Favorite Books

As writers, we all read a lot. It comes with the territory, right? And being constant readers, I am sure we each have favorite authors and favorite books. I am often asked who my favorite author is, or what my favorite book is. No one ever asks why though. Have you ever asked yourself why your favorite is your favorite? I decided to do that tonight for the first post of my blog.

Like many of you out there, I definitely can't narrow it to a single favorite anything. So ...

One of my favorite writers is John Irving. And one of my all time favorite books (which happens to have been written by him) is The World According to Garp. I spoke of Garp in another blog a short time back when I was writing about character names. Garp is an amazing book. While I was reading it I was excited by the variety of emotions that it drew from me. I think any good book should have you either laughing or crying or, at the very least, caring in some way about the characters. With Garp, not only did I run through several emotions, I also found myself relating with Garp, the character. The things he did and thought about and felt reminded me very much of myself. And when I realized that for the first time, I thought: That's why I love this book. Garp is an emotional writer. I, too, am an emotional writer.

The World According to Garp is one of the few books that I have read more than once, and which I will certainly read again. It is one of the books that I recommend and give as a gift.

Why do I read Irving? I read Irving because he teaches us how to create great characters that come alive on the page, characters that we can't help but care for and fall in love with.

Another of my favorite authors is Stephen King. While people tag King as a writer of horror, that isn't very accurate. He writes much much more than horror. In fact, he writes very little horror. I would classify a large chunk of his body of work as suspense, rather than horror. Example: The Shining. This is a book of suspense. Are there horrific moments in it? Sure. But this book is a work of suspense. What makes it more horrific and frightening is the change in Jack Torrance's character from beginning to end. That is what leaves me thinking about the book long after I have finished reading it.

Now, another great King book is Bag of Bones. Bag of Bones is a ghost story. I find ghost stories entertaining and fun to read. Not as scary as something like the shining because I believe living breathing human beings are more frightening and dangerous than ghosts. So when I read Bag of Bones I looked at it more as a fun read. That said, it was the first book I ever read that made me leave the light on when I went to sleep. It was a fun, yet creepy book.

So there are some of my favorites: Stephen King, John Irving, The Shining, Bag of Bones, and The World According to Garp.

There are a lot more than this, you understand? This is just a very small taste of...well...my tastes.

Who are some of your favorite authors and why? And what are some of your favorite books and why?