We all know how demanding writers can be with our work, especially when we fall for the hateful comparisons with those works that inspired part of our work.
Reading before writing is always essential, especially because of the author's need to find in others the necessary inspiration through which to channel his own style and ideas.
A fact that also happened to Hemingway or García Márquez, authors who before succeeding with their great works had the odd ally under their arms.
You want to know the favorite books of these famous writers?
Ernest Hemingway
The author of The Old Man and the Sea once said that "there is no friend more loyal than a book", proof of the literary appetite of a writer whose favorite titles were Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Madame Bovary, Dubliners or The Brothers Karamazov. To discover the rest of the list do not miss these 16 books Hemingway once recommended to a young writer in 1934.
Gabriel García Márquez
In addition to the stories that his grandmother told him in Aracataca, Gabo had more than one book as clear influences on his career. Among the works most loved by the Nobel Prize we find The Metamorphosis of Franz Kafka, considered as "the other Bible" by himself, The Thousand and One Nights, whose fantasies belonged to a world that, according to Gabo, had ceased to exist, or Moby Dick, a book that he came to define as a "literary feat." Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo would also have a great influence on the author of One Hundred Years of Solitude years before the explosion of magical realism.
JK Rowling
The most millionaire writer in the United Kingdom consumed literature very different from the Harry Potter stories that would make her a best-selling author. As a good Englishwoman, one of Rowling's favorite books is Emma by Jane Austen, a novel that, according to the author, completely immersed her in her story.
George RR Martin
The author of the A Song of Ice and Fire saga always considered Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy as the mainstay of his career. In turn, the writer HBO took the lead in 2016 with Game of Thrones also considers Joyland, by Stephen King, or Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn among his favorite books.
Henry Miller
The author of Tropic of Cancer, one of the great influences of the beat generation, wrote a book called The books in my life, which can be read for free in Open Library. In the preface by Miller himself he records some of his favorite books, among them Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë or Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.
These favorite books of famous writers confirm the author's need to read before writing and explore various genres in order to find his own inspiration, that influence that he can adapt to his own style and yes, perhaps give life to the work that stimulates the next generations.
What is your favorite book?
Henry Miller's photo is wrong, corresponds to Arthur Miller