I picked up this book on a whim at the fabulous multi-level bookstore, Book People, in Austin, TX in 2019. Each chapter analyzes a great work of literature and points out what any aspiring writer might want to learn from it. After the first couple of chapters, I got the fool notion that I should actually read all of the books mentioned. Or most of them, anyway; I decided not to saddle myself with Chaucer or Virgil because of the archaic language.
Here are the books I read:
The Great Gatsby
Lolita (beautiful language, but the subject matter made me want to gouge my eyes out)
A Farewell to Arms
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
The Bell Jar
Flannery O’Connor: The Complete Short Stories
The Haunting of Hill House
Madame Bovary
Miss Lonelyhearts
Day of the Locust
A Cool Million (also by Nathanael West, but not listed in the book)
The Dream Life of Balso Snell (also by Nathanael West, but not listed in the book)
A Visit from the Goon Squad
The Grapes of Wrath
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Moby Dick
Their Eyes Were Watching God
To Kill a Mockingbird
How to Cook a Wolf
Hiroshima
The Marmot Drive (also by John Hersey, but not mentioned in the book)
The Sea Inside Us
Seabiscuit
The Bluest Eye
The Goldfinch
Learning the art of x-ray reading was a rewarding experience. I’m glad I stumbled upon the book and I’m glad I took on the challenge of closely examining these great books. I’m a better reader and writer for having done it. And it only took me two years.
Charlotte Tressler 