Books that make you want to write

I’ve been thinking for the last few days, trying to compile a list of books that make me want to write/be a writer/write better.

This has been more difficult than I thought it would be.

I have a huge list of favourite books, but not all of them make me want to be a better writer.  Which you can also interpret as: oh Gods, I’m never going to write a book as good as this.

My list, so far, consists of only three books:

1 – Imajica – Clive Barker

2 – House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski

3 – Palimpsest – Catherynne M. Valente

These books are all so lush – rich language and words, vivid characters.  All of them create worlds that I wish I could walk in.

If I only ever write a book 10% as good as any of these, I’ll be happy.

Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn.