Product Description

Most people can remember the first book they really loved--or the person (a teacher, a parent, a librarian) who showed them how words could make magic. These are the memories that 57 of today's best writers share in The Most Wonderful Books--the stories, the experiences, and the people that made them lifelong readers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #801234 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 180 pages

Amazon.com Review
Perhaps as many people set out to be writers now because of things they've seen--movies and TV--as do because of what they've read. This is for those in the latter category. A cozy compendium of authors discussing first books they've loved, letting the mysteries and pleasures of becoming readers--requisite before becoming any kind of writer--envelop them. Editors Michael Dorris and Emilie Buchwald have assembled a range of stories, from Nicholson Baker's shock at a death in The Hobbit, to Mona Simpson's "ABC" lessons with alphabet soup, and more. You'll be reaching for old Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books before you know it.

From Library Journal
Editors Dorris (Cloud Chamber, LJ 11/15/96) and Buchwald, editor and publisher of Milkweed, intend this collection to inspire readers and to serve as "a love letter and thank-you note to every librarian, English teacher, friend, relative, and parent" who introduced someone to a book. The collection of short, mostly original essays is lively and personal. In alphabetical order, 57 contributors, some better known than others, describe the first book they remember or how reading, and often writing, began for them. Short story writer Charles D'Ambrosio, for instance, describes how he used his first book to beat his sisters over the head, though he also read it with great interest. Other contributors include Sherman Alexie, Nicholson Baker, Gretel Ehrlich, and Robert Pinsky. Published in cooperation with the Library of Congress's Center for the Book and the "Building a Nation of Readers" campaign, this is appropriate for all libraries.?Nancy P. Shires, East Carolina Univ. Lib., Greenville, N.C.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
The late Dorris (Cloud Chamber, 1997, etc.) and Buchwald, publisher of Milkweed Editions, have assembled 57 brief recollections by writers of how, in Dorris's words, they ``first encountered the magic of the printed word.'' As one might expect, these experiences vary widely: Sherman Alexie recalls learning to read from a Superman comic book; Nicholson Baker explains how he learned to read (``in the sense of of knowing how to follow a story with pleasure'') by being read to by his mother; Susan Kenney recollects her surprise when she discovered ``that words on the page make pictures in your mind, and you could take in a story with your eyes as well as through your ears.'' Larry Watson recaptures the exhilaration he felt when, at the age of 13, the local library allowed him to begin taking books from the adult section. Some pieces are unfocused, others perfunctory and unrevealing. But the best here are passionate and surprising, offering some distinctive celebrations of a lifelong infatuation with the power of the printed word to transport and enchant. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

writers = readers of books
Most adults who are avid readers suffered the same condition as a child. Here are reminiscences of contemporary writers revealing their introductions to a life-long preoccupation with the magic and mystery of words and reading. Many common elements emerge: being read to at a very young age, fascination with the ideas and lives of other people, a special person (friend or family) who passes on a love for reading to a child. (Are we all closet voyeurs, peeking in at the childhood experiences common to many?) It's been a pleasure to read about the pleasures of reading.