2024 Book Review Series: Venturing Away from Fiction!

When I head to the bookstore, I rarely seek out nonfiction pieces. It's a goal of mine to incorporate more of this genre into my reading list, so I've made a point of visiting the nonfiction section. I've also promised myself not to buy any more books until I've read the handful of memoirs and other books I've acquired in random ways over the years. This book of interviews I received for Christmas was the perfect opportunity to get started.

Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager's The Writer's Library is a collection of transcribed interviews with renowned American authors, all focusing on each writer's reading history and habits. The roster features incredible names whose work I have come to love, such as Jennifer Egan and Donna Tartt, as well as authors I have now been convinced to read like Russell Banks and Vendela Vida.

Although they focused only on American-based writers, Pearl and Schwager compiled a diverse list of authors both by ethnic background and genre of work. No matter their upbringing or style, each author had many anecdotes to share about how reading figured in their childhood and how it continues to inform their lives and work.

As an aspiring novelist, I was happy to learn from these interviews that every writer's process is truly different. While Susan Choi chooses her next read spontaneously, Jonathon Lethem focuses his reading around his current work-in-progress. Many of them, also, were not big readers or writers until deep into their teens or adulthood. My largest critique of this book is that the interviews often began with the same few questions, although this repetition did allow Pearl and Schwager to demonstrate that every author is unique. It is almost too easy to second-guess yourself as a writer, so it was reassuring to see their range of experiences.

After each interview, the editors also included a list of authors and titles that the writers mentioned during their interviews or kept in their personal libraries. There were a few names that turned up time and time again, recommended and praised by writers of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. These famous writers include Toni Morrison, Denis Johnson, Joan Didion, Lorrie Moore, William Faulkner, and Haruki Murakami, among others. Not only did this book provide me with the insight of over twenty successful authors, but it also gave me a killer reading list!

Reading a book of interviews was a first for me, but I am glad to say this venture outside the norm was a pleasure! I am glad to have found so many new voices to read and perspectives from which to learn. Pearl and Schwager bring readers a bit closer to their favourite authors, which is a priceless gift packaged in a twenty-dollar container.