Internationally Bestselling Author Donates Personal Library

Booker Prize-winning author, Thomas Keneally, recently donated his personal library to Sydney Mechanics’ School of Art and school responded by creating The Tom Keneally Centre, to be launched by the governor of New South Wales, Marie Bashir on August 18th.

Sitting in the new center, that will be used in for readings, book launches and writing classes, Keneally -- best known as the author of the book later made into the film Schindler’s List -- spoke with The Age about his rich career and, among other things, how he views the place of e-books in the world of books that he loves:

Keneally says young writers are still keen to be published in traditional book form. ''You can't hold up a electronic book and say, 'This is my book', either with shame or vanity. ''You can't argue with technology and I use it as much as anyone.

''This sort of book has been declared dead since I had hair, since I was young, and it's funny how it's still around.''

The library contains ''semi-guilty pleasures'' including P.D. James and several books by Graham Greene and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as well as murder mysteries, the purchase of which he blames on his wife. It is a mixture of books collected for pleasure and more serious tomes for research, including what he describes as ''famine literature''.

You can read the piece in full here and see January Magazine’s 1999 interview with the author here.