Blogfest 2009

Two books by author Elliot S. Maggin, SUPERMAN: LAST SON OF KRYPTON and SUPERMAN: MIRACLE MONDAY, rise above all others as personal inspirations as well as examples of the kind of writing style I hope to one day master.

The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander are the best examples of a multi-volume story that I know; and the SHANNARA books by Terry Brooks are the best examples of a multi-generational multi-volume story I know.

I love Madeline L’Engle’s Time Trilogy (which consists of five books) because of her economy of storytelling, and because Charles Wallace Murry is one of the all-time great characters.

The D’Aulauries Book of Greek Myths is my desert island book. The book which inspired me the most as a child, and which influence resonates throughout all of the Imaginarium Geographica books.

Orson Scott Card’s ENDER books (in both related series) are my favorite audiobooks, and I listen to them constantly while traveling. He has said he writes for his words to be spoken aloud, and it shows.

Garth Nix is possibly the best fantasist out there today – and he writes exclusively for children and YA. His SABRIEL is still jaw-droppingly good with the originality of his inventions, and he never fails to inspire me as a reader and a writer.

Authors I would most like to see:

Holly Black
Cassandra Clare
Elizabeth Scott
Lisa McMann
Teri Brown
LJ Smith
Scott Westerfeld
Ellen Hopkins
Ellen Wittlinger
Sonya Sones
Lisa Schroeder
Deb Caletti

I have a zillion authors I admire. One of my all-time favorites is Jean Shepherd who was a radio personality and whose short stories were turned into the movie “A Christmas Story.” If I had one wish for everyone who loves books, it would be to read “Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories” by Jean Shepherd.

Whenever people ask me who my favorite authors are, I have a very hard time answering the question. Not just because I have so many favorites. It’s more because I tend to really, really love one particular book an author has written, but I don’t necessarily love everything the author has written, at least not on that same intense level. Because when I love something, I looooove something so much I want to just cry for no reason. So here are some of my favorite books, oldies but goodies first. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (I have not one but TWO first editions of this book! One was a Christmas gift from my beloved editor), Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (duh!). Newer favorites: A True and Faithful Narrative by Katherine Sturtevant, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, each and every Harry Potter book by J.K. Rowling, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

I’ve got a small red bookshelf that I’ve moved from apartment to apartment over the years, always filling it with the same books. They’re not necessarily my all-time favorites, nor are they my current favorites. (For example, there’s no Michael Chabon on this list, and he’s definitely in my current top five.) They’re more like family—creased, dog-eared paperbacks that I’ve read and loved at different times in my life, novels I can always go back to when I’m in a crappy mood, knowing they’ll cheer me up or make me feel less alone or at least fill a few hours of the day. Books I love partly because I’ve read and re-read them so many times (and this is largely because for most of my life I didn’t own that many books, so in a pinch, there weren’t many options). They’re like comfort food—familiar, filling, and reliably delicious. They are:

A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle
The Moor’s Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Martin Bauman, David Leavitt
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins
The World According to Garp and The Hotel New Hampshire, John Irving
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
Sophie’s Choice, William Styron
Goodbye, Columbus, Philip Roth
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
It, Stephen King (this one deserves special mention because it got me through junior high and any number of traumatic eras since then)