I’m a sucker for books like The Writer’s Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives. Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager interview 22 writers about their favorite books. Of all the writers in The Writer’s Library, Jonathan Lethem comes closest to my reading tastes. Lethem grew up reading Philip K. Dick and A. E. Van Vogt and Clifford Simak just like me. He moved on to detective fiction–Hammett, Chandler, Macdonald, Parker–and started writing his own unique books that blend many of these influences.
I’m a big fan of Madeline Miller’s Circe so I was interested to discover her love of classical mythology began when her mother would take her to the library on a regular basis. Miller learned Latin and her teacher offered to teach her Greek, too!
You’ll really get a sense of each of these writers as they talk about the books that influenced them most. Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager provide a handy list of the books referred to at the end of each interview. Highly recommended! GRADE: A
Foreword by Susan Orlean — ix
Introduction — 1
Jonathan Lethem — 5
Laila Lalami — 22
Luis Alberto Urrea — 38
Jennifer Egan — 54
T.C. Boyle — 72
Susan Choi — 87
Andrew Sean Greer — 104
Madeline Miller — 122
Michael Chabon & Ayelet Waldman — 133
Maaza Mengiste — 154
Amor Towles — 170
Louise Erdrich — 187
Dave Eggers — 200
Laurie Frankel — 215
Viet Thanh Nguyen — 227
Jane Hirshfield — 243
Richard Ford — 261
Siri Hustvedt — 279
Charles Johnson — 295
Vendela Vida — 310
Donna Tartt — 325
Russell Banks –335
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS — 349
Looks interesting. Just put in a hold at the library.
Steve, you’ll find the books that affect these writers interesting.
Looks good. I just put in a hold at my library.
Me, too. Hope they have it. The book that changed my life was THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, of course. I bet someone chose that. Second would be THE TRUE BELIEVER.
Patti, I was surprised at the books that some of these writers named. Many were children’s books.
I’ve also put a hold on this, but it looks like it’ll be a while before I get it. It got me thinking about my own formative reading experiences. When I was 9-10, about a year before SF took over my reading, I read three novels that are still with me–“The Mysterious Island” by Jules Verne, “The Moonstone” by Wilkie Collins, and “Beau Geste” by P. C. Wren. I loved all three, and all had elements of mystery and adventure, and SF in the case of Verne. I eventually read more novels by Collins, tried other novels by Verne and didn’t like them, and just couldn’t find anything else by Wren. But looking back, I think these three books set me on the reading path I followed.
Michael, impressive list of early influences! I read the TOM SWIFT series, moved on to THE HARD BOYS and NANCY DREW, then the RICK BRANT series. Then, it was off to the races! Science Fiction, Fantasy, etc.!
These are not the books I love. I’ve probably read one title each for four of these authors. Nothing was so outstanding that I added their other works to my TBR pile.
Give me a not-so-nice mystery or contemporary novel.
Beth, I have some reviews of some “not-so-nice” mysteries and some contemporary novels coming up in the next few weeks.
These are not the authors I love, and I haven’t heard of most of them, or if I have, they’ve departed my memory.
Rick, I think it was a matter of which writers were available and amenable to this project.
I’ve read several of Pearl’s books and always enjoyed them, so I Put the ebook version on hold. THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO was the book for me.
Jeff, I read THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO as a kid. But, decades later, I realized what I had read was a severely abridged edition. I then read the unabridged edition of THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO brilliantly translated by Robin Buss. Loved it!
I would be especially interested in Michael Chabon & Ayelet Waldman and Jonathan Lethem, but I think any of these authors would be interesting to hear about and from in this context. Also T.C. Boyle because he lives near Santa Barbara, even though I haven’t read anything by him.
Tracy, you’ll be fascinated by the book choices of Chabon & Waldman. Lethem’s tastes mirror mine. I’ve read some T.C. Boyle and his books reflect his writing.
Boyle is a very artificial writer; I’ve read perhaps two good stories among the couple of dozen I’ve come across in anthologies over the decades. A bit like a less audacious, less convincing Harlan Ellison.
Todd, I miss Harlan Ellison. He was wacky, but he was a hell of a writer!
When Lethem was a kid, he lived in Brooklyn, downtown quite near where Jackie taught. (If you read MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN, part is set right by her school.) His “key” teacher was Carmen Farina, who Jackie worked with and who later became the NYC Schools Chancellor.
Jeff, wow! Small world! I’ve read some of Lethem’s novels, but I really enjoy his essays. Lethem wrote the best essay on Philip K. Dick that I’ve ever read.
I almost forgot to look at the list of contributors. I’ve read books by five of them, and really loved Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History. I’m really a big fan of Jennifer Egan, especially “A Visit From the Goon Squad”.
Michael, Diane’s Book Club read A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD. Just looking at which books influence these writers proves to be enlightening.
Though I’ve read thousands of books this list of authors where I just know twor three tells me that I should have read more.
As a child/young boy I would read at least one book every day – most from the town library, the lady there knew me and let me read “adult” books when I was just 15 years old (of course no porn …).
Difficult for me to select just one book – I’d say the novels of Thomas Mann made the biggest impression.
Then of course the SF books – there was a series of translations of titles by Asimov, Silverberg, Blish etc by fans in the “Goldmann Blue series”.
I also was really impressed by the mysteries and especially the Africa novels by Edgar Wallace though that was lighter stuff.
Wolf, I’ll have to track down this Africa novels by Edgar Wallace. I’ve read some of his novels, but not those.
George, good luck! These novels are really collections of short stories and also known as “Colonel Sanders series” were written soon after Edgar returned from Africa (more than 100 years ago) – some praise them, some call them racist.
Wallace was/still is very popular in Germany.
Wolf, the most famous American “Colonel Sanders” is associated with Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Ten of Wallace’s books about Sanders of the River are available online for free. An additional two collection about the character were written by Francis Gerard after Wallace’s death — these may be more difficult to get. A 1935 film of SANDERS OF THE RIVER starred Leslie Banks as Sanders and top-billed Paul Robeson totally misused as the native chief Bosambo. The film was directed by Zoltan Korda AND an uncredited Alfred Hitchcock!
Jerry, thanks for the info! I had no idea Edgar Wallace wrote ten books about Colonel Sanders! And…they’re free!