Gabrielle Zevin Loves Edith Wharton, but Not ‘Ethan Frome’

What books are on your night stand?

This is a terribly personal question! As an author, I’ve brazenly talked about books for years, but I still feel like reading should be a little private. But, OK. For my night stand, I prefer a paperback, though at the moment I’m reading something as heavy as a textbook, a terrifically smart graphic novel called “Acting Class,” by Nick Drnaso. I also have two hardcovers in my stack: “Enter Ghost,” by Isabella Hammad and “The Fraud,” by Zadie Smith.

How do you organize your books?

Old stuff pushed to the back when the new stuff comes in. When it gets too crowded, I donate to the Little Free Library near my house. My partner and I like to track how many days it takes someone to accept our offerings.

Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how).

I’m 8. No one wants anything from me, and I have nothing to do except read. Maybe I’m reading “Anne of Green Gables.” Time stretches out forever.

What moves you most in a work of literature?

Character. When a writer reveals a person in all their complexity. I am moved by what time does to characters, and the ways in which characters, like humans, misunderstand themselves and their motivations.

Disappointing, overrated, just not good: What book did you feel as if you were supposed to like, and didn’t?

I adore Edith Wharton, and “The Age of Innocence” and “The House of Mirth”are both favorites. I had never read “Ethan Frome” until a couple of months ago. With all due respect to the ghost of Edith Wharton, “Ethan Frome”is pretty dreadful.It doesn’t make me esteem Wharton less. If anything, I take comfort in it, as a novelist.