Best Book Ever: Books You Wish You Wrote
(Shh, let's pretend it's still Thursday - seriously, this time around I must have some mental block on Days of the Week.)
This week, our topic is book you wish you'd written. Either it's an idea you wish you'd had, or a story that you find so heartbreakingly wonderful that you wish it was yours, or just an author whose way with words you wish you could bottle up and capture. Check out our selections and let us know what you think in the comments.
For this category, my book has been phenomenally hard to choose, yet also very simple. Let me explain... The book I wish I'd written is Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry. Both because it is a truly amazing book and also because if I could aspire to be any author, it would be Katie. But then at the same time, I wish I had written Dare You To. Though it was no longer Echo & Noah's story, it was a near match, maybe even a shave closer, in it's amazingness!
I know there are many truly fantastic books out there. Many YA, many Contemporary Romances, Erotic novels and so on. That's what made it a difficult task to pick my book. But what made it so easy was the fact that Katie McGarry's writing stands out of the crowd, waves a flag and says "look at me"!
Keren @ Gothic Angel Book Reviews
I wish I'd written The Hunger Games, and not just because of the obvious windfall of awesome stuff that followed. I read HG when it was first released and I knew it would explode. Awesome concept, awesome strong female MC. Yeah, I was torn between being a happy reader and being an envious writer.
Mindy McGinnis - Not a Drop to Drink (September 9, 2013; Katherine Tegen Books)
There are many, many books I wish I wrote (accolades to Harry Potter), but if I’m choosing a current work in the category I write – YA with historical elements – it would have to be The Infernal Devices Series by Cassandra Clare. When I read the first book, Clockwork Angel I was hit with such a strong case of “impostor syndrome” that I couldn’t write a word for a week after I finished it. Sad, but true.
The series is a prequel to the popular Mortal Instruments Series set in Victorian era England. The story is the perfect mix of steampunk elements, paranormal world-building and a compelling love triangle. The intriguing plot combined with pitch perfect pacing and Claire’s beautiful writing makes The Infernal Devices my pick for book I wish I wrote!
Lorie Langdon - Doon (September 2013; Zondervan/Harper Collins)
When I read this week's prompt, the first thing that popped into my head was HARRY POTTER. Not only is it my favorite series of all time, but if I had written it, I'd be typing this response from a castle on my own private island. Ah, to be so wealthy! I love everything about the series: the neglected underdog who becomes the chosen one, the underlying themes of bravery and friendship, the lush, magical setting, the flawlessly-woven plots that keep us guessing. JK Rowling is a master!
Melissa Landers - Alienated (February 1, 2014; Disney Hyperion)
There are lots of books I wish I'd written, not necessarily because they are so successful or have so many readers (though those are certainly bonuses) but because they speak so much to me and the kinds of stories I like. Lev Grossman's The Magicians is one such book, as it draws on the magic portal books I enjoyed as a kid, such as the Chronicles of Narnia, and most particularly on The Magician's Nephew. There were times while reading Grossman's book that I realized we must love the same things in these stories and have the same frustrations. In fact, some elements are eerily similar to a book I did write; I was astonished to discover that both The Magicians and Fair Coin have a fountain with a statue of Atlas that sort of leads to other worlds! I do have a book like The Magicians that I intend to write, though it will be more of a response to Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence and have more of a YA bent, but until I actually write that, I'll just gaze wistfully at Grossman's books on my shelf...
E.C. Myers - Quantum Coin (October 23, 2012; Pyr)
I've picked this book before for other topics, but I'm going to go with The Time Traveler's Wife for the book I wish I'd written. Henry and Clare have such a beautiful love story, and it's one case where a male character who is a total jerk at the start grows and changes into becoming someone worthy of Clare's love. It's such a complex, detailed story, and with anything involving time travel, it's imperative to make sure your stories aren't overlapping or contradicting one another. I can't imagine how Audrey Niffenegger kept track of it all. Also, maybe a book blog maybe isn't the best place to admit this, but at one time, I wrote fan fiction for this book and in order to make sure I wasn't contradicting anything that happened in the real book, or making my own story contradict itself, I basically covered a whole wall in a ton of post it notes outlining the dates that things took place. It was an interesting experience and showed me just how hard it is to keep track of all of those moving parts -- I'd love to be able to have the ability and creativity to write something like this!
Sarah
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