What Books Made You Want to Write?
I check in regularly at Barnes & Noble Studio to check out interviews with writers. In the interview above, noted fiction writer Ethan Canin, author of The Palace Thief, For Kings and Planets and, most recently, America, America, talks about the books that made him want to become a writer.
For me, the list includes everything from Charlotte’s Web to The White Hotel, Wuthering Heights to the poems of Theodore Roethke, The Long Winter to “Sonny’s Blues.” Oh, and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, which I read in sixth grade, wrote an essay about, and won a prize. My first writing success.
I wonder about the kids, like mine, who have been lucky enough to discover their delight in reading during the heyday of Harry Potter and the Twilight series. How many terrific writers will emerge from this generation of readers?
It’s been a joy to me to share those books and many others with my kids. Favorites when they were younger included From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Franweiler and A Wrinkle in Time, The Neverending Story and Treasure Island. My son enjoyed Heidi as much as his sister; my daughter enjoyed My Side of the Mountain as much as as her brother.
These days, my daughter and I compare notes on books we’ve both read. She’s struggling through The Power and the Glory right now. My son still likes it when I read to him in the morning before school, and on days when he can get up early enough, we’re working our way through The Iliad.
Right now, I’m reading another old favorite, something I haven’t picked up since college: Romeo and Juliet. Barnes & Noble has a new series of trade paperbacks of the plays, and I picked up two last time I was there. next up, Twelfth Night.
What books made you want to become a writer? Share your list in comments.