Jason Burke is the South Asia correspondent for The Guardian and The Observer newspapers. He is the author of Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam, On the Road to Kandahar: Travels through Conflict in the Islamic World and most recently, The 9/11 Wars

What are you reading these days? Newspapers and current affairs magazines mainly, sadly. That’s the joy and the burden of my profession. I’ve a couple of specialist books on al-Qaeda to review too that I’ve got to get through. Occasionally I get time to read something more literary.

Which books are on your bedside table? A Patrick O’Brian historical novel about naval warfare in the early 19th century. He’s a fantastic descriptive writer with wonderful characters and an amazingly detailed knowledge of his period which gives a genuine sense of place. There’s also a volume of Christopher Hitchen’s essays; Suketu Mehta’s book about Mumbai, Maximum City, which I keep starting and putting down again; Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, which deals obliquely with anti-Semitism in the USA; and a very old volume of T.S. Eliot’s poetry which my dad gave me and is always there. In fact, they are not on my bedside table but on the floor usually.

Which titles are on your bucket list of books? Too many to list! Just starting with the books in my home which I have bought and said I will definitely read soon, I’ve probably enough to keep me going for a decade. Otherwise, I couldn’t possibly even begin to start narrowing down a selection.

What is the one book/author you feel everyone must read? Albert Camus, not for the slightly ludicrous The Outsider, which is full of slightly pretentious Gallic existential angst but The Plague, which is an amazing parable describing how extremist ideologies gain a purchase on a society and can eventually be beaten. It was written after the Second World War but is timeless.

What are you planning to reread? Herman Hesse’s Steppenwolf. I read it when I was 23 and understood it one way. I read it again when I was 33 and understood it completely differently. I’ll be 43 next year so it’s time once more.

What is the one book you read because you thought it would make you appear smarter? Dr Faustus by Thomas Mann.

What is the one book you started reading but could not finish? Dr Faustus by Thomas Mann, unsurprisingly.

What is your favourite childhood book or story? Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Perfect for all children who are scared and excited about discovering the world in equal measure (and who have a trace of megalomania).