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| “Daniel in the Lion’s Den” – Peter Paul Rubens |
Simple question, not so simple answer. Which book do you most wish you had written?
Are you going with the mega fortune? Literary greatness? Maybe a little of both?
I’m going with The Great Gatsby.
What about you?
OK, I'm cheating. Because the book I really wish I had written isn't a book, it's a movie: Mean Girls
It's fetch. It's fierce. It's awesome. Regina George is a life ruiner. She ruins lives. What's not to love?
Don't even have to think about it. Always: To Kill A Mockingbird. (second: Lord of the Flies)
Ann Best, Memoir Author
Catch-22.
Er, then again, maybe I would have had to be a World War II veteran to have penned that.
'Legacy' by Susan Kay, then.
Harry Potter. Not because of the fame and fortune but because I adore that world and I would love to have her imagination. I would also like Tamora Pierce's name creating ability and imagination.
I wish I could write like Fitzgerald, and I'm sure I could contribute many more classics to the list, but really, it's SPIN by Robert Charles Wilson. Coincidentally, I first heard about this book on your blog. I think this book is incredible: the scope is sweeping and epic, the prose is beautiful, and the characters are deep. It's Wilson's masterpiece.
I'd love to have written Pride and Prejudice.
But I'd also gladly settle for one of the Brontë's novels.
Or something more modern perhaps like Breakfast at Tiffany's by Capote or A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin.
Without a doubt, Harry Potter. We all talk about the billion dollar empire that JK Rowling singlehandedly created, and yet all of that doesn’t speak to the real magic that is J.K. Rowling. With one boy wizard, Rowling transformed reading for children around the world. Reading became fun again. And not only were children reading, adults were reading too. Harry Potter became an experience the whole family could share together. So forget about the Potter movies, the theme park, and the gluttony of merchandizing. The true magic is that Rowling found the formula to make reading awesome again.
No other writer in modern times has been as transformative as JK Rowling, and for that, I salute her.
I'm torn. It would either be – And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. It is one of my all time favorite books and she did such a brilliant job of building the suspense throughout the novel and the ending was sheer genius. Or Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone – simply because it is the beginning of something so incredible. A magical world, a fantastic and such well written characters.
"OP CENTER" by Tom Clancy and OLD MAN & THE SEA" by Ernest Hemingway. Two of the most interesting books I wished have written IF ONLY because the two famous authors seemed to be just like me when it comes to story-telling. LOL just kidding.
Aw, man! Nathan took mine.
Madame Bovary or Gone with the Wind. Ooh! Or The Help.
Tough one. Probably Pizzolatto's Galveston, or McCarthy's No Country for Old Men, or maybe Great Expectations.
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel – brilliant writing.
"Ten Little Indians". It is just a great mystery.
"Carrie" by Stephen King. It's the one his wife Tabitha fished out of the garbage.
Rebecca West's "The Return of the Soldier". Small and controlled and perfect.
Gert Hofmann's "The Parable of the Blind." What an amazing way of giving voice to the voiceless by making great painting come alive.
(Speaking of which, I also wish I'd painted the Rubens "Daniel in the Lions' Den" that heads this thread!)
Of recent books in my own genre, YA, I really admire Sonya Hartnett's "Thursday's Child." I wish I could write like that.
Right now in my career, 'Olivia', the picture book by Ian Falconer. It oozes sophistication and draughtsmanship, is great to read aloud to the kids, works on different levels and is downright HILARIOUS not to mention beautiful to look at. I'm writing a comic strip – https://chalkandcheesecomics.blogspot.com/ – check it out!
I would have written Beach Music by Pat Conroy. Sometimes I read just a sentence by Mr. Conroy and I realize I will never be able to write anything quite so beautiful or haunting.
On the other hand, the books I write don't drive me into such a deep depression that I can't write another for 5 years, so maybe he wishes he could write something a little lighter.
I read Pat Conroy when I want to be depressed about my own writing skills, but in a good way. If that makes any sense:)
Uh, my bar isn't that high, actually. Anything by Isabel Allende, especially the first one, The House of The Spirits. I'm a storyteller, no great literary aspirations for me except as far as crafting a unique tale that speaks to people and makes them FEEL (good, bad, happy, sad, whatever).
Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea
The Speed of Light by Elizabeth Rosner.
Are You There God, It's Me Margaret. Judy Blume. Any of those books. She gives lessons without preaching and I clung to every lesson she could teach me since I was lacking so from home.
Perhaps "Nine Stories."
Different topic: I've always loved this painting and have a postcard copy on my fridge. The emotion is so powerful.
Harry Potter, without a doubt.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Of Mice and Men
Amsterdam. The World According to Garp. A Visit from the Goon Squad. Oh, I could go on all day!
Either "Look Homeward, Angel" or "Crime and Punishment."
Anything by Cormac McCarthy.
Or LOTR.
Hi Nathan, I have been following your blog for a while and love it. Time to stop being a lurker and post something! I could think of many, but am going with The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. It is beautifully written, has four strong, unique voices, and carries a powerful message.
Time & Again by Jack Finney.
I love it because it uses imagination instead of devices to go back in timeand it's a mystery and a love story,too!
Henry Miller's TROPIC OF CANCER. To say (this won't be word for word as I'm going from memory), "I am no longer an artist, I don't think about it. I just am. This is not a novel. This is libel, slander, a kick in the pants to God." Yep. And then in his later years to support a young writer in Erica Jong and then to coorespond with her via snailmail. Priceless.
Like Joshua and Alan:
Ender's Game (Card)
(It's okay, Domino. To each his own.:D)
or Swan Song (McCammon)
Shirley Hazzard's The Transit of Venus. A perfect novel.
Anything by David Sedaris for LOFL.
For kids: Holly Black's Tithe.
I'm amazed at all the comments.
I have truly never even considered this until right now.
I've never wished I'd written anything other than my own books. I've never wanted to be anyone else either. Interesting.
The Hunger Games Trilogy because a book hasn't made me cry like that since I read Bridge to Terebithia in sixth grade. Also Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Trilogy because the worldbuilding is so inventive and amazing.
Westerfeld's LEVIATHAN.
For me, it's not so much about how the book was received as what the book's about. LEVIATHAN is precisely the kind of book I would've written, if only I'd thought of it first. Now I have to figure out how to clone without looking like I'm cloning it 😉
Anon 6:09
That's cool that you feel confident with your own self-expression.
But from my perspective regarding this topic – we admire other people and their accomplishments, and we learn from them what is possible. We can then use those possiblities as a guide for ourselves, so we aspire to simliar accomplishments. For me, that's what this post is really about – our dreams and aspirations, as well as applauding other people's great works.
The book I most wish I'd written would be the one I have yet to write. I'm going for both mega fortune and literary greatness.
I just need to find That Book in me. 🙂
I'll go with a short story and say A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor.
Underneath the violence, I can feel the gospel everytime I read it.
I'm seeing a lot of my favorites in these responses, but I share BrianW's awe of Pat Conroy and, yes, Beach Music.
But then there's Mockingbird: Who wouldn't want to be the creator of Atticus Finch!
The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold, or the Harry Potter series.
Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" or Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time"
Anthony J. Langford's 'RIP Rest in Prime'. Oh hang on, I wrote it already.
😉
So many books! I don't know. Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines is a brilliant idea, one I wish I'd had. But there are so many other books. I finish them and just sit there for a while, thinking, "I wish I'd written that. That's such a good idea!"
Given that the subtitle of my current WIP is "A Mr. Darcy Novel," I think my answer is obvious.
However, I agree with Rebecca regarding Tolkien–to know my book reshaped an entire genre would be pretty heady.
Jennifer Cary Diers had a good point as well. If I wrote my favorite book, I wouldn't have the enjoyment of reading and rereading it.
The Giver by Lois Lowry and The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Rebecca, Dracula or any of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
Because I'm the sort of borderline sociopath who love to get into the mind of criminals, I'll have to say Thomas Harris' SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. I wish I'd created a villain that deliciously evil, intelligent, charming and likeable! 🙂
Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible
Outlander
and my WIP.