For the Love of Books: 115 Celebrated Writers on the Books They Love Most

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Summary: Read The Books That Inspired Your Favorite Writers
Review: Anyone who has ever wanted to be a writer will hear from writing instructors all about the importance of constantly reading. Books on writing theory state the same thing as do works about writing by published authors. The importance of reading cannot be disputed, but many writers may wonder what would be appropriate to read. Fans of great writers may also wonder what would be a great next read. Ronald Shwartz has edited a book that answers these questions for all who wonder, what do great writers read and what books have inspired these writers to write?

The book includes many well known authors of both fiction and nonfiction, including notables such as Anne Bernays and husband Justin Kaplan, Robert Coles, Joyce Carol Oates, Penelope Fitzgerald, John Irving, Norman Mailer, and Anna Quindlen just to name a few. Some of the writers simply list the books, others explain why they include the books. Most of the entries are short and to the point, and all the entries are insightful. I only wish Norman Mailer had a bit more to say, but since he just published a book on writing, any questions I may have will probably be answered in that book.

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Summary: Books that were/are important to the authors that we read.
Review: I received this book as a gift; generally this method of acquisition all but ensures I will never read the work. In this particular case that generality was broken, and I was the beneficiary.

Mr. Ronald B. Shwartz has collected the thoughts of 115 writers and received an answer to the request, "Identify those 3-6 books that have in some way influenced or affected you most deeply...". The entertainment begins prior to the first author's selection as Mr. Shwartz shares some responses to the idea of the question itself. Anna Quindlen "This is a mean thing to ask someone to do."

Kurt Vonnegut "Anyone asking a writer a question like yours should own a thumbscrew and a rack."

James McBride "If the literary world, or if anyone else in the world for that matter, feels I'm smart enough to offer my two cents about anything, we're all in deep doo-doo, but what the heck, count me in..."

I would imagine the collected responses would make for an excellent read of their own. Fortunately the book leaps much further and deeper, it almost pries into the very personal thoughts of these writers who all are associated with excellence. Their work ranges from one to the other end of whatever writing genre could be listed, and their answers will generally surprise you. As these people are some of the literary legends of the 20th and now the 21st Century I expected answers both lofty and impenetrable to the average reader. I could not have been more in error. Yes there are references to poetical works that I could not find in 10 years with the same number of computers. But happily the book is very readable. And lest you think it takes itself too seriously, I offer Christopher Buckley and his opening to his answer,"Well, if you're looking for recondite works in, say, lesbian studies from the early seventeenth century, you're "___" out of luck with me." I imagined Buckley The Elder wincing with that bit of earthiness from his Son.

The books that made some wish to write or at least were influential in their work will surely fascinate. It is the only book of its kind I have read, but unless I come across another, this sets the bar.

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Summary: Reading Group Pick- Martha's & Alice's "Notes in the Margin"
Review: Shwartz is a Boston trail lawyer with an unabashed love for the well-written word. In the introduction Shwartz wrote about reading, "I would read, as readers do, to tame the unfamiliar or see the familiar through new and enlightened prisms; to see how different or eerily familiar, another person's interior life could be from my own."

This is a book of short commentaries by 115 writers on the books they love most. And indeed it is hard to flip many pages without finding the word love. Shwartz set out to produce the very book he couldn't find in bookstores!

This is truly a book that your reading group could share. Buy one copy and bring it to meetings. It can give you a wealth of insights and ideas for books to read- read a book written by one of the 115 authors interviewed and then select a book to read that influenced that author. The bibliographical index is reason alone to buy this book. Shwartz has said that he always found himself asking what the authors themselves read; and here you'll find that answered both in text and in the index.

Penelope Fitzgerald, author of "The Bookshop" wrote in her commentary that "Fathers& Sons" was one of the books that made the greatest impression on her, "I still feel close to weeping when I get to the end. . . " John Irving, author of "The Cider House Rules" named "Great Expectations" and said, ". . .the intention of a novel by Charles Dickens is to move you emotionally- not intellectually . . . " And Anna Quindlen, author of "One True Thing" said, "The books I've loved most were the books I could inhabit."

Our interesting word selection was "Verity"" The quality or state of being true or real. Faithfulness to aesthetic truth.

Our favorite quote was by Anne Fadiman: "I was so ludicrously unprepared for Humanties 190 that the course nearly proved my undoing. With a doggedness born of panic, I defaced nearly every line of Aristitle's poetics with citron Hi-liter and crammed the margins with felt-tip notations."

Shwartz wrote that it was his hope that his book "might inspire people to read more. . . " Oh yes!