Yes, of course this was difficult. I mean, come on, I read at least a couple dozen books every year. But a Top 5 list is popular because, you know, no one wants to scroll through the Top 100 Books That Influenced My Writing. If you really want to see a longer list of some of my favorites, go check out my Reading Room. Even that list hasn’t been updated in a couple years. So let’s just get right into it. Here are five books that push me to be a better writer.
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
The only book in the list that isn’t a story, per se. Gilbert fills this craft book with lessons about living a creative life. I particularly enjoyed her encouragement to write without fear and without any sense of what you will or won’t receive from the work. The work itself should be its own reward. That’s always been a hard lesson for me. I started writing because of what I wanted from being a famous author — fame, fortune, book contracts, large audiences coming to hear me speak. My head was WAY up in the clouds. None of that happened, by the way. Not even a single book sale (so far). Yet here I am still writing. Why? Big Magic helped me discover why. It’s because I enjoy the process of writing. Pure escapism. Maybe that other stuff will come. Some day. But whether it does or doesn’t is irrelevant at this point.
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
I’ve tried reading other books by Koontz. They’re okay, but none of them really did it for me like the Odd Thomas series. It’s almost like the series was written by a completely different author. This is a no-spoilers post, so I won’t get into the specifics about who Odd Thomas is or what he does. Needless to say, every book in this series pulled me in and refused to let me go. It’s the style of writing. It’s the humor. It’s the deep character immersion. It’s the emotion. These books have it all. At least they did for me. YMMV, as the young kids say. Or maybe used to say. Every time I’m developing new characters, this is the yardstick I use to measure them by. If I could just get close to what Koontz did, I’d consider it a success.
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
This is the honest truth. Whatever you do, do NOT listen to this as an audiobook while you’re driving! There were so many times when I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard that I honestly could not see the road and had to pull over. A few of Bryson’s books are overflowing with humor. Maybe it’s because this was the first book of his that I read. Maybe it’s because I’m an avid backpacker with dreams of one day hiking the Appalachian Trail, so the stories sucker-punched me that much harder. Whatever the reason, I only wish I could inject a small dose of humor into my own stories the way Bryson does. The movie was awful by comparison, so if you’ve only seen the movie with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte, I apologize for your experience. Go read the book. You’ll thank me later. Just don’t read it, and especially don’t listen to it, while driving. You’ve been warned.
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
There have been a handful of books I’ve read in my lifetime where, after reading The End and closing the cover, I just had to sit there in awe and wonder for a while. This is one of those books. The premise of the entire book was so original that it pulled me right into the story. Midway through the story, I had to agree that, yes, love actually is a disease, and we would all be better off with a proper vaccination to avoid catching it in the first place. This is another yardstick book for me in my own writing. I want to dream up a story idea as original as this one. Also, it’s probably why my perfectionism always kicks in every time I get an idea for a story. Nope, forget it, I tell myself. Not as original as Delirium. Keep trying. But then I realize I’ll probably never come up with an idea as original as that. But still, that’s the bullseye I keep aiming for.
The Gunslinger by Stephen King
You didn’t honestly think I’d make it through a Top 5 list without something from Stephen King, did you? My problem was deciding which King book would make the Top 5. Once I started reading the The Gunslinger, it basically dropped me down a two-year rabbit hole into all the Dark Tower books. I read them all on audiobook, mostly because the narrator (George Guidall) is absolutely fabulous. Then I went out and bought a hard copy of The Gunslinger to own and read as often as I want. All of King’s books pull you deep into the story, but this one was pure magic. It was like hypnosis or a trance. I’ve read Gunslinger so many times I’ve lost count. Did I love the way the whole Dark Tower series ended? No. I did not. In fact, I hated it. I finished the last book in the series and would’ve thrown the whole thing across the room in a furious rage if it hadn’t been an audio book. But Gunslinger was the first introduction I had to the series, and it will always be my favorite.
So there’s the list. One for pure creative inspiration. One for amazing characterization. One for humor. One for originality. And one for world building. Each has influenced me as a writer. Each has left its shadowy, tendril trails across my creative synapses whenever I’m working on a story or thinking up a new one. I doubt I’ll ever approach the level of pure amazement that these stories are, but I’ll keep trying.
What stories have influenced how you think and feel and create? Let me know in the comments below.
