Last time I talked about unpacking boxes of childhood relic books and being somewhat struck that, if you based what I would be writing now off of what I read then, you'd be way off. Then I started thinking about the books that really informed my writing style and how I feel about writing, if not necessarily the subject matter. You know what? Many of those books came from long ago in my reading past--many were high school finds--but they weren't in boxes. Nope, they're on my shelf.
They were the books I was so thrilled to discover and read that I couldn't leave them behind through my moves, and they came with me.
A few of them:
All Quiet on the Western Front. Even before Downton Abbey I had a soft spot for World War I, and perhaps some of it comes from this book. Yes, it's a war book with a pretty specific theme and message, and a lot of the scenes are pretty graphic. But here's the thing--it's also the book that taught me that any prose can also be po…
They were the books I was so thrilled to discover and read that I couldn't leave them behind through my moves, and they came with me.
A few of them:
All Quiet on the Western Front. Even before Downton Abbey I had a soft spot for World War I, and perhaps some of it comes from this book. Yes, it's a war book with a pretty specific theme and message, and a lot of the scenes are pretty graphic. But here's the thing--it's also the book that taught me that any prose can also be po…