7 Books That Changed the Way I Write and Think
Some people measure their life in years, I measure mine in books—the ones I write, the ones I help others write, the ones I read. The more post-ited, dogeared or annotated the book, the more it has had a direct impact on my life, changing the way I write and think.
As the year closes, and we spend time focusing on gratitude, I wanted to take some time to highlight books I’m thankful for. Books that are not only impeccably written but have had a direct impact on how I relate to myself and the world.
While this is also the season for the best books of the year list, this is not that. These books were not all released this year, nor were they all read this year. This list includes books I’ve just read for the first time and others I use as a touchstone, revisiting them every year, letting their guidance and wisdom absorb deeper into my life and creative practice
1.Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life after Which Everything Was Different by Chuck Palahniuk
Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club, Invisible Monsters and too many other bestsellers to count, shares his writing secrets for both craft and career. This book’s tone is casual, irreverent and doesn't bullshit the reader. Palanuik does not shy away from speaking directly about how challenging both writing itself and the writing life can be. And while this book is written for fiction writers, the tools he offers apply to all genres. This book has changed my poetry, my screenwriting and my fiction. Palahnuik discusses things such as ten rules for creating tension, how to develop a killer plot, how to get a great turnout at your reading events and more. This book is an MFA in your pocket, the chapter on tension is worth the price of admission. This book also offers a list of common issues (such as a novel feeling slow or the characters feeling flat) with a checklist of easy solutions. Overall Palahniuk advice is both practical and applicable, as well as a hilarious read.
2.Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
I'm not exaggerating when I say this book saved my life. For years I overworked myself, because I correlated my performance and achievement to the value of my self worth. I had two jobs at the age of 13, out of want, not need. I was so well trained by capitalism that I thought the most important members of societies were doers or worker bees who basically never slept. This did not come without its toll. This book urges you to put yourself first. Reminds exhaustion should not be your legacy. Toxic productivity does not care about your health, mental or physical. It teaches the reader to trust their bodies more than capitalism. This books also examines the effects of capitalism on race especially through the lens of slavery. Overall, this book is a permission slip (one I really needed) to break the cycle of exhaustion so we can dismantle harmful beliefs, to resist through rest and take back our health, time and lives.
3.Constellation Route by Matthew Olzmann
Constellation Route is now on my list of top ten poetry books of all time. I've been a fan Olzmann’s work for a long time, but this book, written almost entirely in the epistolary forms, looked into my soul. It feels that like it offers a hand out, each poem a gesture towards a type of humanity I rarely encounter. Making incredible use of the direct addresses including letters to Bruce Wayne, a canyon, a mixed race child, a cockroach crushed into a chocolate bar, and more. These poems are a rollercoaster of tenderness and surprise. They allow the reader to see the world in a new light while also feeling seen themselves. If you read one poetry collection this year, make it this one.
4. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
I read this book every single January. It is that good. Friends I’ve recommended it to later call and text sharing the impact it has had on their lives and thinking. This book and the systems it offers has helped me transform my creative habits, helping me create systems for writing, reading, revising and submitting. Clear uses strategies such as habit stacking (pairing a new habit with a habit that already exists) and the power of proximity (removing the thing you don’t want to be tempted by and putting the thing you want to do in sight) to help you achieve the results you want. In fact, I even wrote a blog post about Clear’s idea that you can change your habits with a simple question— ask yourself what would someone with the desired identity do. For example: if you want to be a writer on any given day ask yourself what would a writer do. This simple reframing has helped me create intentionality and discipline around my creative habits.
Saramago’s book Blindness was noted as one of the reasons he won the Nobel Prize in Literature— and the book doesn't disappointment. Blindness examines the downfall of society when a highly contagious epidemic sweeps the country leaving those who come in contact with the “milky sickness” completely blind, seeing nothing but white. This book asks us to consider how much of our evolution is tied to sight and the type of people we become once we collectively lose it. With internment camps and grueling scenes, this book, which feels like a blind, adult Lord of Flies, is not for the faint of heart. But it will leave you wondering about the power and destruction of humanity when everyone is faced with impossible circumstances.
6. The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood Edited by Email Perez and Nancy Reddy
This beautiful anthology edited by Emily Perez and Nancy Reddy is a tribute to the magic and messiness of motherhood. Covering a wide range of topics with everything from kids leaving for college to being in delivery room, plus this anthology includes poems from some of the best poets writing today. This honest and starkly intimate anthology chronicles and celebrates all stages and types of motherhood, showcases the way it changes the way we think, feel, and move through the world. This is the perfect gift for mothers this holiday season.
7. Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith
This is the number one poetry collection I recommend to poets who want to improve their craft. In this collection Smith, queen of persona, writes about Hurricane Katrina, from all different perspectives including the voice of the hurricane. Smith, who is a sorceress of language, uses form and surprise to give this catastrophe a faces and real life stories. The result, a book so incredibly human it's impossible to look away, impossible to stop reading. If you have ever taken a workshop with Smith, one of her core mantras is to write a poem from an unexpected perspective. This is another book that is a graduate degree in craft. Smith is one of the best poets and teachers I've ever encountered, any chance to learn from her and her work pure magic.
Have a book that's changed the way you wrote and think? Share with me by posting on the comments below
Kelly Grace Thomas is a poet, editor, educator, and an ocean-obsessed Aries from Jersey. Her first full-length collection, Boat Burned, was released with YesYes Books in January 2020. She is the winner of the 2020 Jane Underwood Poetry Prize and the 2017 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor, a finalist for the 2018 Rita Dove Poetry Award, a semifinalist for the 2021 Nimrod Poetry Award, and a multiple-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Kelly’s poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from Best New Poets, 32 Poems, Los Angeles Review, Muzzle, Sixth Finch, and more; she has received fellowships from the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and the Kenyon Review Young Writers’ Workshop. She is currently a MFA candidate and Blackburn Fellow at Randolph College. Kelly works as curriculum consultant for Get Lit-Words Ignite and other nonprofits. She is co-author of the Literary Riot books Voices in Verse: Poetry, Identity and Ethnic Studies; Stanzas of America: Celebrating BIPOC Poetry; and Words Ignite: Explore, Write and Perform Classic and Spoken Word Poetry, which are currently taught in the Los Angeles Unified School District. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband, daughter, and sister where she teaches online poetry workshops. www.kellygracethomas.com