Ready to Write

I am working on getting myself geared up for NaNoWriMo and starting classes in my new major next week, so I have been looking on Pinterest for inspiration from other writers to get me geared up and ready to go. I have already read through the syllabi for my classes and feel like I picked up some really interesting advice from that.

I am the kind of reader who once I have fallen in love with a book I will read that book again and again. In an announcement for my class English 510: Studying the Craft my instructor Amy Myer advised us:

“Chances are, you’ve all heard that adage that a good writer is a good reader. True. But does that mean to be a good reader means to read all the classics? To read all the yearly award winners? To read book after book after book after book? 

No. 

To be a good reader is to read widely …within reason. But more importantly than that, it’s reading repeatedly those books that call to you. The ones that told you you want to be a writer. The ones that you read and sigh and say, “I hope I can write like this someday” or “I hope I can craft a story this thrilling someday.”

She would go on to explain that the first time we read a book or story all we read is plot. On second and third readings we can find more and really examine the craft in the piece. For the class we need to choose two books one classic (30 years old or more) and one contemporary and she recommends choosing a book you have read before, as both books have to be read during the course. I have a couple of ideas on which books I may want to use; The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern for my contemporary and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath as my classic. These are subject to change, but were my initial thoughts.

Are there books that you have read again and again? What are they and why do you love them? Are you participating in NaNoWriMo?