ON OUR WEEKLY WALK AND BOOK CHAT, Jill and I started listing novels that have had a long-lasting impact on us. As we built our personal canon, we were not necessarily reflecting on the same considerations that Karen Swallow Prior, author of ON READING WELL: Finding the Good Life through Great Books, explores in her essay “How reading Makes Us More Human,” in THE ATLANTIC. But we were close!
Here’s our list (and below that, if you’re a list-aholic—or just looking for more reading recommendations—you’ll find links to three more lists to help satisfy your reading itch).
Reading (and writing) inspiration
(Okay. There are more than 20 books on this list. Mostly, because while Jill and I agreed on many authors, we almost always chose a different book from their oeuvre. But also because there are just so many books … and we got excited.)
And now, in no particular order …
THE BURIED GIANT, NEVER LET ME GO, Kazuo Ishiguro
AS I LAY DYING, William Faulkner
THE GREAT GATSBY, F. Scott Fitzgerald
MARIANNE DREAMS, Catherine Storr
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, Carson McCullers
THE SECRET GARDEN, A LITTLE PRINCESS, Frances Hodgson Burnett
LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL, THOMAS WOLFE
THE HOBBIT, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, J. R. R. Tolkien
STRONG POISON, HAVE HIS CARCASE, GAUDY NIGHT, BUSMAN’S HOLIDAY, Dorothy L. Sayers
HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY, Audrey Neffenegger
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, PERSUASION, Jane Austen
TURN OF THE SCREW, Henry James
STAR WARS (yes, the novel),GEORGE LUCAS
LITTLE WOMEN, Louisa May Alcott
THE BONE CLOCKS, David Mitchell
JONATHAN STRANGE & MR NORRELL, Suzanna Clarke
A HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE, Gabriel García Márquez
THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD, Zora Neale Hurston
IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A TRAVELER, INVISIBLE CITIES, and anything else, says Jill, by Italo Calvino
HARRIET THE SPY, Louise Fitzhugh
More literary resources
The 50 Most Influential Books of All Time, listed on the Open Education Database (OED)
25 Books That Will Change Your Life, by Yasmeen Piper, on Book Riot
13 Women Reveal the Book That Had the Biggest Impact on Their Lives, by Charlotte Ahlin, on BUSTLE
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The photo illustrating this post is by Pouya sh, who generously made it available under the Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.