Pint of Purple: Richard Brown

What book are you reading at the moment?

I always like to have two or three books going at once so you can flick back and forth and keep it fresh. I’ve got a few course books at the moment. I’ve just finished 100 Years of Solitude which was incredible and now I’m plodding through My Antonia which is…less incredible.

Who is your favourite literary character?

Okay this is going to sound like a strange one but hear me out. I’m going to say Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. He’s the perfect mixture of exterior cool, the suits, the business cards, and internal turmoil. Once you get to grips with the violence, it’s a brilliant book and Bateman, as shallow, obsessive and loathsome as he is, is an equally brilliant…hero? Anti-hero? I don’t know.

What is the first book you remember reading?

I think it was George’s Marvellous Medicine. I remember after I read it, when I was probably about seven or eight, my sister and myself decided to make our own. I don’t think my mum was hugely impressed when we poured most of the fridge into the bath, mixed it together and left it for a few hours!

What is your all-time favourite book?

Whenever anyone finds out you’re an English student you get asked this question, and to this day I haven’t come up with a decent answer. There are so many books that could be my favourite for different reasons, but if I had to pick I’d probably go with The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, which I first read in book club at school (oh yeah, I’m the kid who was in book club). The protagonist is a deaf mute and throughout the book, McCullers hits this amazing balance between loneliness and hope.

If you wrote an autobiography, what would be the title?

I think even I, never mind the rest of the world, would find it hard to take my autobiography seriously. I’ve had a pretty mundane summer so if I was writing it now it would have to be “Cheese, Jeremy Kyle and Sleeping: Richard Brown Uncut”

Kindle vs. Book?

I’ve got a Kindle and it’s useful, especially as a student, because so many of the books are ridiculously cheap, but you can’t beat a book. As pretentious as it sounds, there is something special about having a book in your hands that no amount of technology will be able to match.

How much is a pint of purple?

Although most of my infrequent nights at Pop are a bit of a haze of fancy dress and bad music, I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s £1.50