![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5039189_11_articleinlinemobile_The_Wisdom_of_Farmers_by_John_Connell.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\nJohn Connell is a writer and farmer based in Longford. His previous books include The Cow Book and he is also co-director of the Granard Booktown Festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His latest book, The Wisdom of Farmers, published by Allen & Unwin is out now.<\/p>\n
\n Book\/s on your bedside table\n <\/p>\n
\n Underground by Haruki Murakami; I have been reading his non-fiction and this one about the Tokyo terrorist attacks sounded very interesting.<\/p>\n
\n The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel which was recommended by a friend. Young Man in a Hurry by Gavin Newsom; I am very interested in politics and Newsom may well be a candidate in the next US presidential election.<\/p>\n
\n Book for cheering up\/escape\/comfort\n <\/p>\n
\n The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton \u2014 I have listened to this on audiobook a few times and find it a very powerful story about a young man\u2019s search for peace and the finding of his faith.<\/p>\n
\n Book you didn\u2019t finish\n <\/p>\n
I reread Dan Brown\u2019s The Da Vinci Code at Christmas and wanted to read another of his works but had to put down The Lost Symbol which didn\u2019t stick.<\/p>\n
\n Book that made you want to be a writer\n <\/p>\n
John Steinbeck\u2019s Cannery Row, a beautiful short novel about a bunch of hobos in California. I have loved this book since reading it for the first time in college. It\u2019s a simple happy joyous work and one that made me fall in love with the written word.<\/p>\n
\n Book that made you happy\n <\/p>\n
I recently read Here Comes the Sun by environmentalist Bill McKibben about the enormous potential of solar power to change our energy environment and get us off fossil fuel dependency. It made me happy that works like this exist to point the way in the climate crisis.<\/p>\n
\n Book that made you sad\n <\/p>\n
\n One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad. This powerful work about the state of our world and the unfolding conflicts in the Middle East was so powerful and sad.<\/p>\n
\n Book that changed your mind\n <\/p>\n
Michael Pollan\u2019s Food Rules, a short book that made me think about the politics of food and what we eat in a very important way. After I read it I gave it immediately to my wife to read. The politics of food is something that has become very important to us.<\/p>\n
\n Book that taught you something valuable\n <\/p>\n
I loved Edna O Brien\u2019s memoir Country Girl. It gave me an insight into the life of a writer and what happens in the day to day and lifetime of such a figure.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Book that needs to be written\n <\/p>\n
My own book on the environment which I am currently researching.<\/p>\n
\n Book everyone should read\n <\/p>\n
\n The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, which won the Booker a number of years ago. It is a powerful novel about the Second World War and one I have put young writers onto due to its epic scale and power.<\/p>\n
\n Book-to-film adaptation that trumps all others\n <\/p>\n
A few summers ago I read the The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris. What a powerful and brilliant book and the film was so faithful.<\/p>\n
\n Bookshop or online\n <\/p>\n
My local bookshop Newsround in Co Longford orders in most of my books for me. Ireland has so many wonderful bookshops.<\/p>\n
\n Book organisation \u2014 alphabetised shelves or chaos\n <\/p>\n
Our library is roughly arranged around themes. Most of my library is non-fiction so it\u2019s books on food, politics, and memoir grouped together.<\/p>\n
\n Book accompaniment \u2014 tea, coffee, alcohol, cake, spaghetti?\n <\/p>\n
I like a good black coffee from our coffee machine and I sit down on the sitting room sofa and read.<\/p>\n
\n Book character that has stayed with you\n <\/p>\n
Henry David Thoreau from his autobiographical work Walden. It\u2019s a memoir of his life in the woods of New England. Henry has been a character I constantly return to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Connell is a writer and farmer based in Longford. His previous books include The Cow Book and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2698,61,60,43,178061],"class_list":{"0":"post-404329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-books-features-and-news","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-person-john-connell"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}