Novella workshop started this week. I've got a long road ahead of me. There are 96 days in the semester, including weekends and breaks. If I write one good page a day, that means I will have a 96 page novella by the end of the semester! I have my fingers crossed, but I'm not holding my breath. For the class, we're reading The 90-Day Novel by Alan Watt. I hope this book, along with the class, will keep me motivated, inspired, and writing.
On the first day of class, we talked about writing, writers, and books. We went around the room and said what our favorite novel was and why. I usually don't like questions like this. If you know me, you'll know that I have a lot of favorites. If I marginally like something, I bet there was a point in my life when I said it was my favorite. But it was nice to hear what books other people enjoyed and would recommend to aspiring novelists. Some of the novels included Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, Serena by Ron Rash, and Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.
My favorite novel is East of Eden by John Steinbeck. At least this is what I told the class. The truth is, I really really really really really love East of Eden. I like it because it's long. It's about family. It's about place. It's about America at the turn of the 20th century. I like it because it's a good story -- it's a good story told by a good storyteller. It's beautiful and oddly magical.
Here's a short list of some of my other "favorites":
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison
The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
I, too, hate choosing favorites, and I think you're hitting the nail on the head when you write, "If I marginally like something, I bet there was a point in my life when I said it was my favorite." It's funny and true that different books read differently at different times; it's something I've only continued to notice more the more I read.
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad you're keeping your blog going. Best of luck with your novella!