Hollis Gillespie on 'A Book of Common Prayer'

When A Cappella Books turns 20 this month, a massive group of local authors will discuss their favorite works during a two-day marathon schedule. Hollis Gillespie, author of Trailer Trashed, chose Joan Didion's A Book of Common Prayer.

"In college I was assigned to read this book for a lit class, but of course I never did and bullshitted my way through the term paper. Then soon afterward I moved out of the country with my mother, when there was no internet or even TV sitcoms I could rely on for a mental enema. So I was forced to read from the boxes of books my mother brought with us, and Didion's Book of Common Prayer was in there. The prose affected me profoundly. I've almost committed the entire book to memory, but still I keep it around just to arbitrarily open to any page and begin reading, to remind myself that writing is a craft, and those who do it well should be celebrated. These days it's easy to forget that, what with writers getting dumped in droves to be replaced with "content providers." What the hell is a "content provider"?"