Snag The Writers Library: The Authors You Love On The Books That Changed Their Lives Sketched By Nancy Pearl Accessible In Publication

Writers Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives by Nancy Pearl and playwright Jeff Schwager is a compendium of favorite books of some of the worlds bestknown and mostadmired authors.
The interviews are conducted by Nancy Pearl, the most trusted and read librarian in America and playwright Jeff Schwager, For anyone who wants suggestions of books to add to their TBR, this book is for you, There areauthors who answer thoughtful, interested and interesting questions about their reading life, I listened to the audio version but regret not having read this in book form, It is the kind of book that you keep on your bookshelf or night table and spend time with, whenever you fancy sinking into it.
It is a readers dream, Enjoy. Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager's book The Writer's Library lets readers in on their favorite authors reading history, what they keep on their bookshelf, and how those books impacted their lives and their craft.


Pearl writes, "Our consciousness is a soaring shelf of thoughts and recollections, facts and fantasies, and of course, the scores of books we've read that have become an almost cellular part of who we are.
" I found myself thinking about the books that were on my shelves across my lifetime,

I was happy to see books I have read mentioned but there were also many books new to me that I will add to my TBR list.


Certain books were mentioned by more than one writer, I enjoyed comparing books and noting who loved the same books,

Jonathan Lethem talked of "the poetic, dreamy, surreal stuff like Bradbury" and his favorite TV show The Twilight Zone, He said that Butcher's Crossing by John Williams is better than Stoner, so I have to move it up higher on my TBR shelf,

Susan Choi also mentions Bradbury, as well as F, Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and J, D. Salinger's "A Perfect Day for Bananafish, "

Michael Chabon also lists Bradbury, and my childhood favorites Homer Price by Robert McCloskey and Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes, He calls The World According to Garp by John Irving a bombshell I do remember reading it when it came out, He is another fan of Watership Down, Also on his list are Saul Bellow's Herzog,

One more Bradbury fan, Dave Eggers was in the Great Books program in school, just like me, He also loves Herzog. As does Richard Ford.

Amor Towles begins with Bradbury and adds poetry including Prufrock, Whitman and Dickinson, and a long list of classics,

Another Dickinson fan, Louise Erdrich also loves Sylvia Plath and Tommy Orange's There There,

Jennifer Egen loved Salinger's Nine Stories, As a teen loved Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and The Magus by John Fowles, "Then Richard Adams' Watership Down took over me life," and she got a rabbit, Oh, my! My husband and I also loved that book when it came out and WE got a pet rabbithouse trained to a liter box.
I share a love for many of her mentions including Anthony Trollope,

Andrew Sean Greer included Rebecca and also loves Muriel Spark,

Madeline Miller also notes Watership Down as one of the "great favorites of my entire life, " She is a fan of King Lear, The Love Song of J, Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot, and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre,

Laila Lalami mentioned Waiting for the Barbarians by J, M. Coetzee as a favorite.

I would not have guessed that Luis Alberto Urrea had fallen hard for Becky Thatcher from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or that he fell in love with Stephen Crane's poetry.


At college I read The Sot Weed Factor by John Barth it is one of T, C. Boyle's favorite historical novels. He calls Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro "one of the greatest books ever, " And he brings up John Gardner, whose novels I read as they came out,

Charles Johnson also studied under John Gardner whose book On Moral Fiction appears on his shelf along with Ivan Doig,

Viet Thanh Nguyen was blown away by scifi writers like Isaac Asimov and fantasy writers like J, R. R. Tolkien. He liked Michael Ondaatje's Warlight,

Jane Hirshfield was "undone" by Charlotte's Web by E, B. White and loved Water de la Mare's poem "The Listeners" and reads poetry including Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, W, H. Auden, and Gerard Manley Hopkins, Philip Levine is a poet on my TBR shelf that she mentions,

Siri Hustvedt read Dickinson and the canonical English poetry early, Flannery O'Connor shows up on her shelf, also found on shelves of T, C. Boyle, Erdrich, Ford, and Tartt,



Vendela Vida is "indebted to Forster," including A Passage to India, Also on her shelf is Coetzee's Disgrace,

Donna Tartt read Bedknobs and Broomsticks by Mary Norton, James Barrie's Peter Pan, and other classic children's literature, Oliver Twist particularly moved her and it also appears on Urrea's shelf,

Russell Banks loved Toby Tyler by James Otis and loves to read the classics,

Laurie Frankl's books are not ones I have read, Along with all the other books on these author's shelves, I can extend my reading list past my natural lifespan!

Readers will enjoy these interviews, comparing book shelves, and learning the books that influenced these writers.


I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review, When I saw this book listed in the Library Journal's Book Pulse newsletter earlier this year, I knew I had to read it! I cannot resist a book about books, writers talking about books, bookshelf tours, books about famous libraries.
. . you get the idea.

And this book was SO good! Nancy Pearl and and Jeff Schwager interviewed such a great variety of authors, Some of my favorite interviews were: Madeline Miller, Susan Choi and Laurie Frankel,

The authors asked similar questions of each other the authors such as: What was your favorite childhood book, What book has influenced you the most as a writer What books did you read while writing your books

It was interesting to see how many of the writers were influenced by the same childhood books.
I was also fascinated to learn how many of the writers chose which books to read to help them write their books, Each writer had a slightly different relationship with books, especially how important they were in their preadult lives some were non readers until later in life and some had already read thousands of books by the time they turned.


I had my Goodreads page opened the entire time and added way to many books to my TBR, both popular classical books to obscure literary books.
If you love listening to writers talk about books and writing, I'd highly recommend The Writer's Library! Reading a book about books is always a risky proposition, dangerous for my already massive tbr list.
I'll never read all the ones in have on there now, This book though is more than just books, interviews with many of the authors I favor, What books influenced them in their writing, what they read when younger, descriptions of their homes in some cases, Just enough to bring some realizations to mind, now and when I read them again, The authors in the book are listed in the book summary so I'll just mention a few things that made an impression,

T. C Boyle, lives in a Frank Lloyd Wright house and wanting to know more about him led him to write sitelinkThe Women, I share a favored post with sitelinkAmor Towles which would be T, S. Eliott though his love is for Prufrock, mine is The Wastelands, Louise Erdrich seems as genuine as the books she writes,

Surprisingly, because I wasn't of fan of Goon Squad, though I've liked other books of hers, I had the most in common with Jennifer Egan.
Like myself, she knew how to read at an early age, her mother like mine never censored what she read and her house has many bookshelves and piles of books everywhere.
She also read many of the same books as I did when young and her high school years sound similar to mine, She also has multiple interests and the books she writes reflect that since her subjects vary widely,

So, I didn't add to my massive tbr, in bought this book instead and just added to one of my piles, Nancy Pearl and Jeff did a fantastic job with these interviews and this is a terrific resource,
Let me list the ways I love this book!
, I feel like this book was tailored for me! Amazingly, I have read and enjoyed each of thenovelists featured here, I have not yet read the poet Jane Hirshfield These are my people! So I was fascinated to hear from them,

. A shining example of how to do this type of book right, I have read too many disappointing collections of dutiful essays about authors' favorite books that I ended up skimming through, Pearl and Schwager met each author and conducted lively,

revealing interviews, These are thoughtful, sometimes joyous conversations, The one email interview Donna Tartt suffered in comparison, I especially enjoyed the interviews with T, C. Boyle and Michael Chabon together with Ayelet Waldman, So much fun! The NYT column "By the Book" could learn from these interviews, Too often that column is formulaic and stuffy,

. Hopefully, the beginning of a tradition, This would be a marvelous series and I hope they continue, Please! This was such a wonderful read, It was like spending time with interesting friends, I learned so much about some my favorite authors and in some cases got a much better understanding of their work by discovering the books that shaped their lives.
Nancy Pearl is amazing both in her knowledge of books and her generosity as an interviewer, she with Jeff Schwager created a rare kind of intimacy with the writers they included.
I have added so many new books to my to be read pile, Highly recommended.










I'll read anything Nancy Pearl puts out, and I love books about books, so this was a nobrainer for me.
She and Jeff Schaefer interviewcontemporary authors on their favorite books, Most of these authors I've not read yet but plan to, so a great introduction to them, and a few!! more books to add to my tbr.
This is a fantastic book!

These are excellent interviews, much better and going deeper than most others Ive read that are similar, I wasnt that enthusiastic about reading one right after the other and finishing the book all at once the way I would with a novel or many other types of nonfiction books.
I liked pacing my reading with this one, Each author/interview has so much to offer and there are both similarities and differences between them,

This is a book meant for an audio edition! I dont often say that, I ended up reading the hardcover AND the Axisaudio edition simultaneously, I appreciated both formats. I liked the book lists at the end of each section and being able to see them and loved the drawing of the faces of each of the authors at the beginning of their sections, and Im visually oriented so I liked reading along as I listened.
Video interviews would have been great! I love going to author talks and readings, Listening to everyone enriched the reading experience, I enjoyed the questions and responses Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager provided and how they kept the flow going, It felt like vicariously being there in the room, A note: the audio edition has two very short sections that the hardcover did not,minutes andminutes long, of authors talking but I have no idea of their identity because they were not introduced, My guess is it might be additional material from two interviews that were in the book proper, I didnt really listen to those since I didnt know the identity of the talkers and because the sections appeared after the hardcover edition content.


It was a great book for me to read during the pandemic, It reminded me of the many times I have attended conversations with authors events, Its been quite a while since Ive done that, even prior to the pandemic, I did attend a few virtual events earlier in the pandemic held by one of my favorite local independent bookstores,

Unfortunately, the interview I most wanted to read/hear was Donna Tartts and that was the only author whose voice I assume was someone elses and where there was less flow to the conversation, and less general conversation, and that was because her section was held as an email interview vs.
an in person conversation. I still found it interesting but it was a bit of a disappointment, I know the chapter would have been different and better had it been a true interview like all the others included,

I love learning about others lives and authors are particularly fascinating to me, I love them and I appreciate them, I enjoyed reading about their early lives, books theyve liked throughout their lives, and the many other things they discussed,

The interviews were excellent, Nancy Pearl is a treasure but I will say that in the audio edition of this book I found her voice grating,

This was a perfect book for me to conclude, Its been a difficult year and a weird year and a particularly isolated year for me, and this was almost being like back at author talks, and without dealing with parking problems or experiencing any other worries.
A perfect book at a perfect time, I loved it. Librarian Nancy Pearl and writer Jeff Schwagers collaboration “The Writers Library” compiles interviews they conducted withdifferent authors about their lives as readers and the books that have most influenced them.
I loved the idea of this bookit reminded me of the New York Times Book s “By the Book” feature, which is a must read for mebut I have to say that I imagined I would dip in and out of “The Writers Library,” cherrypicking the authors I am familiar with and admire and bypassing the others.
As it happens, I tore straight through “The Writers Library” from cover to cover, enjoying, as expected, the interviews with favorite authors Jennifer Egan and Viet Thanh Nguyen, for example but perhaps appreciating even more the new authors I discovered in its pages, such as Maaza Mengiste.
If you love talking about books for hours with friends who share your passion, “The Writers Library” will be an absolute treat, Just have your “to read” list at hand and ready for a lot of new additions!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.
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