What I'm Reading Now

Write a lot and read a lot.

—Stephen King 

At our monthly gatherings I always want to ask what everyone is reading, but somehow there never seems to be enough time. In the hopes that you'll share if I do, here's what I'm reading now (or have just finished reading).

My current reading actually breaks out into three main categories: fiction, memoirs, and books on the craft(s) of editing and writing. OK. There's more nonfiction, too, but this post is already too long.

Fiction. I like genre fiction (SF, fantasy, mystery), and I love writers who play with genre tropes. My current list doesn't really reflect this, however. Just thought you should know. 

• As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner 
• I read Faulkner when I was a teenager living in the South. He blew me away, but I want to see how I will feel now and what I will see that was invisible to me then. OK. I've read the first page. I already know he's going to blow me away.
• My New American Life, Francine Prose 
• I love her book, Reading Like a Writer, although I find her celebration of talent daunting sometimes. Just curious to see if I like her fiction writing. So far, so good.

Memoir. I am a sucker for this genre and love expat memoirs. No expats right now, but I loved these two memoirs.

• Let's Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson
• I have not laughed out loud this much since I got kicked out of bed for howling with glee while reading Bridget Jones's Diary. If you have ever had a moment of social anxiety or felt embarrassed about your family, you will be comforted by just how much worse it could have been.
• Wild, Cheryl Strayed. 
• Dammit. I cried right from the start and stayed up all last night to finish it. Cheryl Strayed lost her mother and her husband, and then walked the Pacific Coast Trail from the Mojave to the Washington state border alone.

Books on writing and editing. I should say up front that I read the following mostly as an editor, not a writer. As a writer, I need to write more than I need to read about writing. But lately I've wanted to think more about how to edit novels and nonfiction manuscripts.

• The Art of Fiction, John Gardner
• Since I didn't want to break my Kindle, I resisted the urge to throw this book across the room. Countless authors have found Gardner valuable, but I found him long winded and annoying. (For those of you who object to e-books, here's a good example of why paperbacks are better: You can throw them across the room with minimal damage to the book—or room.)
• Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, David King and Renni Brown 
• Pretty good nuts and bolts stuff. This is second (or later) draft stuff, not for the first draft!
• On Writing, Stephen King
• This is a keeper. I started my reading life in genre fiction, including books like Salem's Lot, so perhaps I am prejudiced in his favor. The comments on and the actual examples of editing—his first experience of being edited by a small-town newspaper editor and his example of editing a first draft—are gold.
• Developmental Editing, Scott Norton 
• The classic for nonfiction developmental editing. Makes me want to be brilliant when I grow up.
• Merchants of Culture, John  B. Thompson
• An up-to-date review of the state of the publishing industry. A nuanced and thoughtful analysis replaces commonplace hand wringing and pronouncements of doom about the future of  books and publishing. Thompson answers questions like why agents now have such a central role and why publishers are willing to offer apparently insane amounts of money to acquire hot manuscripts.

So what's on your bookshelf or bedside table now? Come on. Spill it. Write a comment on this post or send in your guest post on what you're reading now.

—Kathy Lyon