Katarina Widholm and Denise Rudberg.

Tell us about your reading

I’ve always read a lot, but I think what really sparked my interest in reading was when I received Goodnight Mister Tom (by Michelle Magorian) through the Children’s Book Club. It affected me in a way that I still carry with me today – and now my own children love it too!

I often wish I read more, but with audiobooks I can enjoy many more titles than I would otherwise find time for. Everyday life is full of distractions, and listening to a book becomes something to lose myself in – another world to visit. Once I’ve finished listening, I often talk to people around me about the book.

For academic texts though, I need the print version so that I can make notes whilst reading. You can’t learn chemistry just by looking at it; you have to get your hands involved. I sketch out connections and reactions, using different colours in the notes to organise my thoughts.

Sometimes, you can experience pressure to have read a particular book or to be familiar with it. When you’re a new student at university, it’s easy to feel like everyone else has read more and knows more than you do. That’s why I think it’s important to learn to feel confident in what you already know and understand, and to trust that it’s a good foundation on which to build. One way to achieve this is to develop good reading strategies. When reading an academic article, for example, you should start with the abstract and the discussion section. Reading an article from start to finish can be challenging, so it’s important to learn how to quickly identify and keep in mind the key points while reading.

Jan-Åke Nilsson

Briefly: 

What is your job?
I am Professor emeritus of Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology as well as Evolutionary Ecology and Infection Biology at the Department of Biology.

When do you read?
Always in the evening, before I go to sleep. It helps me clear my mind and wind down.

How do you read?
Always printed books. I’m a slow reader, but I always finish a book – you never know if the ending might make the whole book worth-while!

What do you read?
Novels.
 

Tell us about your reading

I haven’t always been much of a reader. When I was at university in the 1970s, the books I read were mostly those on the required reading list, and during my PhD studies in the 1980s, I mainly read academic articles. The pressure and stress meant that fiction had to take a back seat.

But then I came across John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath and devoured everything he’d written. It was the perfect fit for the stage of life I was at and sparked my love of reading. Since then, books have become an important part of my daily life, a way of complementing my academic life with pure escapism.

Since 1985, my goal has been to read all the August Prize winners in fiction, and sometimes the non-fiction titles too. As for books in English, I often discover new titles by browsing the shelves in bookshops. I tend to get hooked on an author and read everything they’ve written. Favourites? Haruki Murakami, Fredrik Backman and Gillian Flynn. Backmans way of portray difficult topics is impressive.

My best advice? Give yourself half an hour and escape into a book. You won’t find that feeling anywhere else! And talk about what you’re reading – with friends, family or in a book club. It’s rewarding to follow an author’s work and discover new perspectives together.