Novelists, Reading

Francine Prose's new book, Reading like a writer : a guide for people who love books and for those who want to write them is full of accessible examples, and the pleasures of 'listening' to someone who knows both how to write fiction and how to teach fiction writing. Like last year's Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley, and many similar books about reading by writers, it comes with a seductive reading list. Prose's is called, "Books To Be Read Immediately."

We have lots of less teacherly reading memoirs and books of lists of books. (And a notebook of reading suggestions we keep at the reference desk.)