Quiz: Which Literary Fiction Book Should You Read Based On The Book You Want To Write?

Books are magic. And every reader, at some point in time, has thought about what it would feel like to weave some magic of their own, to have the power to change lives like their favorite writers have changed theirs. We might be at different stages in this process – we might already have a book or two under our belts, we might have just started to write our hearts out, we might have an idea fully formed, waiting to be written down, or we might only have a vague desire to someday write a book of our own. But we have all thought about it. We also probably know what kind of book we would want to write, and that has been shaped by the books we have loved, or by books we want to read but haven’t discovered yet.

As Danika argues in this essay, reading a challenging book now and then is a good thing. Literary fiction, in which authors experiment and innovate, is especially attractive for readers aspiring to be writers, since these books can open our eyes to the countless ways in which we can think about narrative style, structure, and plot. In this quiz, I invite you to dream up some details about that book you have always wanted to write, and to take home a literary fiction book recommendation. You might find inspiration for own your masterpiece, meet your next favorite read, or just use this as an excuse to draft the dedication and acknowledgement pages and to brush up those award acceptance speeches.