10 Books That Made/Make Me Want To Be A Writer

My friend Valerie tagged me in a social media chain that drew up my immediate interest: 10 books that have stayed with you (in some way). Don't have to be favorites or classics. Just gotta be books that dove into ya and swam around each summer since. Shouldn't take much thought.

So here now, in order of my age reading them, are the ten books I remember finishing and thinking, "Dear god, be a writer."

• The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois
• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins
• The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
• The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
• The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
• Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman

*Most Honorable Mention*

The book Australia: Land Of Contrast by Lesley Van de Velde was the first book to really blow up my imagination. It's just a gorgeous photo collection of Australia, but it's stayed with me in a powerful sense since I was in grade school. It made me want to travel and tell stories.