{"id":436435,"date":"2026-05-20T09:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/436435\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T09:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:10:14","slug":"its-dated-quite-badly-but-max-harriss-life-in-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/436435\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s dated quite badly, but\u2026\u2019: Max Harris\u2019s life in books"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional<\/a>, in which we get to know the reading habits of Aotearoa writers, and guests. This week: Max Harris \u2013 barrister, writer and Labour candidate for T\u0101maki.<\/p>\n

The book I wish I\u2019d written<\/p>\n

Asher Emanuel\u2019s The Valley. It\u2019s a brilliant documentary-style book<\/a>, based on years of work, which follows people through the criminal justice system. I couldn\u2019t have written it but it\u2019s amazing \u2013 read it if you can!<\/p>\n

The book everyone should read<\/p>\n

Andrew Dean\u2019s Ruth, Roger, and Me. It\u2019s about the generations who have grown up in the shadow of the economic and political changes of the 1980s and 1990s \u2013 the \u201cRuth\u201d in the title is Ruth Richardson, who\u2019s interviewed in the book, and the \u201cRoger\u201d is Roger Douglas. We\u2019re lonelier and more disconnected than we should be, and Andrew\u2019s short, beautifully written book joins the dots between those changes in the 80s and 90s and our society today.<\/p>\n

The book I want to be buried with<\/p>\n

The Undying by Anne Boyer. Probably my favourite book \u2013 about illness and disadvantage and living. It\u2019d also be good to be buried with a book about undying (that\u2019s probably my fear of death talking).<\/p>\n

\"ThreeFrom left to right: the book Max Harris wishes he\u2019d written; the book he\u2019d be buried with; and one of the books he\u2019d choose if he could only have three for the rest of his life.
\nThe first book I remember reading by myself<\/p>\n

Ursula Le Guin\u2019s The Wizard of Earthsea or John Marsden\u2019s Tomorrow, When the War Began series? At least those are the ones that come to mind.<\/p>\n

If I could only read three books for the rest of my life they would be<\/p>\n

Hmmm, books that would keep me inspired and uplifted I think! The Power in our Truth, the Truth of Our Power is an amazing collection on Moana Jackson, someone who I looked up to and whose work I loved. Hera Lindsay Bird\u2019s self-titled collection to keep me smiling. And maybe something by Owen Jones (possibly his book Chavs or The Establishment) or Naomi Klein (This Changes Everything, or Doppelg\u00e4nger), since they are both writers and doers, whose work is a reminder of the need not just to have big ideas but to work with others to make them real in the world.<\/p>\n

Fiction or non-fiction<\/p>\n

Probably non-fiction! But I am always open to good fiction recommendations (so if you have any chill, relaxing novels to recommend I am all ears!).<\/p>\n

The book that made me laugh<\/p>\n

Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly. It\u2019s also a great book to read aloud with someone else.<\/p>\n

\"ThreeFrom left to right: one of the books Max Harris first remembers reading by himself; the book he wishes would be adapted for the screen; and the book he thinks is underrated.
\nThe book I wish would be adapted for film or TV<\/p>\n

It\u2019s dated quite badly, but I\u2019ll say The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler, because when I was a kid I wanted to be a screenwriter, and I read that book (murder mystery with a memorable detective, Philip Marlowe) and worked on a script for years that I never finished. Don\u2019t think it\u2019s ever been made into a movie and I would love to see that made some day! <\/p>\n

Most underrated book<\/p>\n

Iceland by Dominic Hoey. I\u2019m a big fan of Dom\u2019s other books as well but I reckon Iceland is especially good. Special mention (for non-fiction lovers) for recent books by Catherine Comyn, Matt Scobie and Anna Sturman, which deserve to be widely read by anyone trying to understand Aotearoa New Zealand today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits of Aotearoa writers,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69,2507],"class_list":["post-436435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-books","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-the-spinoff-books-confessional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}