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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?
I would have to go with Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness or Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.
I'm stuck because if I'd written any of the books I adore, I probably wouldn't adore them as much. So I'll just go with something that made a lot of money. Maybe the Bible.
Books that have made the most impact on me would include Mrs. Dalloway, Sharp Teeth, LOTR, Three Bags Full, Mudbound, Coraline. I could go on and on. If I had to pick just one I think my head would explode. For today, I'd probably say Mrs. Dalloway. The language in it is like watching a fast moving train while listening to the most beautiful orchestral music.
I must be one of the few people who escaped both high school and college without reading The Great Gatsby.
I've decided I'm going to take the plunge and read it. Thanks Nathan. (And thanks to John Green too, who also recommended it recently.)
Yes, Nathan, a very tough question to answer.
For me, there are three. Any of these would be great to have written:
Richard Bachman's THE LONG WALK,
Dennis Lehane's MYSTIC RIVER, or
Margaret Atwood's THE HANDMAID'S TALE.
Heck, it was hard to whittle my list down to those three! JAWS was in there, along with THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN. 🙁
This may sound like a cop-out, but I'm glad I've written (am writing) my own book. All the books I love so much are wonderful because they are the way they are. I've I'd written them they'd be different.
Not necessarily bad, just different.
Okay, it's not a book I wish I'd written. It's a series. Rachel Vincent's young adult Soul Screamers series. I am so in love with that series. ^_^
"For me, that's what this post is really about – our dreams and aspirations, as well as applauding other people's great works."
I "get" it. I just never did it.
Anon 6:09
Three books:
Catcher In The Rye
The Great Gatsby (Old Sport)
The ShacK
That IS a toughie, I don't think I've ever really said to myself, 'I wish I'd written that.'
But off the top, I'd say, The old Man and The Sea. I get something new from that book every time I read it. So much about human nature, having, losing, winning and having it taken away again to discover it not the destination but the journey, so much is said in such a small space. It's an epic saga in a hundred or so pages. It's what a book should be and does what a book should do, for me anyway.
2nd choice, Probably The Outsiders. The first book I ever identified with in a way that made me want to write.
"To Kill a Mockingbird" or "Huckleberry Finn". Great talent.
Mists of Avalon by Marian Zimmer Bradley for contemporary lit. The Scarlet Letter from the established literary canon.
The Handmaid's Tale
Loved, loved Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna. The breadth and history and fitting all the pieces together. It has inspired me to research my own historical novel.
Also wish I had written The Secret Life of Bee's. In fact, I am a little disappointed in myself that I didn't!
Either 'Johnathan Livingstone Seagull' or 'A Christmas Carol'…but on further personal questioning, it would have to beeeeeee…………… 'A Christmas Carol'; finest story ever written.
"To Kill a Mockingbird" or Gentleman's Agreement"
I should have asked you this before – but why the Great Gatsby? Based on your enthusiasm, I bought and read this, this year – up to page 55, "There's another man in the car," and maybe I have to hang my head in shame, but I am lost and not hooked in the least. I can't get to grips with the characters and the plot so far isn't grabbing me. I've read lots of historical lit, so it's not the time period, I think it's the pace – or that I can only read it in short snatches. What am I missing? Maybe I should restart it when I can do more than a couple of pages at a time.
Wish I had written? Conversations in Sicily by E. Vittorini.
Lord of the Rings, Wild Magic, Trickster's Choice, The Blue Sword, or The BFG.
But, if I had to choose a favorite, I'd say…Wild Magic. It's just my sort of book! I WOULD have written it, if Tamora Pierce hadn't gotten there first!
Great question! Have a great day.
Gatsby's definitely in there. On different days, Huck Finn, Lolita, Crime and Punishment, All the Pretty Horses, Plainsong, Gilead, Oryx and Crake, Breakfast of Champions.
Cheating, I know, to list different days, but those are some good days (and good books)…
gotta go with the one that started it all for me: "The Catcher in the Rye." I find magic in those pages.
Lord of the Rings. I would die to be able to write like Tolkien.
The Forbidden Game trilogy. Originally by L.J. Smith. Did it earn her oodles of money? No. Did it gain her international acclaim? No. But I think it's a damn fine bit of writing, and highly enjoyable. If I'd written it, I would have advertised the heck out of it – which is exactly what I do for her now as a bookseller. I've lost count of how many books I've handsold.
If I chose anything else, I think I'd go with Harry Potter. Riches and it's a hell of a lot of fun. xD
I listed three books earlier but now that I think about it, there is one book that would probably supercede all of them.
The Giving Tree.
Last three books Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. It would've been my dream to be able to finish that series. Brandon Sanderson's doing a great job, though.
Great question. Love Great Gatsby but it would be Imajica or Weaveworld by Clive Barker, or The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.
The Bible.
"Common Sense" by Thomas Paine. Perhaps my American bias is showing, but that's something that almost literally moved the world. I want to write something that has that sort of an impact; to start a revolution, or at least an underground rebellion.
Barring that (which is, admittedly, a pamphlet, not a book), I'd choose "The Outsiders", "Ender's Game", or "Fight Club". These books all formed who I am, and all started a sort of revolt in my soul against the world. I absolutely love that a writer was able to affect people like that, and that's what I strive for. To push at the world, and for the world to push back in some way.
I wish I had written, LAMB, by Christopher Moore. I laugh every time I read it. I also buy a copy every chance I get and give it to someone.
"Good Omens" by Gaiman/Pratchett. And "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield. And the Dresden FIles by Jim Butcher.
Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon. I always hated that all the Camelot tales blamed it all on the women. I can't say that The Mists of Avalon is exactly the book I would have written, but it served the purpose I hoped to serve.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
I really wish I had written A Series of Unfortunate Events. I know that's 13 books (not including the extensions to Snicket's backstory), but you can't have one of the books without all of them, and I would've loved to be their author.
I'm actually going to go with a Romance book. And even though they're packed with 'extra scenes', when I find an author that's AWESOME and can entertain me regardless of 'heat'…I love it! There's a lot of really good romance writers out there. And if they only sold 'adult fiction' or just 'fiction', I'd still buy them. Because it's the teller of the story & their characters that sell me. Not the stuff between the sheets…
"Knight of Desire" by Margaret Mallory [great historical researching, fun-filled bantering & wonderful characters to fall in love with]
"To Kill a Mockingbird"
I still pick it up and read it when I need a bit of inspiration. It's so easy to sink into, and it carries you into another time and place and emotional space.
To just be able to pull all the best of my thoughts together so well is what I strive for everyday I sit down to write.
"House of Leaves" or "The Last Unicorn." Both are perfect.
Book of Revelation.
https://wp.me/p3tGFm-7I
Because then I would have met Jesus in advance.