π 6 Books mentioned in "The Deepest Conversation I've Ever Had About Writing β Dana Gioia" of How I Write

Podcast: How I Write
Episode: The Deepest Conversation I've Ever Had About Writing β Dana Gioia
Published on February 26, 2025
Hereβs a list of all the books mentioned in this episode. Click on the links to watch specific excerpts on YouTube and feel free to purchase the books if they caught your interest!

Anna Karenina
Buy Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy on Amazon
if I was asked you know the you know my top 10 great novels tolto and dovi would both be be honored I think Anna Corina is the greatest novel ever written I think Brothers katsov is one of the three or four greatest novels ever written crime and punishment is a tremendous novel but then you get the novels like the idiot or the possessed which I think have great moments but they're kind of sprawling books which you know he doesn't reign in sufficiently
The speaker declares 'Anna Karenina' by Tolstoy the greatest novel ever written.

Crime and Punishment
Buy Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky on Amazon
I think Brothers katsov is one of the three or four greatest novels ever written crime and punishment is a tremendous novel but then you get the novels like the idiot or the possessed which I think have great moments but they're kind of sprawling books which you know he doesn't reign in sufficiently
The speaker calls 'Crime and Punishment' by Dostoevsky a tremendous novel.

The Brothers Karamazov
Buy The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky on Amazon
I think Anna Corina is the greatest novel ever written I think Brothers katsov is one of the three or four greatest novels ever written crime and punishment is a tremendous novel but then you get the novels like the idiot or the possessed which I think have great moments but they're kind of sprawling books which you know he doesn't reign in sufficiently
The speaker lists 'The Brothers Karamazov' by Dostoevsky as one of the three or four greatest novels ever written.

The Grapes of Wrath
Buy The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck on Amazon
the his only competition there really is probably Jack London if you read The Grapes of Wrath for all of grapes of wrath's imperfections he has written one of the greatest American novels because he's done something that we forget which is he's shown us the Dignity of the poor the Dignity of the outcasts
The speaker mentions 'The Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinbeck as one of the greatest American novels, highlighting its portrayal of the dignity of the poor.

The Illustrated Golden Bough
Buy The Illustrated Golden Bough by James George Frazer on Amazon
well what's the connection here with Odus and wisdom because when he goes past the muses he puts the wax in his ears and that's one of the things that they entice him with In order for anus to do this he has to have the golden bow which becomes the the title of this this great mythological thing that's you know looking at Universal mythology that Sir James Fraser writes
The speaker mentions 'the golden bow' as a mythological concept and links it to the work of Sir James Fraser, who wrote the book 'The Golden Bough'.

War and Peace (Annotated with Biography and Critical Essay)
Buy War and Peace (Annotated with Biography and Critical Essay) by Leo Tolstoy on Amazon
I think the Lord of the Rings is the greatest novel in English written about the first world war and it's about a decent fellow who is dragged into a war which he doesn't want to fight but he conducts himself honorably going through great pain great loss uh and interestingly you know comes out of it morally strengthened in aware in a way that he wasn't so I mean you know it is the uh the English version of War and Peace you know Frodo you know is Pierre
The speaker refers to 'War and Peace' by Tolstoy as the 'English version' of 'The Lord of the Rings', comparing the scope and themes.