Marina Lewycka: 'The most underrated book? Collins Complete DIY Manual'

The book I am currently reading
Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. I’d had this book for a while, and in an uncharacteristic fit of tidiness I gave it away to Oxfam because I thought I wouldn’t have time to read it. When I heard it had won the Nobel, I went to buy it back – alas it was gone, but a kind friend lent me his. It’s wonderfully original, thrilling and chilling, with a protagonist definitely in need of cleaning tips. Tokarczuk’s Flights is also very enjoyable. A new voice for us to listen out for.

The book I didn’t finish
I gave up on Finnegans Wake by James Joyce. I thought it would be a doddle, because I did finish Ulysses and loved it. But Finnegans Wake was too much hard work, a bit self-indulgent, and besides, I don’t know Dublin well enough.

The last book that made me cry
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy always makes me cry in new places. This time it was the bit where young Petya dies. Tolstoy takes us into Petya’s childlike and eager mind on the eve of battle and builds up to the moment of his death. This was almost the book I didn’t finish, because tears blurred my eyes so much I couldn’t read.

The book I wish I’d written
Jonathan Coe’s What a Carve Up! is funny, complex and angry – I wish I had written it! When you feel really angry about something, as I often do, it’s good to take a few deep breaths and reach for humour, as Coe has done here.

The book I give as a gift
I’ve lost count of the number of copies of The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver I’ve given away. Come to think of it, I wish I’d written that one, too.

The book that influenced my writing
I was most impressed by the cursing scene in Shame by Salman Rushdie. I saw how much colour a good curse can add to a piece of writing, and I set out to imitate it.

The book that is most underrated
Well, Collins Complete DIY Manual is not exactly underrated, because it has sold more than 3m copies since it came out in 1986. But I bet it’s underrated by readers of the Guardian.

The book that is most overrated
Hinch Yourself Happy by Mrs Hinch. Honestly, how can a book subtitled “All the Best Cleaning Tips to Shine Your Sink and Soothe Your Soul” make you happy? But on the other hand, perhaps I have something to learn …

The book I’m ashamed not to have read
Well I’m not going to tell everybody, am I?

My comfort read
I don’t read for comfort so much as listen. I have the Elena Ferrante Neapolitan novels downloaded on Audible in case I have trouble falling asleep at bedtime, or wake up in the middle of the night. It doesn’t seem to matter at which point I drop off or where I wake up, or even which book it is, because the reader’s voice is hypnotic and it always seems to be the same characters having the same dilemmas. I tut impatiently or I nod off.

The book that changed my life
The witty and erudite Mona Lisa by Donald Sassoon, because I fell in love with the author.

• Marina Lewycka’s The Good, the Bad and the Little Bit Stupid is published by Fig Tree.