This page is a work in progress. I add things as I think of them/have time/find a book that really moves me.
People often ask which books have inspired me, which books I love, which books I re-read over and over, and which books I’d recommend for gifts, etc. While I can’t possibly list everything that has inspired me over the years, here are some reading lists to get you started.
Books About Writing
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King
Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott
Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg
The Elements of Style, Strunk & White
Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative FIction, Jeff VanderMeer
Rise of the Machines, by Kristen Lamb
Any of Chuck Wendig’s instructional books (But only if you can stand some off-color language and a good butt-kicking.)
Young Adult Fiction
Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling Of course. It’s a modern classic.
The Gemma Doyle trilogy, Libba Bray
Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
A Wrinkle In Time, Madeline L’Engle
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell
Matched, Ally Condie
The Testing, Joelle Charbonneau
Finding Audrey, Sophie Kinsella
Steelheart, Brandon Sanderson
The Masked Truth, Kelley Armstrong
Leviathan, Scott Westerfeld
The Wrath and the Dawn, Renee Ahdieh
Sabriel, Garth Nix
Stargirl, Jerry Spinelli
Judy Blume’s entire body of YA work.
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh
Adult Fiction & Miscellaneous Non-Fiction
Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
Darkfever/The Fever Series, Karen Marie Moning
Most of Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb, particularly her her earlier works.
The Winter Sea, Susanna Kearsley
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
Anything by the late Terry Pratchett
The Martian, Andy Weir
Timeline and Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton
The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion
The Otherworld Series, Kelley Armstrong
The Imagineering Way, by The Imagineers
Books You Might Have to Read in School That I Loved
(Or at Least Didn’t Loathe)
A Separate Peace, John Knowles
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Lord of the Flies, William Golding
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
1984, George Orwell
The Scarlett Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
Animal Farm, George Orwell
Watership Down, Richard Adams
The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank
Books About Mythology
The Iliad, Homer
The Odyssey, Homer
Bulfinch’s Mythology, Thomas Bulfinch
100 Characters from Classical Mythology: Discover the Fascinating Stories of the Greek and Roman Deities, Malcolm Day
Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, Edith Hamilton
The Complete World of Greek Mythology, Richard Buxton
The Greek Myths, Robert Graves