Which genres do you especially enjoy reading? And which do you avoid?

I’ll read just about anything, but it really depends on what I’m working on. On my most recent project, which was adapting “The Son” into a TV show for AMC, my reading habits changed a lot. I spent 90 percent of my time problem solving, talking to the actors about their lines, teaching them how to shoot bows or guns (with the exception of Pierce Brosnan, who showed up looking like he’d inhabited the main character all his life), working with the folks in props and set design to help get all the details right. It takes about 400 people to make a television show, so you really are at everyone’s disposal — whoever needs help, you help. I ended up pretty desperate to stay in touch with the creative power that books have.

I stayed away from the heavy classics, and looked for things that had big, imaginative horsepower, novels by David Mitchell or Philip K. Dick or George R. R. Martin — or even Y.A. novels by Philip Pullman or J. K. Rowling — those authors who just have a huge store of original creative energy, who really suck you into the world they’ve created. I guess I’m one of those people who need books to survive. When I got home from the set or the writers room, all I wanted to do was read.

How do you like to read? Paper or electronic?

I strongly prefer paper books. Unless you need to carry a library around, a paper book is a better technology in every way. You can skip back and forth and keep your finger on the current page. You can write in the book — something I do constantly — which I think everyone should do. You can read in the bathtub and get the pages wet, you can get mad at the book and throw it across the room, read it in your tent during a snowstorm, spill your drink on it. . . . The paper book will take a licking.

On a more metaphysical level, a paper book is an object that has meaning beyond the words inside it. You pick up a book you bought 20 years ago and remember things about yourself, you come across a book your parents read and made notes in. I love old books, I love the smell of old books, I love libraries and used-book stores.

When we see a wall of books, it’s a physical reminder that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves: a history, a culture and a species that values knowledge for the sake of knowledge and art for the sake of art. Those values are built into us — they were part of us long before we lived in cities, long before agriculture or organized religion. When I pick up an old book, I am reminded of this — that we are a very small part of a very long story.

What book might people be surprised to find on your shelves?

I think people might be surprised to see that I have several hundred books on plants, animal tracks, trees, birds: things like that. I have 20 books on mushrooms alone. I also have several dozen cookbooks, because when I’m at home, I only eat meat that I’ve hunted myself. So I spend lots of time figuring out how to make various types of game taste good.

What kind of reader were you as a child? Which childhood books and authors stick with you most?

I would read anything when I was a kid, though I don’t recall reading many children’s books. The first book I loved was this giant automotive repair manual. I think I was 2, and that book was my security blanket. I wouldn’t let my parents take it away from me. They thought I would become an engineer, but obviously something went wrong.