Great book titles

I’m looking for a particular quote, and I can’t find it. The quote goes something like this: If you want to know what a good painting is, you only have to look at a million paintings. The same can be said for writing. If you want to know what good writing is, you only have to read a million books.

I haven’t read a million books. Reading a million books would be the task of a lifetime. (I suspect that looking at a million pieces of art would take much less time than reading a million books.) However, I do have about a thousand books in my library, most of which I have read multiple times. Based on that, I believe I have a pretty good idea about what constitutes good writing.

Instead of describing good writing, I’m going to list authors who have done it. As I have always told my clients, reading books by great authors will help a person become a better writer. These are authors worth reading. If you would be a good writer, you would do well to read and study their writing.

These books represent a variety of genres. Most are fairly recently written, in the last 50 years or so, which means that the writing styles will be relevant for most modern readers. They are listed below in alphabetical order, along with a recommended book selection.

Bellow, Saul: Humboldt’s Gift
Card, Orson Scott: Ender’s Game
Cherryh, C.J.: Cyteen
Cormier, Robert: I Am the Cheese
Doig, Ivan: English Creek (book 2 of a 3-book series)
Eddings, David: The Belgariad (5-book series)
Garcia Marquez, Gabriel: 100 Years of Solitude
Heinlein, Robert: Time Enough for Love
Hemingway, Ernest: A Farewell to Arms
Hugo, Victor: Les Miserables
Hurston, Zora Neale: Their Eyes Were Watching God
Irving, John: Until I Find You
King, Steven: The Shining
Kurtz, Katherine: Camber of Culdi
Oates, Joyce Carol: The Falls
Pratchett, Terry: Interesting Times
Robbins, Tom: Skinny Legs and All
Roth, Philip: Zuckerman Unbound
Rushdie, Salman: The Ground beneath Her Feet
Sedaris, David: Me Talk Pretty One Day
Shakespeare, William: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft: Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander: Cancer Ward
Tan, Amy: The Hundred Secret Senses
Tolstoy, Leo: Anna Karenina
Twain, Mark: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Tyler, Ann: Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Updike, John: In the Beauty of the Lillies
Vonnegut, Kurt: Bluebeard
Waugh, Evelyn: Men at Arms

I wish you happy reading and great writing.