Let’s go Booking Through Thursday!

This week’s question: Have you ever been put off an author’s books after reading a biography of them? Or the reverse — a biography has made you love an author more?

Honestly, I don’t read many biographies. It’s not that I don’t find authors interesting — I just don’t read much non-fiction. Of the author biographies I have read in my life, most have been memoirs — written by the author him- or herself. So they read like their novels to me. Philip Roth’s Patrimony was a memoir of his recollections of his father, their family and what it meant to be a son — all themes he tackles in his novels, especially American Pastoral. Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings was an interesting, sometimes heartbreaking look at her life — and made her short stories even more interesting to me.

Other biographies I’ve read? Jon Spence’s Becoming Jane Austen, which just further fanned the flames of my JA obsession. And others for college that I can’t seem to recall now! Scary how quickly knowledge can deteroriate and crack when not accessed regularly! I do remember reading bios of Shakespeare, which certainly weren’t the most fascinating thing to tackle — but didn’t completely turn me off of his plays and poetry.

Overall, I would say that of the reading biographies has made me more interested in the writers themselves. In fact, I just might pick one up again in the near future! I made a half-hearted resolution I would try and read more non-fiction this year. It’s only February — I still might come through on that!