There are a lot of quotes I could throw at you about what it means to read a good book. Some vague reflections on being lost in other worlds, finding yourself through character flaws, reading slowly so you don’t get to the end, etc. But I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to do that because either you love to read or you don’t. I don’t care if it’s vampire novels, Shakespeare, or softcore mom porn. If 50 Shades Of Gray gets you reading, you’re a reader.
I am a reader. I always have been and I always will be. In the second grade, I read the entire year’s book list in one week. In eighth grade, I read The Giver in one night instead of one month. I can’t help it. I devour a good book like a good piece of cake. It’s irresistible.
What I forget is that behind every good book is a failure. A person who tried to be a writer for a very long time, surviving thousands of discarded rough drafts, hurtful rejections, and inevitable swings of depression. A person who had to bus tables, sweep floors, and answer their in-law’s questions about getting a “real job.” The difference is that they didn’t give up. These authors kept trying despite themselves, and the brilliance is that it looks effortless. They know how to make big statements using small sentences. They know how to take a great story and slow it down. They know how to move you when you least suspect it.
Here are my Top Ten favorite modern authors who have inspired me. Each one has shown me the power of a well constructed sentence and the importance of truth in writing. They have shown me you will never be lonely with someone else’s story.
Happy Tuesday.
|1|
Margaret Atwood
Favorite Read
Quotable
“The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by any other person, and not even by yourself at some later date. Otherwise you begin excusing yourself. You must see the writing as emerging like a long scroll of ink from the index finger of your right hand; you must see your left hand erasing it.”
“Love blurs your vision; but after it recedes, you can see more clearly than ever. It’s like the tide going out, revealing whatever’s been thrown away and sunk: broken bottles, old gloves, rusting pop cans, nibbled fishbodies, bones. This is the kind of thing you see if you sit in the darkness with open eyes, not knowing the future. The ruin you’ve made.”
|2|
Barbara Kingsolver
Favorite Read
Quotable
“God doesn’t need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves.”
“The truth needs so little rehearsal.”
|3|
Julia Glass
Favorite Read
Quotable
“Here we are – despite the delays, the confusion, and the shadows en route – at last, or for the moment, where we always intended to be.”
“Time plays like an accordion in the way it can stretch out and compress itself in a thousand melodic ways. Months on end may pass blindingly in a quick series of chords, open-shut, together-apart; and then a single melancholy week may seem like a year’s pining, one long unfolding note.”
|4|
Anne Lamott
Favorite Read
Quotable
“You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”
“I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish.”
|5|
Wally Lamb
Favorite Read
Quotable
“Accept what people offer. Drink their milkshakes. Take their love.”
“I cried because I had no shoes. Then I met a man who had no feet.”
|6|
Judy Blume
Favorite Read
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Quotable
“Fear is often disguised as moral outrage.”
“Like my mother said, you can’t go back to holding hands.”
|7|
Jeannette Walls
Favorite Read
Quotable
“Nobody’s perfect. We’re all just one step up from the beasts and one step down from the angels.”
“I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets.”
|8|
Paulo Coelho
Favorite Read
Quotable
“Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering.”
“The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.”
|9|
Anne Tyler
Favorite Read
Quotable
“I was standing in the schoolyard waiting for a child when another mother came up to me. Have you found work yet? she asked. Or are you still just writing?”
“I expect that any day now, I will have said all I have to say; I’ll have used up all my characters, and then I’ll be free to get on with my real life.”
|10|
Garrison Keillor
Favorite Read
Quotable
“Sex is good, but not as good as fresh sweet corn.”
“Librarians, Dusty, possess a vast store of politeness. These are people who get asked regularly the dumbest questions on God’s green earth. These people tolerate every kind of crank and eccentric and mouth breather there is.”
Who are YOUR favorite inspiring authors?
***
Thanks to reader Elizabeth Rossi for the Top Ten suggestion.
I now want to read The Accidental Tourist just because I love what she’s said in your quotes. And as for Garrison I am wondering if he’s ever actually had good sex because I’d take it over corn (or most any other things).
I don’t know…have you had fresh sweet corn? It’s almost just as good. Almost.
Barbara Kingsolver is gorgeous. Anne Lamott’s religion takes the cake.
I’m glad you think she’s gorgeous, because you look alike.
(Anne Lamott quote is one of my favorites)
I’ve never heard of some of these. Margaret Atwood, she sounds familiar. I think we read her in school?
Maybe it was The Handmaid’s Tale? That’s a popular one for high school book lists.
Margaret Atwood is, hands down, my favorite author. Her words, pure magic.
I loved Twilight and 50 Shades of Gray but feel like I can’t talk about it because everyone makes fun of those two series. Have you read them?
I haven’t. But I don’t think you need to be embarrassed.
Anne Tyler. I have all her books. She’s an incredible writer.
I know you’ll probably laugh, but I am inspired by Jodi Picoult. I can’t help it. She sucks me in with her plot twists every single time!!!
I guess I have a winter book list…
Madeleine L’Engle…so wise and eloquent that it makes me hate her almost as much as I love her (not really).
Yes.
Paulo Coelho! Yes, I love his books. Other favorite authors: Steig Larsson, Chuck Palahniuk, and Cormac McCarthy.
Cormac McCarthy definitely. And I totally agree with this (women power driven!) list. ;)
Judy Blume is a modern pioneer. Great list. I’ll have to check out M.A.
Anne Lamott always makes me laugh. Bird by Bird is my favorite, but I’ve read and loved all of her work. I love this list! I agree, all these authors have really changed/driven/inspired modern lit.
Great picture of GK.
Love the quotes.
Barbara Kingsolver and Anne Lamott are two of my favorites. In the midst of dealing with my son’s colic, I sobbed as I read Operating Instructions. I have read She’s Come Undone several times, as well as I Know This Much Is True. Loved them! One of my great joys as a classroom teacher was reading aloud to my students. When I became a stay-at-home mom, I mourned that time while surrounded by board books. Now that my son is 8, one of my very favorite times is the end of the day, when I read a chapter (or two, “Please, Mom…”) of our latest favorite book. Last night, I finished reading The Great Gilly Hopkins, by Katherine Paterson. Truly, one of the most beautiful, wrenching, memorable books I have ever read. We both had tears in our eyes at the end and talked for awhile about how well-written characters stay with us, become a part of us. (Tonight, we start A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle.) I am thrilled to see my son become a reader. He recently devoured the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. When he stayed up after lights out, using a flashlight as he hid, reading, under the covers, I couldn’t bring myself to stop him. I know just how he feels.
I love this (and can’t wait for Waylon to discover reading). Thanks for sharing!
This is so sweet.
It really is.
Roald Dahl. His imagination was amazing, and I devoured his books as a kid!
I totally agree with you!!!
My favorite author of all time is Junot Diaz. He, too, is an absolute magician with language. He goes back and forth between English and Spanish as he chronicles life as a Dominican immigrant in the US. He has that ability you mentioned–to make big statements out of so few, but so well chosen, words. Thank you for this list! I’ve got some new books to add to mine now.
Tom Robbins, oh man can he write a good book. Love Barbara Kingsolver as well. Oh and John Irving. I think I could keep going but will stop there.
I think you just inspired me to devour everything by Margaret Atwood. I’ve never read anything of her’s before, but based on her amazing quote about writing the truth as if no one will ever read it again (I’m going to remember that forever), the description of “Oryx and Crake” I found on Amazon (I swear, it’s like the book I’d like to write), and the fact that she tops your list (when I think we have very similar taste in reading material) I feel absolutely certain that I’m going to love her.
Thank you for for this list. I think that this and your dinner party guest list have been my all-time favorite Top 10′s.
Yes! Read Oryx and Crake and then then read Year Of The Flood. I’m certain you will love it.
Thanks for the inspiration for this list!
I’m going to download the iBooks sample of it right now because I can’t wait for the library!
You’re quite welcome! Glad I could help!
Yes to whomever said Tom Robbins! So, so good.
I keep hearing great things about Anne Lamott. I guess I know what I have to read next.
My mom read Margaret Atwood all throughout my childhood and I started reading her about 10 years ago. I love her. Love her love her love her. The Robber Bride is my hands-down, shut the front door, favourite book. The Edible Woman is also awesome. Cat’s Eye, Bodily Harm, The Penelopiad. All awesome. Her poetry is also fantastic.
Another firm favourite is Carol Shields (Canadian female author pattern emerging). The Republic of Love is amazing and my second favourite book of all time. The Stone Diaries. Unless. All beautiful and so highly recommended.
Yes to all of those Atwood books! I love them all.
I’ll have to check out Carol Shields. Thanks for the recommendation!
I could talk books forever!
I’ll have to try Anne Tyler and Margaret Atwood again – I wasn’t a huge fan, but that was years ago when I tried. I always need a book to read -worried that I’m going to run out.
My favs:
Rachel Kadish, although she’s quite only published one novel, I think
Mary Stewart
David James Duncan
Clyde Edgerton
Rumer Godden
heh. I could go on. . . and on.. . .
Thanks Margo!
I think you would love Sophie Kinsella. She wrote the Shopaholic series (Confessions of a Shopaholic and more). Her sense of humor reminds me of yours, and all of her books are quick, hysterical reads! Maybe not the most deep and inspiring author, but definitely comical and entertaining. I liked them because I could get through them so quickly! I’m also a fan of authors in the Tolkien, Lewis, and Rowling world.
I’ll check her out. Thanks Mary!