Why do you read the books you read?

[Rich.]

What are the books/genres/authors you always return to? What constitutes your literary comfort blanket? And why?

For me it's the fantastical, the escapist, the ones that fill me with wonder and delight – Tolkien, Le Guin, a bit of García Márquez, even Tolstoy (he's so sweeping he has the wonder).

And the why? I mostly read for entertainment, to escape. I'm not unfamiliar with the literary, but much of it is not what I'm looking for when I sit down to read [philistine alert! (I jest – perhaps)]. I grew up with Star Wars, Indiana Jones, CS Lewis and Arthur C Clarke (we shared a circus tent in Kamchatka; all the beds suspended from high wires). I prefer concrete experience and good conversation as the road to enlightenment. I want my books to take me away. Once upon a time ... happily ever after.

What's your poison and why?

 

[Carol Rose]

A Wrinkle In Time because it captivated me at 10 years old, and I still love it. No clue why, really. Other than of course it's so well-written, and the characters jump off the pages.

To Kill A Mockingbird because again, I read it at 10 years old, and it still haunts me. I read it every year.

The Great Gatsby was one I didn't read until after seeing the original movie with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow in the lead roles (1974), but I fell in love with the characters and the story from page one.

There's a huge list of books, but the reasons I keep returning to them are all basically the same. Great writing, wonderful story, and characters that are so well-developed they jump off the pages.

 

[Patricia D]

I enjoy a variety of books but favor mysteries because they combine escapism with a puzzle. Louise Penny is a current favorite, Ann Cleeves another, and John LeCarre an all time favorite. Much as I enjoy mysteries, I don't like serial killer books or anything that includes graphic violence, especially sexual violence. I'm reading Anita Shreve's Strange Fits of Passion right now and finding it hard going. Although it is not at all graphic, it's giving me nightmares.

Among non-mysteries, I enjoy the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the novels of Don DeLillo, Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Strout, and Margaret Atwood, the novellas and short stories of William Trevor. I could go on and on.

Reading is both escapism and exploration. It takes me away to places I'd otherwise never experience and introduces me to people I'd not otherwise meet. Since becoming a writer, I'm fussier about what I read. I enjoy seeing how a writer pulls the reader into the story. My all time favorite book is The Master and Margarita and has been for decades.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Definitely escapism for me. I generally shy away from 'serious' literary fiction. Not because I don't enjoy it when I do read it, but because it's too close to the real world. I want to adventure to new places when I read. That can be alternate worlds, or it can be places and times in the real world I've not been to.

I'm really bad at choosing books to read. I hate back cover blurbs, because they always make a book sound stupid. So a lot of the time, I simply go to a shelf in the library and choose the first book that my hand lands on. Or I create an arbitrary rule about what I'm going to check out--books that begin with the letter V, books with an arthropod on the cover, or something else entirely ridiculous. I've read some interesting stuff that way--things I never would have chosen had I been thinking about what I wanted to read.

 

[Geoff]

Good question.. I tend to return to Milan Kundera, as I quite like East European authors. A good friend of mine lives in Latvia and sends me some Latvian translated works. I also go for Mal Peet, thanks to Agent Pete, plus the classics Oscar Wilde, Dickens, Brontes, Orwell, etc. I tend to have three to four books going at the same time.

 

[Amber]

Reading is always a pleasure but I can't ever help wondering why the author makes the choices they make. I've gotten more picky the last year or so. I'll read anything but if it isn't any good, I get rid of it, and it has to be really good. But ... literally have something of everything on my bookshelves.

My all time favorites are Heinlein, Anne Rice, and Jacqueline Carey.

I used to be a huge Laurell K Hamilton fan. The Anita Blake series hasn't had much of a story for a while. I will probably finish the faery series though.

A friend of mine introduced me to Iain M Banks. I really like his writing so far.

 

[Marc Joan]

What are the books/genres/authors you always return to? What constitutes your literary comfort blanket? And why?

For me it's the fantastical, the escapist, the ones that fill me with wonder and delight – Tolkien, Le Guin, a bit of García Márquez, even Tolstoy (he's so sweeping he has the wonder).

And the why? I mostly read for entertainment, to escape. I'm not unfamiliar with the literary, but much of it is not what I'm looking for when I sit down to read [philistine alert! (I jest – perhaps)]. I grew up with Star Wars, Indiana Jones, CS Lewis and Arthur C Clarke (we shared a circus tent in Kamchatka; all the beds suspended from high wires). I prefer concrete experience and good conversation as the road to enlightenment. I want my books to take me away. Once upon a time ... happily ever after.

What's your poison and why?

Totally agree -- I read to escape, to be transported, to find magic. As a child, I found this magic in books by authors such as Tolkien, CS Lewis, and Alan Garner. As an adult, I am always searching for equivalents -- 'grown-up' authors that can break through the crust of bitter experience and give me that magic again. I haven't found them yet; David Mitchell comes close, but not quite worthy of the cigar. Hopefully one day . . .

 

[MaryA]

So many of my favourites listed above!

I love rereading novels or short stories that open up and show me things I haven't noticed before. Alice Munro does that, some George Saunders, Penelope Fitzgerald, Hilary Mantel.

I'm a sucker for the Golden Age of crime fiction too which is why Simenon is my current bedtime pleasure. Detective fictions and mysteries like Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey, Dorothy Sayers etc.

 

[Rich.]

Ask a bunch of writers which books they like to read: broaden your horizons! These replies are fascinating. Lots of new books for my to-read list.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

The novels that I write are in the crime genre, so I read a lot of them too—one of the advantages of crime writing is that any subject can be tackled. I visit my local library every week and usually borrow at least eight books of great variety, including poetry, art, psychology, children's fantastic facts and sociology. I'm interested in all of these things and some of my reading is done with an eye on future writing projects.

Authors who can do no wrong for me include Alice Hoffman, Barbara Kingsolver, James Lee Burke and Dennis Lehane. The writer I most re-visit is probably short story writer Guy de Maupassant, who was a master of the short form. I first read him as an impressionable teenager, fifty years ago, and took some great life-lessons from his tales, including Regret—which proves that faint heart never won fair maiden.

I wish that I could find a consistently funny author, though I love the humour in Carl Hiassen's writing for adults and children, which have plots that include scary crimes and a concern for the environment.

 

[Barbara]

Not sure if, as a writer, I should admit this to fellow writers, but I don't actually follow any specific authors. When I do read, I tend to pick books I like the sound of, and never mind about genre. Also, reading is rarely escapism for me. My escape is in writing, so when I do grab a book, it is mainly for 'research' because I want to look at the kinds of novels which are similar to the ones I'm working on. I have found all sorts of treasures this way. I just need to produce a treasure myself now. No pressure there.

 

[Matnov]

I read for fun. Same reason that I write. I tend to be a little more picky these days compared to the past when I would read any and everything, often having 4 books on the go at once, although given that almost 90% of my purchases of the last year have been from charity shops, discarding a novel after a couple of chapters is far easier when it has come as the last, hastily grabbed, one in the '3 for a £1' selection because I was in a hurry to get back to the car before the traffic warden zoomed in on me.

As to the why, then it is because I have to read. I have to be surrounded by books. A life without books is one that I truly could not envisage and for me they are as necessary as breathing. That probably comes across as being a little on the pretentious side but I have written it as a matter of cold fact. I need books. I adore books. I don't even have to read them but I need to know that they are all around me. I have books in the car, in the loo, in boxes up in the attic, on shelves, on my kindle, on my phone, everywhere I can. I even used to buy books that I knew I would not like and by authors that I would hurl abuse at if I saw their smug, self-satisfied grins on the telly box. Bloody bizarre really. But I would still read them.

If I had to pin it down, then I guess it would be because they offer a glimpse into other worlds. Time travel. International exploration. Or else a bloody good yarn with lots of killing and kissing going on. Or just the musings of some sick and twisted mind that I know I should not find fascinating but I do. Not sure if I could put this down to a desire to 'escape', although at times I am sure they have been, but its more an absolute fascination with them.

I hate watching books being destroyed. Loathe it to the point of anger, even if the books deserved it.

But, and this is my personal form of OCD coming to the fore, if there is a series of novels then I HAVE to read them in order. One of the loves of my life that has faded a little has been Euro-Crime and I hated finding out that the novel I had read, and was the only one that had been translated, was 3 or 4 into a series. Probably why I have had a slight falling out with that particular genre in that I struggle to trust any new novels that I see.

 

[MaryA]

Matnov, in some far corner of a book-loving galaxy you and I were split apart in embryo. This is book-nerdy moi you're describing:

As to the why, then it is because I have to read. I have to be surrounded by books. A life without books is one that I truly could not envisage and for me they are as necessary as breathing.

I'm one of the most voracious readers I know and always have been (which is an extravagant and probably ill-founded boast on a writers' forum!). I've never left home without a book or three in my backpack or handbag as well as a writing notebook. I don't travel without books with me and buy more. Other people come home from vacation with souvenirs or clothes or art. I arrive at the airport laden down with books. I read on Kindle, paperbacks, hardbacks. And I reread all the time. I borrow and lend books, buy books for friends, buy secondhand books, order books via Amazon, know every decent bookshop here and in most of the cities I've visited.

My home is overflowing with books I love and can't bear to give away. I donate armfuls of my own books each year to schools and universities in cash-strapped Zimbabwe and literacy projects in South Africa. I support libraries as if my life as well as their survival depended on it. I review local authors, I belong to book clubs, I stay away from creative writing workshops for the most part but I read whatever writers recommend if they sound passionate about the books.

 

[Rich.]

A life without books is one that I truly could not envisage and for me they are as necessary as breathing.

Ain't that the truth?

Matnov, in some far corner of a book-loving galaxy you and I were split apart in embryo.

You and him and me. Monozygotic literary triplets. Though methinks there may be more of us lurking on this site.