✍️ Books that Got Me Writing (and Why!)
or, What’s on Your Bookshelf?
Wandering through the Substack stacks last weekend, I came across a newsletter I hadn’t seen before: Poet Kate Baer’s newsletter, Good News/Bad News. Most specifically, I read her list of 10 Novels I Recommend To Anyone, Anywhere, No Matter What.
I enjoy “What I Read and Loved…” lists like this. I usually find something new and interesting to read. CBC Books regularly posts “6 Books that…” inspire / empower / exfoliate this writer or that writer. Besides, you can learn a lot about a person based on what’s on their bookshelf.
When I came across Baer’s list, it got me to thinking: why have I posted anything like this before in all my years writing this newsletter? I couldn’t come up with a good answer, so I started compiling.
However, I quickly got bogged down. What makes the list? Favourites? Novels? Non-fiction, “best” books I’d recommend to people, best books about WWII…?
Since this is a newsletter about writing, I decided to list the books (and one movie) over the years that inspired me to write.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I’ve talked about this book ad nauseam. (Literally. I’ve had comments…) I won’t again, except to say that Fitzgerald’s tight but lyrical prose represents the pinnacle of writing for me.
King Leary and Whale Music by Paul Quarrington
If you like hockey or sports, read King Leary about a hockey legend in his later years. If you like music or none of the above, read Whale Music. For me, it’s basically a two-way tie. Both are laugh-out-loud books that still give the reader tender moments. I had the extreme pleasure and good fortune to meet Paul Quarrington, and he was a great guy to boot.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
I like Thompson’s rawness and wild stream of consciousness. Most of his writing has influenced me in some ways, but I chose this one in particular because it has what I think is the best opening line in a book ever: “We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.” Not only does that paint a picture, it pretty much sets you up for everything else that is to come. Thompson’s writing is bombastic, but he always writes from the strange and savage fringe of truth.
The White Album by Joan Didion
This collection of essays is very specific in time and place: California in the late sixties and early seventies. I like this book despite that fact... lol Her titular piece trying to make sense of the Manson murders and everything else going on is perhaps one of the most complete and poignant snapshots of that moment in time. But most of all, I love her raw, emotive writing. You can feel her trying to find the truth as she scribbles.
The New Journalism by Tom Wolfe (with pieces from many writers)
Today, the term is “creative non-fiction” but before that came New Journalism. Writers like Didion and Thompson along with Breslin, Wolfe, Talese, and many others used the tools of fiction to tell livelier non-fiction.
My Idea of Fun by Will Self
A highly subversive novel that keeps you guessing.
The Magus by John Fowles
Another book that keeps you guessing, but in different ways. It’s long and the language, sadly, doesn’t hold up in my opinion. It’s been decades since I read it all the way through, so I’m not sure what I’d make of it now. But it excited my twenty-something writer mind.
A Fish Out of Water by Helen Palmer
This is the first book I loved when I first read it at five or six. It was part of that series of books that looked like Dr. Seuss, but wasn’t. (In fact, as I just learned, Helen Palmer was married to Dr. Seuss himself…) Maybe my mother read it to me first, but I don’t have a clear memory of that. I do remember reading it myself, over and over again. It’s probably the first book that inspired me to try writing. I think what drew me to it was the boy with the curious mind who likes to try things – and quickly gets in over his head when chaos ensues…
The Secret World of Og by Pierre Berton
Another book from my childhood, and highly influential as a classic adventure novel where the kids are in control. A short story I wrote in Grade 3 had clear, derivative connections to this book after we read it in class. It doesn’t get much more influential than that!
When Harry Met Sally by Nora Ephron
Such an intelligent movie script! I once had a fantasy to shellac one wall of my office with this script in order so I’d have the whole movie up there to see. (I still might do that…) I like a lot of Ephron’s other movies and essays too, but this is the one that continues to inspire me as a writer.
Over to You: What’s on Your Bookshelf?
What books have influenced you as a writer? This could be novels, non-fiction books, picture books – whatever you like! Let us know in the comments below.
Until next time, keep writing with wild abandon!
~Graham
email me if you get lost.
I have been in my Joan Didion period - Have not read The White Album yet but looking forward to it even more now!
I love the classics - such rich language! Plus, I prefer to read from writers not influenced by the internet and describe scenes that are rich in conversation and connections. Top two are David Copperfield and Jane Eyre (love the descriptions, characters, and more!). Wuthering Heights - no other novel has characters that you do not like but yet still cry at their "happy" ending (kind of like the character of Walter White to me). A Room of One's Own - this book has the most notes I've ever taken in a novel (essay). Woolf is one of my favourite writers and her take on women in literature still holds true 100 years later. Stephen King - for his intentional writing style that moves quickly making every book a page-turner. Namely the Long Walk, The Body, Rita Hayworth, Christine. Currently reading Portrait of Dorian Grey as recommended by my kids. So far so good and have already taken notes so that's always a good sign lol.