Have you ever wanted to creep inside the mind of a beloved author? Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager do just that with their interviews of some of the most influential writers currently working in the United States. There are few questions more personal than those about what we read (at least, things you'd ask someone professionally!), making this an intimate and insightful glance into the minds of some of the greatest thinkers and creators of this time in which we live. Each chapter delves deep into an interview, and is chock-full of the names of canon books as well as titles that would be described by some as obscure or underrated. Keep a pen and paper handy while you read this and be prepared to make frenzied notes.

This title is a meaningful addition to library collections, as well as the personal collections of avid readers of many genres. It's best consumed bit-by-bit rather than all at once, and is a good fit for any bibliophile.

I loved this intimate look at the reading lives of some of my favorite authors. From a child who spent many afternoons with her nose in a book to an adult who spends all her free time reading, my whole life has been dedicated to learning from books. What I found interesting was that although these authors had completely different life experiences, there were so many similarities in their reading tastes. I’ve added several books to my already out of had TBR list, and I enjoyed every moment of reading this book.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book felt like going to a cocktail party where everyone is a reader and willing to share their reading history and love of books with strangers. I loved reading about the books that these writers read growing up or finding out that a few didn't find the love of reading until high school. As a high school librarian and teacher this give me hope! My TBR list exploded as each new chapter found me nodding in agreement about books I already love and then trusting the other recommendations based on that shared experience. Even the books that might not be my cup of tea could be future recommendations for my students and reader friends. I read this on NetGalley as an ARC but will certainly need a personal shelf copy to fill with Post-It notes!

I find it so interesting to read about the books that authors love and have inspired them in their writing. This book did not disappoint! The reader will walk away with an ever growing "to be read" list. There are so many great books referenced. Of course, I had my favorite authors that also made my favorite interviews but I was also introduced to new authors that I'm not familiar with. This book is definitely one for book lovers!

Perfect for anyone who loves to hear book lovers and authors talk about books and their favorite authors. Easy to dip in and out of and skip around. I was absolutely thrilled to see my favorite author Louise Erdrich included. Something for everyone and more book recommendations!!

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, such as Ray Bradbury and Richard Adams' Watership Down.

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

First of all: I want interviews with at least 100 more authors! Sequel(s) please!

"The Writer's Library" is the ideal gift for any writer or avid reader. Authors Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager interview a diverse group of writers about the books that shaped their lives and their writing. As a librarian, I was delighted to note that many of the famous interviewees cited their libraries as formative influences in their childhoods. Hardly any child who loves to read has parents who can afford to buy them every book they want to read and these authors were not exceptions!

I had a wonderful time not only reading the literary biographies of these authors but also highlighting every book I have read, and jotting down every book I want to read. I may need to buy a hard copy so that I can make careful annotations in the margins: Nancy Pearl, the co-author, wrote both "Book Lust" and "More Book Lust" which are in my possession, crammed full of post-it notes. I never, ever get tired of discovering what books other people love—the unforgettable books that really made an impact.

Don't be surprised if you look at the books that inspire an author and are inspired (because you share their taste), to delve into that author's own books! I have gravely missed out by not reading Donna Tartt, evidently.

I received an advanced readers copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher and was encouraged to submit an honest review.

The Writer's Library
The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives
by Nancy Pearl; Jeff Schwager
HarperCollins Publishers
You Like Them You Are Auto-Approved
HarperOne
Nonfiction (Adult)
Pub Date 08 Sep 2020 | Archive Date 03 Nov 2020

This would be a great addition to your library! Who wouldn't want to take a walk with Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager and learn about books and how they have inspired 23 writers. I loved this book!
Thanks to Net Galley and Harper Collins Publishers for a great ARC.
5 star

I received an electronic ARC from HarperCollins Publishers through NetGalley.
This book is worth the read for the lists of books after each interview alone. Pearl and Schwager interview a wide variety of authors and share their reading history and passions. It's a delight to dive in and hear their thoughts on books and authors and life. Easy to read in one sitting but better to read and reflect on each chapter before moving on.

In "The Writer's Library", Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager travel the U.S. to interview 23 different authors in their homes about the books they read. The result is a fantastic collection that gives the reader a front-row seat to warm conversations about reading and how it's impacted each author's writing. Each interview is as unique as the author, with no pre-set questions making them organic and conversational. It felt like sitting with them in their living rooms and listening to them gush about their favorites. And for any readers like me ready to note all a favorite author's recommendations, there is a list of books mentioned at the end of each interview. This is sure to add to your TBR - both of books written by the interviewed authors, and the ones they love!

As Susan Orlean asks in her forward, why do we care so deeply about a library burning? In Senegal, they say “the person’s library has been burned” when they die. Every book - to a lover of books - is a presence. Do we all think of ourselves that way? Are books more powerful than any other objects in our lives? If you are reading this review, the answer probably is “yes.”

Susan Orlean’s mother’s mind was ravaged by dementia, and it did seem to her that all of her mother’s cherished books were being burned as each memory vanished, as if each had been part of an inner library. Each of the writers interviewed describes the importance of reading, the first books that entered ad opened their minds to words, stories, and the possibility of sharing in that act of creation. The collective library that these interviews build is an honor to the literacy and outreach that brick-and-mortar libraries (and bookstores) share, and how necessary they are to us as storytelling creatures.

Some of the treasures in this collection include writers as dissimilar as Jennifer Egan and Susan Choi citing their early love of Ray Brandbury, or Laila Lalami and T.C. Boyle on Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America. Ayelet Waldman would read Kate Atkinson’s shopping list, while Jonathan Letham collects old pulp fiction novels as “talismanic objects,” loving the covers and physical presence of them.

Every reader will have moments of deep identification with these writers’ choices. My own included Trout Fishing, The Borrowers, and James Baldsin’s The Fire Next Time, which I want to reread with Jane Hirshfield’s view of his writing as both forgiving and brutally specific. I want to create a reading group like Hirschfield’s, too. Most of her fellow readers are research scientists who have tackled Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, Ron Hansen’s Mariette in Ecstasy, and The Plague by Albert Camus (right after the 2016 election, which could not be more on-target in 2020).

She and others mention W.H. Auden’s poem, “Musee des Beaux Arts,” another poem that becomes more relevant as the world ages.
“About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just
walking dully along” --

We readers understand that, we crave more understanding. This is a perfect book for readers.

Five stars. Thanks to NetGalley for the e-galley to review. I can hardly wait to buy a paper copy for myself, to annotate and share.

The Writer's Library is a book of interviews with literary subjects not dissimilar to The New York Times Book Review's "By the Book" column. Interviewers Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager chat with today's living contemporary American writers about the birth of their reading lives, inspirations for their craft, and their reading habits amidst their own writing projects.

At times, certain interviewees became long-winded or redundant. Many of them cited Watership Down as a seminal text in both their reading and writing lives. My favorite interviews to read were with Moroccan writer Laila Lalami, Maaza Mengiste (author of The Shadow King, which today was longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize), Viet Thanh Nguyen (author of my favorite short story collection, The Refugees, and poet Siri Hustvedt, who I had never heard of before.

I would recommend this book to aspiring writers; it would also make a great gift for the writing or literature student in your life.

Co-author Nancy Pearl is a superhero librarian, queen of Reader's Advisory, and mother of the community-wide read, and is the primary reason why I requested a copy of this book.

The Writer's Library is full of great conversations between Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager and some extremely interesting writers. I loved hearing the details of their reading lives, and I've added lots of titles to my TBR!

This was an interesting compilation. As with any book of interviews, some are more interesting than others. I wish that the interviewers had picked an even more diverse range of authors. I found the interviews with authors from different countries or with different histories the most interesting. It also would have been interesting to interview authors of more poplar literature to see if they had the same influences as the more "literary" authors. Also, I feel like I missed out by not reading "Watership Down" since so many of the authors mentioned it as important to their literary lives!

I enjoyed it! Let me start off by saying it was a MAJOR coup to get a review from the reclusive Donna Tartt, even though she was a 'write in." I enjoyed the premise and the book reviews. I thought the idea of asking them all the same questions, was redundant. "Did you read as a child?" I think it would have been more interesting, to ask a variety of questions.

I appreciated the diverse crowd-beyond the regulars, TC Boyle, Letham, Rich Ford, Chabon and Eggers.
I thought the women who 'responded' were more culturally diverse-across multiple genres. Overall, I thought the book was well done, organized, interesting and thought provoking.

I enjoyed the illustrated line drawings of the authors. The drawings brought light to the writer's personalities.

Thank you Netgalley and HarperOne for the opportunity to read and review this interesting book!

jb
https://seniorbooklounge.blogspot.com/

America's Librarian Nancy Pearl Does What She Does Best
I'm so sorry to keep doing this to you but I have another recommendation that doesn't come out until Sept. Blame the Library Love Fest gang at Harper Collins. Last week I spent two and a half glorious hours in the company of over eighteen hundred avid, reading librarians in a webinar hosted by Virginia Stanley and her crew. They have been keeping me sane for months with their weekly video chats, touting the latest, greatest books coming down the pike.

One of them is "The Writer's Library" by readers' advisor extraordinaire, Nancy Pearl, and her friend, playwright Jeff Schwager. Nancy plugged in via Skype to regale us with the

story of the road trip across America that she and Jeff took in order to meet and interview their favorite authors in their home spaces. The result is a joy for all of us who worship writers and will give you a "must read" list that will take years to work through.

Imagine sitting at the kitchen counter listening to Ayelet Waldman and her husband Michael Chabon reminisce about their first reading experiences, riffing off each other, filling in each other's blanks. Or think about joining Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Ford in his Maine writing cabin, a haven that looks out over the water, while he explains that he was a kid who was always in trouble - his best buddy ended up in jail. He was in his forties before he discovered he was dyslexic. His teachers just opined that he didn't "apply" himself. Wonder what they think now?

Nancy and Jeff caught up with Louise Erdrich at her bookstore, Birchbark Books, in Minneapolis. https://birchbarkbooks.com/ where she told them, music to our ears, that the library was her destination of choice. The large family was relatively poor so owning books was not an option. Still, she began reading by the age of four and was in the first class at Dartmouth that included women.

I loved how so many of the authors Nancy and Jeff interviewed talked about what fun it was to see the cards in the back of library books with the names of everyone in town who had checked out and read that book. I remember this vividly myself as one of the quirks of small town life.

Amor Towles entertained the two in a Victorian townhouse in Gramercy Park, his office graced by three walls of floor to ceiling shelves which includes an impressive number of first editions, we're told. Somehow that's just what I expected from the former lawyer whose debut novel, "The Rules of Civility," knocked out reviewers and then was followed by the incredible "A Gentleman in Moscow."

Book lovers will appreciate the unbridled enthusiasm that Nancy and Jeff exude when they talk about their favorite reading experiences. The depth and breadth of their knowledge is amazing so that they totally hold their own with their renowned subjects, to the point where they all spontaneously quote first lines from novels and long sections of poetry. It's great fun to learn how many of the writers, brought up in wildly differing circumstances, share the same childhood favorites that brought them to literature.

At the end of each interview is a list - oh how we love our lists - of the specific titles mentioned by the authors that had special meaning for them, informed their writing style, or is read year after year as proof of the book's staying power. This collection is a must read for all of you who suffer gladly from book lust!

Join Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager on an American tour of some of our favorite authors. Nancy and Jeff take to the road to talk all things book in homes, hotels, coffee shops, and libraries. And what’s better than sitting in on book lovers chatting about books? The mission was to find out “Why do you read, and how does reading help you write?”

This is a glimpse into the life of 23 writers, “the libraries they carry around in their hearts and minds; the books that have shaped their tastes, their psyches, the subject matter that fascinated them, the craftsmanship that fills them with envy, the stories that have resonated so deeply that they feel like stories they themselves have lived.”

It’s not the sort of book you want to read cover to cover in one sitting, rather you will enjoy picking it up in random moments for an intimate conversation with your favorite author or one you’ve never heard of. I defy anyone to read through this book without adding to your tbr.

This is definitely one for the resource shelf. Replete with lists at the end of each author’s section this would be a handy tool for readers advisory or even a thoughtful gift for most any avid reader. After all who could resist a road trip with Nancy Pearl?

This book was received as an ARC from HarperCollins Publishers - HarperOne in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I absolutely loved the interviews with all the most well-known writer's especially when they talked about other author's they have read and the book collections they all own. I have always had a secret dream of becoming a writer and have been so fascinated doing research in grad school of some of my favorite writers and seeing their personalities come to life. This book is a good way to see the true self of writers and the inspiration for a lot of their pieces. I know our library community will love these books and we can't wait to share it with them.

We will consider adding this title to our NonFiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

If you love books (and honestly, if you're on this web site, you do), you will love this book. Nancy and Jeff sit down with some of the best writers working today and talk about what books they like, what books helped shape their love of literature. It continually amazed me who Nancy and/or Jeff could speak intelligently about any book an author happened to mention.

Be warned, you are going to walk away from this book with dozens of new books you are going to want to check it. But it is such an interesting collection of literary discussions. I felt lucky to be privy to it. It's like being a witness at the smartest book club you could ever imagine. Really a tremendous gift for literary fans.

Famous authors are interviewed and share their favorite books that have shaped them. I enjoyed some more than others and have found more books to add to my 'read it someday' list. These people have read a lot of "great" literature. Makes you feel like you have not read the right kind of things. I especially like hearing about what they read as kids. I have a soft spot for children's literature. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.