What is the one book in history you wish you had written yourself?
His answer?
Lord of the Flies
That question has stuck with me. Today, I feel like opening the box that holds that question, climbing inside the box, and inviting you to climb in with me.
If someone stuck a gun to my temple and forced me to pick only one, my answer would be...
The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Atonement, by Ian McEwan
(I'm hoping the gun turns out to be a water pistol...)
How 'bout it, Dear Writers (Dear Readers, for that matter) - What is the one book in history you wish you had written yourself?
A short list of this week's other posts...
I Guess You Could Call It A Map That Leads Me To Writing...
The Beauty Of A Writing Playlist
The Writing Playlist I Used While Writing The Great Lenore
Tomats Takes On The Blog
Play nice and share with others
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Posts
No way I can answer with one book. Here's my top three-ish:
ReplyDeleteThe Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan. I can't think of a fantasy novel I love more.
Desperation by Stephen King. I loved this book so much I cried because I finished it.
Watchmen by Alan Moore. It's the Moby Dick of comics.
Any novel written by Ursusla K. Le Guin. Honestly, I wish I could be Mrs. Le Guin. She's a brilliant woman.
Any of Margaret Atwood's books, or Neil Gaiman's, or Christopher Moore's. The Help by Kathryn Stockett, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides. Anything by Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, or Dr. Seuss.
ReplyDeleteBoy, that's helpful, huh? I hope the gun's a water pistol too!
Mary - That's a very eclectic list! Even if the gun is a water pistol, you'd be soaked to your bones.
ReplyDeleteI, too, am troubled by 3 novels. For some reason, they just so happen to be the ones I read in middle school. Out of all of the books I have read, I am not sure what was so important about middle school...
ReplyDeleteManiac Magee by Jerri Spinelli
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Giver by Lois Lowry
and also, really, anything by Clive Cussler...the guy is just amazing with his Dirk Pitt novels (ok, so it is more like 100 instead of 3).
Something about them just connected with me and expressed what I was going through at that time I guess. As for the Clive Cussler books, those things just rock. 'Nuf Said.
Sal - Man, I just dig the fact that you were reading books like that in middle school! When I have a kid, I hope he's the same way.
ReplyDelete"Laughter in the Darkness" by Vladimir Nabokov. I like a lot of books a lot more, but I wish that one came out of me.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to say The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. It's the novel most often credited for creating the genre of YA, which is my favorite and what I hope to publish one day. Not to mention, she wrote it when she was 16.
ReplyDelete