Nurturing Your Creative Voice Through Intentional Reading – Virtual Writing Classes
Redefining the Canon for Your Needs
From ThoughtCo: “In fiction and literature, the canon is the collection of works considered representative of a period or genre. The collected works of William Shakespeare for instance, would be part of the canon of western literature, since his writing and writing style has had a significant impact on nearly all aspects of that genre.”
I have a personal canon which is a collection of a hundred books (give or take) that I feel stand as a solid foundation for my writing. This list includes influential writers like Hemingway, Steinbeck, Faulkner, McCarthy, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Dickens, Fitzgerald, but I also included writers I wanted to read: Austin, the Brontes, Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn, Alexie, Morrison, Walker. I included YA books: I’ll Give you the Sun by Jandy Nelson and The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett.
A Methodical Approach to Selection
I combed through the NYT Bestseller 100 Best Lists and plucked a few off. Same with the Pulitzer list. Then the National Book Award lists. The Man Booker Prize list. I went through Jane Smiley’s list in her Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel. And I got going.
Then, I set a goal to read a book a week for three years running and cut myself some slack if a book was particularly difficult. Both War and Peace and Anna Karenina were slow going and I’d be lying if I said I finished these at first, but I did over time. How? I read while walking the dog, I read in the tub, I read for an hour+ each night before bed. I carried a book in my purse, and had another on a CD for when I was driving.
When I fell madly in love with some authors, I paused in my mail reading and read everything they wrote. This happened with Cormac McCarthy, Elena Ferrante, Jess Walters, Elizabeth Strout, Colm Toibin and Anthony Doerr. I rediscovered my love of John Irving too, and read, and re-read A Prayer for Owen Meany about ten times, same with Cider House Rules.
Tailoring Your Canon to Your Writing Goals:
- For memoirists: Make a third of your list memoirs and biographies, supplemented with fiction you’ve always wanted to read.
- For short story writers: Focus on authors who excel in both short and long forms, read craft books about short stories, and balance with longer fiction.
- For essayists: Start with foundational works by Philip Lopate and Michel de Montaigne, add craft books like Brenda Miller’s “Tell it Slant,” and expand to wider reading.
- For novelists: Create a comprehensive list drawing from established canons and personal interests.
Create a canon that gives you a solid base, set your goal for a year, two, three or five or whatever, and begin. Like writing, reading requires the investment of your time. Set a goal and go. It seems daunting, but so does running a marathon, or writing a book. One step at a time for running, one page at a time for reading. Just get going. (Am I making my point here? If not, let me say it again: Get going).
One Page at a Time
Creating a personal canon requires commitment and consistency, much like writing itself or training for a marathon. Set a goal and begin. One page at a time. Just get going.
What makes this approach particularly effective is its emphasis on community. By sharing our reading journeys and discoveries, we not only motivate ourselves but create a richer collective understanding. So what books will you add to your personal canon? The literary conversation awaits your voice.
NOVELS
- The Diary of a True Indian by Sherman Alexie
- A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson
- Life After Life “
- Transcription “
- The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood *
- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin
- Pride and Prejudice “
- Inzaneville by JoAnn Beard
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
- Countryman of Bones by Robert Butler
- The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett
- Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
- Did you Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg ***
- Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
- Foe “
- South of Broad by Pat Conroy ***
- Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
- The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
- The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
- All the Light You Cannot See Anthony Doerr ***
- The Shell Collector “
- About Grace “
- Out of Africa Isak Denison
- The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DeCamillo ***
- A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan ***
- Look at Me “
- As I Lay Dying Faulkner
- Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay Elena Ferrante
- Troubling Love “
- The Story of a New Name “
- My Brilliant Friend “
- The Days of Abandonment “
- The Lost Daughter “
- The Story of the Lost Child “
- Cold Mountain Charles Frazier
- Ordinary People by Judith Guest ***
- The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alex Harrow ***/*
- Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
- Floating in my Mothers Palm “
- The End of the Affair by Graham Green ***
- The Tenth Man “
- Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
- Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff ***
- Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See by Julian Garrey ***
- The Tinkers by Paul Hardy
- Eventide by Kent Haruf
- Plainsong ” ***
- The Old Man and the Sea E. Hemingway
- The Dove Keepers Alice Hoffman
- Eleanore Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman ***
- The Residue Years by Mitchell Jackson *
- Portrait of a Lady by Henry James *
- The Turn of the Screw ” ***
- The Fifth Season by NK Jameson ***
- The Stone Sky “
- The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson **
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
- The Secret Language of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
- The Invention of Wings “
- Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
- The Nest by Jon Klassen ***
- The Dinner by Herman Koch ***
- Ordinary Grace by William Kent Kruger
- A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving ***
- The World According to Garp “
- The Cider House Rules “ ***
- Setting Free the Bears “ *
- The Water Method Man “ *
- The 158-Pound Marriage” *
- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis ***
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson
- A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee *
- The Railway Man by Eric Lomax
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez *
- The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy
- The Orchard Keeper “
- Suttree “
- The Orchard Keeper “
- Child of God “
- The Road “
- Beloved by Tony Morrison
- The Bluest Eye ” ***
- The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott
- In the Giants House Elizabeth McCracken
- I’ll Give you the Sun by Jandy Nelson ***
- Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
- Everything I Never Told You “
- The Bird Artist by Howard Norman
- There There by Tommy Orange *
- The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien *
- Dept of Speculation by Jenny Ofill
- A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
- Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owen ***
- Shipping News Annie Proulx ***
- Accordion Crimes ” *
- East of Eden by John Steinbeck
- Of Mice and Men ” ***
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout ***
- Abide with Me “
- The Burgess Boys “
- Amy and Isabelle “
- Anything is Possible “
- Lizzie Burton “
- Nora Webster by Colm Toibin ***
- Brooklyn “
- Anna Karinina by Leo Tolstoy
- War and Peace “
- A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles***
- The Goldfinch by Donna Tart *
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker
- Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walters
- The Zero
- Citizen Vince
- The Financial Lives of the Poets ” ***
- The Book Thief by Mark Zusak
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead ***
- The Nickel Boys ” ***
- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
- Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
MEMOIRS
- You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie
- This isn’t the Ivy League by Mary Blew
- Truth Serum by Bernard Cooper
- A Bill From My Father “
- Love and Trouble by Claire Dederer
- Slouching Toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion
- The Only Girl in the Car by Kathy Dobie
- Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr ***
- Firebird by Mark Doty
- Dog Years “
- Life Saving for Beginners by Anne Edelstein
- Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn
- The Territory of Men by Joelle Fraser
- Live Through This by Debra Gwartney
- Journey to the Land of No by Roya Hakakian
- Cowboy and Wills by Monica Holloway
- Driving with Dead People “
- How We Fight for our Lives by Saeed Jones ***
- Girl Interrupted by Suzanna Kaysen
- When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanith
- The Liars Club by Mary Karr
- The Narrow Door by Paul Lisicky
- H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
- An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken
- Know My Name by Channel Miller ***
- I Hate to Leave this Beautiful Place by Howard Norman
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- Crazy for Storm by Norman Olestad ***
- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
- The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner **
- Educated by Tara Westover ***
- This Boys Life by Tobais Wolff
- The Road Washes Out in Spring by Baron Wormser
- The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls *
- The Chronology of Water by L. Yuknavitch *
COLLECTIONS
- Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood
- Exhalation by Ted Chiang
- Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
- The Middle of the Fields by Mary Lavin
- Color Range by Annie Proulx
- Thunderstruck by Elizabeth McCracken
- Birds of America by Laurie Moore
- Tenth of December by George Saunders
- The Old Forest and Other Stories by Peter Taylor
- Night Lights by Phyllis Theroux
- We Live in Water by Jess Walters
- The Best American Short Stories 2019 edited by Anthony Doerr
* On shelf/started/put back unfinished
** Student book
*** Studio read/taught
I feel like I just found a buried treasure. Thank you for this Jennifer!
Thank you for sharing how you squeezed in the time. I love the idea of building our own canon and coming up with a timeline to move through the list.
Thank you for sharing! What a great idea, I especially love the tip for making my list a third of the genre I’m writing in. A few of the memoirs I’m interested in reading: Stray by Stephanie Danler (thanks Cloie!), In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, Heavy by Kiese Laymon, Fierce Attachments by Vivian Gormick, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
When I started my list I realized that my love of science fiction and fantasy is probably at the top. This obsession came from my mother. We loved Star Trek. My mother always thought that it was quite arrogant for us to believe that in the entire universe, we were the only life forms. Here are my favorites:
The Stand – Stephen King [arguably his best]
The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells [I have seen every iteration of this classic but the story which took place in the early 1900s is the most dramatic]
The Time Machine – H.G. Wells
Dune – Frank Herbert [I must have at least ten Dune books, some written by his son, but the first book is amazing]
Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton
The Andromeda Strain – Michael Crichton
The Walking Dead – Can’t get enough of the comics or the series
Planet of the Apes – Pierre Boule
Lost Horizon – James Hilton
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
1984 – George Orwell
Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Journey to the Center of the Earth – Jules Verne
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Have you heard of Oryx and Crake by Atwood, so good. Also, King’s Lisey’s Story.
No…but I’m looking up now! Thanks.
Hi Jennifer –
What a great question. I’m enjoying digging into my past to recall well loved books and books that have changed my life in one way or another. Here’s my beginning list. Its one of those things that I’m sure will keep growing over time.
My Canon – so far. There are so many more. I keep remembering them. Thanks for the questons.
Barbara Fankhauser
• Shipping News – Annie Proulx
• The Orchardist – Amanda Coplin
• The Road – Cormac McCarthy
• Nora Webster – Colm Toibin
• Beloved – Tony Morrison
• The Bluest Eye – Tony Morrison
• The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
• The Nickel Boys – Colson Whitehead
• All the Light You Cannot See – Anthony Doerr –
• Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
• Tortilla Flat – John Steinbeck
• Cannery Row – John Steinbeck
• Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
• Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
• A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
• As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner
• The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
• The Sun Also Rises – Hemingway
• The Old Man and the Sea – Hemingway
• My Brilliant Friend – Elena Ferrante
• The Days of Abandonment -Elena Ferrante
• Cold Mountain – Charles Frazier
• Ordinary People – Judith Guest
• Stones from the River – Ursula Hegi
• Snow Falling on Cedars – David Guterson
• Eventide – Kent Haruf
• Plainsong – Kent Haruf
• Our Souls at Night – Ken Haruf
• Lives of the Monster Dogs – Kirsten Bakis
• Ahab’s Wife or the Star Gazer – Sena Jeter Naslund
• The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz – Russell Hoban
• The Mouse and His Child – Russell Hoban
• A Chorus of Stones; The Private Life of War – Susan Griffin
• Memories, Dreams, Reflections – Carl Jung and Aniela Jaffé
• Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? – Dave Eggers
The entire Nancy Drew Series – Caroline Keene
• The Black Stallion – Walter Farley
* The Alexandria Quarter – Lawrence Durrell
* Diaries of Anais Nin – Anais Nin
* The Teachings of Don Juan – Carlos Castaneda
Well done! Go Barbara go.
Such inspiration—its great seeing others reading lists which I am sure will expand my own. My canon, for now, is tailored for memoir and summer 2021 reading:
Stop Time, Conroy
Speak Memory, Nabokov
American Chica, Marie Arana
Glass Castle, Wells
Bone Black, bell hooks
Running in the Family, Ondaatje
All over but the shoutin, Rick Bragg
Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, Allison
A Boys Life, Tobias Wolfe
An American Childhood, Annie Dillard
The Yellow House, Sarah Broom
Did you like The Yellow House?
Thank you, Jennifer! 🙂 Very helpful!
More of my canon:
Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
Washington Square – Henry James
Mildred Pierce – James Cain
Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
The Godfather – Mario Puzo
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
The Diary of Anne Frank
Night – Elie Weisel
Blackbird – Jennifer Lauck
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan – Lisa See
The Island of Sea Women – Lisa See
Roots – Alex Haley
The Nickel Boys – Colson Whitehead
A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
The Ciderhouse Rules – John Irving
The World According to Garp – John Irving
Plays by William Shakespeare
will add more another time……….
This is my canon and some of these books I have read and others that are on my list to read:
Eleanor Oliphant is Complete Fine Gail Honeyman
The Nightingale Kristin Hannah
Flags of Our Fathers James Bradley
The Babysitters Club Ann M Martin
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
The Life of Pi Yann Martel
The Secret Life of Bees Sue Monk Kidd
Harry Potter Series JK Rowling
They Both Die at the End Adam Silvera
How Beautiful We Were Imbolo Mbue
The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
Cloud Cuckoo Land Anthony Doerr
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Mark Haddon
The Art of Racing in the Rain Garth Stein
The Atomic City Girls Janet Beard
Garden of Stones Sophie Littlefield
Little Bee Chris Cleave
The Miniaturist Jessie Burton
A Little Life Hanya Yangihara
The Space Between Us Thrity Umrigar
The Last Lecture Randy Pausch
The Monuments Men Robert M Edsel
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy Eric Metaxas
The Glass House People Kathryn Reiss
What Dreams May Come Richard Matheson
Snow in August Pete Hamill
Black Like Me John Howard Griffin
The People’s Act of Love James Meek
The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother James McBride
The Giver Lois Lowry
The Devil in the White City Erik Larson
Still Alice Lisa Genova
The Things They Carried Tim O’Brien
Atonement Ian McEwan
The Paris Wife Paula McLain
The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer
The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett
All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr
Well done, you!
So far…
Beard, Jo Ann – The Boys of My Youth (memoir)
Beard, Jo Ann – In Zanesville (fiction)
Bender, Aimee – The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (fiction)
Bidwell, Claire – The Rules of Inheritance (memoir)
Chee, Alexander – How to Write an Autobiographical Novel (memoir)
Danler, Stephanie – Stray (memoir)
Dorris, Michael – A Yellow Raft in Blue Water (fiction)
Erdrich, Louise – LaRose (fiction)
Erdrich, Louise – The Night Watchman (fiction)
Fuller, Alexandra – Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight (memoir)
Gwartney, Debra – Live Through This (memoir)
Hosier, Erin – Don’t Let Me Down (memoir)
Hough, Lauren – Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing (memoir)
Jones, Saeed – How We Fight For Our Lives (memoir)
Lauck, Jennifer – Blackbird (memoir)
Lauck, Jennifer – Show Me The Way (memoir)
Lauck, Jennifer – Still Waters (memoir)
Lauck, Jennifer – Found (memoir)
Madden, T Kira – Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls (memoir)
McCracken, Elizabeth – An Exact Replica Of A Figment Of My Imagination (memoir)
Miller, Chanel – Know My Name (memoir)
Ollestad, Norman – Crazy for the Storm (memoir)
Orange, Tommy – There, There (fiction)
Proulx, Annie – Shipping News (fiction)
Thorpe, Rufi – The Girls from Corona del Mar (fiction)
Tóibín, Colm – Nora Webster (fiction)
Walls, Jeanette – The Glass Castle (memoir)
Wolff, Tobias – This Boy’s Life (memoir)
LOVE LOVE LOVE!
Great books