few Current Writers I’m In Love With

I love to read. And I especially love to read good writers, people who are in love with the written word, who can tell great stories, create characters I want to be best friends with, invent new worlds that I can inhabit for a few days.

It’s by reading these writers that I realize what is possible as a writer myself. They bring my imagination alive.

I can curl up with a good book and get lost in it. I finish such a book with regret, and stare at the author’s picture and wonder what kind of a person can create like this.

William Gibson.

I can’t get enough of this guy. His writing is just so cool. Known as the father of cyberpunk, Gibson creates gritty worlds filled with technology that just seem real, and bittersweet stories that I can’t put down. His work is like poetry. It started with Neuromancer and that first trilogy, continued with the excellent Bridge trilogy (starting with Virtual Light and ending in the excellent All 

Jonathan Lethem.

I’m currently working my way through his work. Motherless Brooklyn was just a great, great book — filled with fascinating characters, including a lead character who didn’t fit the bill of hero in any sense, but works perfectly

Ann Patchett.

I can’t say enough good things about her. Bel Canto was one of the most beautiful books I’ve read in years, and I’ve read and loved every one of her other books except one. I wish I could write as well as her. 

Terry Pratchett. 

One of the funniest guys I’ve ever read (Douglas Addams is just above him), Pratchett takes the realm of fantasy and injects a wonderful sense of humor. I’m a particular fan of Captain Vimes and Lip von Moistwick books.

J.K. Rowling.

I’m reading the last Harry Potter book (the Deathly Hallows) with my friends. He writes great a great adventure story.