Well-Read: Zara Wong

Less meet-cutes with a fashion writer and editor.

I’ve known Zara Wong for something like 10 years now. She gave me my first job in Magazines, or ‘Digital’ as we like to call it when you work for the dot com extension of a magazine. You might known Zara from her Substack, Screenshot This, the fashion-with-a-side-of-zeitgeist read. If you don’t, your curiosity is probably piqued regardless, especially when I mention hers is ‘the most subscribed-to fashion Substack in Australia’; and when she’s not writing her Substack, she’s a brand consultant, writer, and editor, having held titles at Vogue and Mecca (Australia’s version of Space NK and Sephora).

I know liking and loving books is totally subjective, and very personal. But I also know that Zara won’t recommend something just because everyone else likes it, and she certainly won’t let you waste your time on writing that’s boring.

Tell me a little about yourself and what you like to read

I'm a Capricorn sun, and I think Pisces rising and Sagittarius moon. I remember Capricorns in magazines 'back in the day' were illustrated wearing a suit and glasses and sitting at a laptop, which seemed boring at the time but also seems accurate for me, now! I like books that are either 'romantic comedy' in atmosphere but aren't actual romances (I feel like I've aged out of romances and would rather read a work/friend-based comedy but they are few and far between), or novels about relationships— platonic or romantic—that are less on the meet-cute and more on how they develop and change over time, that don’t need to be especially plot-driven (I'm thinking of something like Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados where nothing really happens). 

What are your must-read books?

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

Lauren Groff is just such a beautiful writer and it's a book that I return to in my mind time and time again. Basically—nothing is what it seems, and what is fate, anyway?

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

The interior mind of a fictional First Lady, this was absolutely engrossing because it's about how you don't really know what's happening behind closed doors. I love Sittenfeld's writing for its wit and observations. 

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

A beautifully, subtly crafted and realistic book about a group of friends. She weaves in and out of different perspectives so deftly and with so much empathy.

What’s next?

After reading some more morose, heavy-going books, I'm looking forward to reading Plum Sykes' Wives Like Us! I've also got The Waves by Virginia Woolf on the list next.

Enjoy!