The book I am currently reading
Being and Time, by Martin Heidegger. And yes, I am struggling with it. Not only because it is heavy philosophy but also because Heidegger’s worldview is the opposite of mine. But what’s the point of reading people we already agree with?
The book that changed my life
The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise, by RD Laing. I was an adolescent. It blew my mind, pointing me towards a radically different view of the world.
The book I wish I’d written
The short story “White Nights” by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Enchanting, lyrical, set deep in the torment of the human soul, infinitely gentle. Oh, I wish I could write like that!
The book that had the greatest influence on me
Jack Kerouac’s The Subterraneans. I remember experiencing it as a song; his writing breaks all the rules.
The book I think is most underrated
History by Elsa Morante. A leftwing Italian novelist writing after the second world war, Morante was despised by the right, but she didn’t follow the party line, so the left despised her too. As a result, Italy shunned one of its greatest writers.
The book that changed my mind
Lucio Russo’s The Forgotten Revolution is about science in the ancient Mediterranean world. Before reading it, I thought that science had started with Bacon, Galileo and Newton. Not any more.
The last book that made me cry
A chapter about global poverty in a World Economic Situation and Prospects report by the United Nations.
The last book that made me laugh
Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel García Márquez. I am not sure laugh is the right word: it is not like reading Jerome K Jerome, but it is dappled throughout with lightness and irony. In this dark time, it is good to read about True Love.
The book I couldn’t finish
JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. To be fair, I liked The Hobbit.
The book I’m most ashamed not to have read
Notes of a Native Son by James Arthur Baldwin. I was asked in an interview if I preferred Baldwin or Kerouac. I said Kerouac, because I did not know Baldwin. Shame on me.
The book I give as a gift
Enrico Palandri’s Boccalone: Storia Vera Piena di Bugie. Why on earth has this not been translated into English? Full of life, intelligence, creativity and wit, it is the best picture I know of the youth of my generation.
The book I’d most like to be remembered for
The Order of Time. Because it pretends to be about physics, but secretly it is my book about the meaning and the finitude of life.
My earliest reading memory
Yolanda, the Black Corsair’s Daughter by Emilio Salgari. I got sick and during the day, I stayed in my parents room, while my bedroom was aired. Alone in the grand bed, like Alice through the looking-glass, I experienced the amazement of finding a whole cosmos inside a book!
My comfort read
Horace’s Odes. I have a tiny edition that was given to me as a gift from a dear friend who a few years later chose to end his life. Like a singer, Horace, the greatest Latin poet, chants the flow of time, the brevity of life. They are immortal verses– for the moments when one needs to remember what it is to be a human.
• There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness, a collection of writings by Carlo Rovelli, is published by Allen Lane. To buy a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. On Monday 16 November Carlo Rovelli will be in conversation with Charlotte Higgins at a Guardian Live online event. Book tickets here
