The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books that Changed Their Lives

Most readers will agree that a pleasure second only to reading great books is talking about them with simpatico people. Librarian and literary critic Nancy Pearl and award-winning playwright Jeff Schwager create a formidable and friendly partnership to interview 23 literary luminaries about their reading habits, favorite books, how they read while writing, and books that shaped their tastes and psyches. Hundreds of books and authors are discussed, praised and dissed, and Pearl and Schwager always offer informed opinions and enthusiastic encouragement.

The fascinating and energetic interviews in The Writer's Library become far-ranging discussions. These eloquent and passionate evangelists for books will have readers creating voluminous "Must Read" lists. One oft-mentioned favorite is Richard Adams's Watership Down. Madeline Miller says, "All books should end the way Watership Down ends, with one hundred pages of Ahhhhh." While Ayelet Waldman seldom rereads books, she says husband Michael Chabon "reads dead people mostly.... He'd rather reread something, 'cause he knows it's going to be good, and why waste the time?" In her outstanding foreword, Susan Orlean rationalizes her inability to throw out books because "books have the capacity to seem more alive than any other inanimate object." Other outstanding interview subjects include Jonathan Lethem, Laila Lalami, Jennifer Egan, Susan Choi, Andrew Sean Greer, Louise Erdrich, Dave Eggers, Laurie Frankel, Viet Thanh Nguyen and Charles Johnson.

The Writer's Library offers a cornucopia of pleasures with respected writers giving fans an insider's look at their libraries and reading habits. This is a treat that no bibliophile will want to miss. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant

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