We chat with Tate Jerrems about his mysterious taste in books and Germaine Greer.

Why do you work in books?

So many times has the book tucked snug under my arm or banging around in my backpack been the catalyst for a decision to move, meander, imagine and explore. Through reading, we live out someone else’s creative explorations as if they were our own, eventually altering the way we tell our own tale. The opportunity to give an experience such as this to others, with a knowing smile, is why I’ve chosen this industry.

What book would you happily spend a weekend indoors with?

I must say that Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer is still up there for filling me with joy, sadness, laughter and wonder. Its sense of journeying through time and space, geography and ancestry, rich with both cultural satire and down-right shocking reality, will always transport me to another place. And all without leaving the couch.

Your job entails recommending good reads: how do you balance personal taste with customer nous?

Generally, I’m just honest. All I can do is recommend the books that have changed my own perspective on life in the hope of sharing the experience. I also enjoy getting to know the customer’s interests, toying with titles I haven’t read but would love to if I were them.

Describe your own taste in books.

Mysterious, even to myself. I love essays on nature, art and aesthetics; I’ve been through a phase of mind-expanding Buddhist texts; schlock horror and sci-fi have certainly had their run; and animal philosophy often lands on my bookshelf. When it comes to fiction, the journey has to alter my reality to a point of catharsis or I’m actually not that interested. I live to challenge myself, and books are my favourite way to do this.

Name a book that has changed the way you think, in ways small or large.

The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram. This book reminds me of where language came from. Non-verbal communication in tribal culture, and the essence of nature itself, is where it all began. This made me pull back any preconceived notions I held of how we communicate, swirling around an unfathomable yet altogether familiar concept of simply sensing ones way through life. Strangely enough, Abram’s poetic and heartfelt language works to confirm that words are a key element to human communication.

What’s the best book you’ve read lately?

White Beech by Germaine Greer. Trust Greer to decide in her sixties to buy a plot of land and create a complete scheme for regenerating a piece of rainforest and the biodiversity within. This book is informative, inspirational and compelling.

Who has the best book cover?

One that has always stuck with me is the cover of Doppelganger: Images of the Human Being (Robert Klanten et al). What more could one want, really, than a man in a multicoloured woollen textile suit with matching vest – mohawk included? I want another copy of this book to spread the love.