30 Posts in 30 Days Challenge
Read One Of These 3 Books To Become A Better Writer
I bet one of them will change your life.
I often freeze up when someone asks me: “What’s your favorite book?”.
I don’t believe in categories such as the best, or the favorite.
How can a single work of literature occupy the top spot? How can you prefer one work of art over all the others?
I believe in lists.
A book or a movie doesn’t have to be superior to every other for it to be meaningful to me. Let’s instead rephrase “What is your favorite book?” as “Which books made you who you are?”
These three are mine.
James Joyce — Ulysses
Don’t let anyone tell you this book is unreadable or only for scholars. You are missing out on one of the greatest works of the 20th century!
I admit, its length and complexity make it daunting. But I encourage you to give it a try. At least snack on chapter 4 — named Calypso by literary critics — which is among the most approachable chapters of this novel.
Why it fascinates me
Every chapter of Ulysses has a different style, a different tone, a different perspective. One mimics a newspaper. Another chapter is written as a play script with stage directions. Yet another reproduces the evolution of the English language from Old English prose to the likes of Sterne or Dickens and ends in 20th-century Irish slang.
Oh, and it’s one of the funniest books you will ever read.
Lessons learned
Besides teaching me countless words in English, Ulysses made me feel like anything is possible. If you can imagine it, you can do it. The sky is the limit.
Memorable quote
Mr Bloom watched curiously, kindly the lithe black form. Clean to see: the gloss of her sleek hide, the white button under the butt of her tail, the green flashing eyes. He bent down to her, his hands on his knees.
— Milk for the pussens, he said.
— Mrkgnao! the cat cried.
They call them stupid. They understand what we say better than we understand them. She understands all she wants too. Vindictive too. Cruel. Her nature. Curious mice never squeal. Seem to like it. Wonder what I look like to her. Height of a tower? No, she can jump me.
Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar
It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.
This is the sentence that kicks off The Bell Jar and it only gets better from there. Plath’s celebrated novel is a banger. It’s biting, it’s tense and it’s the first time I realized that there are other people out there that are neurodiverse, other people that are depressed, that suffer, that want to die.
Why it fascinates me
The Bell Jar centers on Esther Greenwood, an undergraduate who is extremely smart but feels detached from the world around her. Watching her slip into depression is like watching a car wreck: you can’t dare to look and you cannot look away. Her journey to wellness is long, arduous, and uplifting.
Lessons learned
As a writer, I want to be in touch with all of human existence. From bottomless despair to the highest peaks. The Bell Jar taught me it’s okay to not be okay. Things will eventually get better.
Memorable quote
‘I’ll have a vodka,’ I said.
The man looked at me more closely. ‘With anything?’
‘Just plain.’ I said. ‘I always have it plain.’
I thought I might make a fool of myself by saying I’d have it with ice or soda or gin or anything. I’d seen a vodka ad once, just a glass full of vodka standing in the middle of a snowdrift in a blue light, and the vodka looked clear and pure as water, so I thought vodka plain must be all right. My dream was some day ordering a drink and finding out it tasted wonderful.
Natalie Goldberg: Writing Down The Bones
I’ve joined several writing classes here in Berlin and yet I feel like I have learned more from Natalie’s fantastic book. Never will I stop mentioning it; the nuggets of wisdom within it are too good to keep them to yourself. It’s where I learned the value of timed writing exercises, where I learned that it’s good to compost and that writing is a lot like meditation.
Why it fascinates me
It’s not one of these long-winded books that promise to make you a star novelist overnight. Writing Down The Bones has an easy structure with small chapters, and Natalie’s voice is plain and irresistible.
Lessons learned
A lot of them. I can open the book on any day on a random page and learn about crafting better syntax, why I shouldn’t use writing to get love, and why I should keep pushing myself further. Pick it up and I dare you to tell me it didn’t change your life.
Memorable quote
I write because I am alone and move through the world alone. No one will know what has passed through me, and even more amazing, I don’t know. Now that it’s spring I cant remember what it felt like to be in forty below. Even with the heat on, you could feel mortality through the thin walls of your house.
I write because I am crazy, schizophrenic, and I know it and accept it and I have to do something with it other than go to the loony bin. […]
I write out of total incomprehension that even love isn't enough and that finally writing might be all I have and that isn't enough. i can never get it all down, and besides, there re times when I have to step away from the table, notebook, and turn to face my own life. then there are times when its only coming to the notebook that I truly do face my own life.
What are the books that made you?
- Share them in the comments.
- Clap if you feel like “Favorite book” is nonsense.
- Follow me for more rambling on books, movies, and writing.
Thanks, and see you tomorrow! ❤️✍🏻
Part of my Medium challenge — 30 Posts in 30 Days
Day 20/30
