Reading is, dare I say, important to being a writer. (Controversial statement, I know.)
But if you had to choose one book that you think every writer should read, which one would it be?
The perfect novel? A guide to writing? Strunk & White?
I’m going with The Great Gatsby. It may not be my favorite novel of all time, but I think it’s perhaps the most perfectly written.
Which one would you choose?
(This post was inspired by a recent Forum discussion)
On Writing. Should be a prosecuted offense if you're trying to be a writer and you don't read that book, and I'm not even a Stephen King fan.
"Oh, The Places You'll Go," by Dr. Seuss. All you need to know.
Ok, I completely agree with Gatsby, but since you already picked that one, it gives me a cheat – I get to pick another. I am going with We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates – awe inspiring – how to take the reader from an emotional swim in the ocean to the depths of the abyss. There were literally times where I had to put the book down and just cry, but others that I was smiling like a kid at Christmas. If I could ever write something that would draw out that much emotion, I'd be happy.
Ok, I completely agree with Gatsby, but since you already picked that one, it gives me a cheat – I get to pick another. I am going with We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates – awe inspiring – how to take the reader from an emotional swim in the ocean to the depths of the abyss. There were literally times where I had to put the book down and just cry, but others that I was smiling like a kid at Christmas. If I could ever write something that would draw out that much emotion, I'd be happy.
ON WRITING.
Or, no. Maybe Elizabeth George's WRITE AWAY. It ties together character and plot better than any writing book I've read.
"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." It is a writer's graduate course. Immersion journalism, fantastic characterization, suspense, humor, writer-as-fly-on-wall, and plot. It's my measuring stick for great writing.
The dictionary.
Thomas Wolfe's 'Look Homeward Angel'To be read when young – the closest anyone has got to writing the Great American Novel
I'm a fan of Donald Maass' WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL.
Flann O'Brien: "At Swim-Two-Birds"
"If You Want to Write" by Brenda Ueland
Oooooh, Look Homeward, Angel is a good one. Good suggestion!
The Lord of teh Rings provides a writer with a lot. The wordage and some (but not all, surprisingly) of the structure is a bit archaic. I would pair this with The Elements of Style or Techniques of the Selling Writer.
Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bachman. Pithy, succint, every word means something on many levels.
Easy – "The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer.
Because the whole of English literature starts right there. The humorous, the epic, the noble, the low, the character study, the drama… all of it. Right there.
If you can, read side by side with a modern English translation, but don't sell yourself short thinking you can't understand the Middle English version.
All writers should read the Greek tragedies, the works of Shakespeare, and the Bible.
Short story writers: The Complete Works of John Cheever.
Novelists: Aspects of the Novel by EM Forster
If you want to be a "serious writer" – Ulysses. While it may not be my favorite (or anybody else's) it is necessary to read in order to know just how experimental "experimental fiction" goes.
If you want to be a "popular writer"…Probably "BIRD BY BIRD" just so you know that it's extremely unlikely to ever happen for you.
Oh I agree, On writing is very good (even though I do not like Stephen King's fiction at all).
For a novel, I go to Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. I first read it as required reading in a University Victorian Lit class and hated it. Just goes to show you how great teachers can be at ruining a wonderful piece of literature. I read it again the following year and loved it. It stands as an all time favorite.
Bird by Bird and How Not to Write a Novel, because they teach and make you laugh.
In going with the Stephen King theme, I'll say Misery. For those days when writing just seems too hard you can think of Paul Sheldon and be grateful that at least you're not being held captive in a remote Colorado cabin by your psycho #1 fan who drugs you and on occasion hits you with a sledge hammer, forcing you to write happy ending romance novels.
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
"Loser", by Jerry Spinelli. It is truly a work of art.
Shakespeare – Collected Works (For English language writers)
Lori Lansens, "The Girls" – Craniopagus twins take turns writing the chapters of this brilliant and engaging novel. One sister wants to be a writer and her chapters sing! The other sister reluctantly writes her chapters in her own excellent style. What a story! A novel for writers and for readers that appreciate great story telling.
James Joyce, Ulysses.
[Rather appropriately, today's captcha request is "cestypo"!]
Strunk and White. But don't stop there.
I believe no-one has mentioned Anna Karenina, surely one of the most perfect novels ever written, and a great teacher.
Winokur's Advice to Writers. Excellent for targeted quick fixes. Restarts me every time I stall.
My copyeditor self wants to say 'aigh! Not Strunk & White!'
I'll have to get that Stephen King book.
Johnny Got His Gun.
Not politically, just literary. Sharp as a knife.
@Caleb Whoa! Don't bring a knife simile to a gun title!
Grimm's Collected Fairy Tales, for learning to craft the unexpected and seeing what resonates with readers, century after century. These stories hit every human emotion, in plot-thick format.
Put another down for "On Writing" — especially if the question The ONE Book every writer should read.
YOU CAN NOT BE SERIOUS!!
I wasn't even going to bother commenting as I assumed that out of 288 comments a few dozen at least would have chosen
Lord of the Rings.
Unless I scrolled down too quickly I only saw it mentioned once…!?!…I HOPE I'm blind!
Maybe it's because I'm British – but this trilogy changed my life. After reading the series the first time when I was 8 – I became a greedy and obsessive little girl. I was always hungry for a similar book which would addict me again to such a believable make-believe world. The result was I became a readaholic.
There are so many diverse charaters, fabulous world-building and action going on…a new language created and…for heavens sake…GOLLUM!!! What a remarkable psychological case study of a split personality! Members of so many different races, dwarves, elves, hobbits, ents, men, eagles… who are brought together to fight the eternal fight against evil…I mean, it even has a touch of romance. What doesn't it have?
It's just too perfect for words and NOTHING has ever replaced this as my all-time favourite.
I have extremely eclectic tastes in books and music BUT this will always be my EPIC FIRST LOVE.
Stephen King's "On Writing." He nailed it, plain and simple.
@Nathan
Have you resolved the issue with Outlook?
When I did a pediatrics practicum in a clinic me and a friend developed a plugin for Outlook 2003 at the time, then 2007, which allowed us to drop any e-mail from the clinic's inbox into folders we created and send out a message automatically to the sender.
Many patients had the same general inquiries and each folder was configured to send a specific message with information that could be useful to them.
If that's what you need, I can send it over.
Of 292 entries, as of this post, and I'm only the fifth person to recommend the Bible?! Increudulous, I am. Read the Bible for human study, if nothing else.
For pleasure I have to agree with Moyrid,
Pride and Predjudice is my favorite book in the world.
I would say those collections of Paris Reviews where they interview the greats like hemmingway and carver and Fitzgerald. There is also a collection where they interview modern writers-anything Paul Auster says about the process of writing is really worth checking out.
thanks, kerem.
http://www.keremmermutlu.tumblr.com
Oh great. You pick my one admitted gap book. Well, at least I know what to read next.
Mr. Bradford, I would recommend "Lolita"… its psychological mastery. All of Nabokov's novels are awesome. "Anna Karenina" is perfect except it's ridiculously long–I don't think anyone but Tolstoy is allowed to write books that long ("War and Peace" has become a popular culture reference for "long").
"Wuthering Heights" is considered the greatest novel of all time, but if you question those who've actually read it, it's either Love or Hate.
I'm glad you mentioned "The Great Gatsby". I read that the other day and LOVED it.
The Great Gatsby is far and away my favorite novel. I believe it is brilliantly written! I read it every year, in addition to teaching it! There is nothing better!
BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE by Charles Baxter.
Not possible. What moves/inspires/educates/births every writer is different. I almost think it's insulting to suggest that any one could be "it" for everyone.
I hope I'm not so like every author out there that I could be linked back to the same book as every one of them. Even a collection of the greatest authors of all time is so eclectic.
No. Not possible.
Leah
http://www.leahpetersen.com
SHADOW OF THE WIND by Carlos Ruiz Zafon is one of the best books ever written. It's what fiction ought to be.
The one book. Easy. "East of Eden"
It's got everything, including things Steinbeck knew "shouldn't" be in the book but that he wanted in it anyway. And he knew it was the book he was working toward his whole life, his Great American Novel.
Follow that up with "Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters" which is the journal Steinbeck wrote while writing the book (actually, a series of letters he wrote every day to his publisher before writing on the book – left hand pages were for the letters, right hand ones for his novel).
Follow that with "Education of a Wandering Man" by Louis L'Amour. A memoir of his literary life, which was staggeringly (izat a word?) rich. A little-known gem!
Many people here have said "On Writing" by Stephen King, which I have to vote vehemently against! Really derivative of other books about writing, and surprisingly thin – in actual thickness and substance – about the craft of writing, which King should know something about.
If you're interested in books specifically about writing, "On Becoming a Novelist" by John Gardner is only about 100 times better.
As is "Editor to Author: The Letters of Maxwell E. Perkins," who was Hemingway's and F. Scott Fitzgerald's editor (along with many other great writers).
Finish these and it's probably better than that MFA program you were thinking about paying way too much for.
The one book. Easy. "East of Eden"
It's got everything, including things Steinbeck knew "shouldn't" be in the book but that he wanted in it anyway. And he knew it was the book he was working toward his whole life, his Great American Novel.
Follow that up with "Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters" which is the journal Steinbeck wrote while writing the book (actually, a series of letters he wrote every day to his publisher before writing on the book – left hand pages were for the letters, right hand ones for his novel).
Follow that with "Education of a Wandering Man" by Louis L'Amour. A memoir of his literary life, which was staggeringly (izat a word?) rich. A little-known gem!
Many people here have said "On Writing" by Stephen King, which I have to vote vehemently against! Really derivative of other books about writing, and surprisingly thin – in actual thickness and substance – about the craft of writing, which King should know something about.
If you're interested in books specifically about writing, "On Becoming a Novelist" by John Gardner is only about 100 times better.
As is "Editor to Author: The Letters of Maxwell E. Perkins," who was Hemingway's and F. Scott Fitzgerald's editor (along with many other great writers).
Finish these and it's probably better than that MFA program you were thinking about paying way too much for.
I had the rare opportunity to copyedit Maxwell Perkin's Letters to His Daughters, though I didn't end up being the final edit, for various "publishing" reasons. It was a dream come true for me… to work with anything written by Perkins, since as a child I'd wanted to move somewhere in his realm. In those small, simple letters he wrote to his children were smidgets of the simple wisdom of story writing: that stories are never passe, if they're stories, that is. I've just finished reading a critique in the New Yorker about "contemporary" writing, and I'll leave out the names etc. All I came away wondering was why critics can't say simply, "The story didn't grab me." Of course, having been strung through various genres of criticism, I can understand why someone, working within a framework of a form of criticism, might get lost in abstract ideas. A story, however, is not an abstraction, even if it speaks to abstract issues. All of Michael Ondaatje's works deal with abstract ideas (problems of identity, or love, or a father-dauther relationship). But you can't tell a story through abstractions. Salman Rushdie doesn't–a man you might expect to. Nor did Nabokov. Therefore, for me, the best writing about writing is always a great novel. Read the novelists you love… with gusto, and take notes. What writers say about writing will never equal what they do with writing. It's the same with painters. What painters say about painting will never equal the painting. And with those words, I guess I've voted on what pieces of literature I think are worth reading about writing–adding in, of course many many other great writers.
Stein on Writing by Sol Stein. Invaluable to a fledgling writer.
Anything by Philip Roth. He's the consummate writer of our time; his dialogue is always pitch perfect; his stories and characters resonate with modern people & their lives: good, bad, or indifferent.
Mark Beyer
author of "The Village Wit"